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THE BIG FIVE PERSONALITY TEST INTRODUCTION:- Personality tests are used to determine your type of personality, your values, interests and your skills. Mostly people conduct personality tests to determine their aptitude towards a certain type of career. A personality test aims to describe aspects of a person’s character that remain stable throughout that person’s lifetime, the individual’s character pattern of behavior, thoughts, and feelings.
Similarly The BIG FIVE PERSONALITY TEST is also one of the very famous and most frequently taken test which analysis a person’s basic characteristics on the basis of five dimensions of personality. The Big Five model is considered to be one of the most comprehensive, empirical, data-driven research findings in the history of personality psychology. Identifying the traits and structure of human personality has been one of the most fundamental goals in all of psychology.
Over three or four decades of research, these five broad factors were gradually discovered and defined by several independent sets of researchers These researchers began by studying all known personality traits and then factor-analyzing hundreds of measures of these traits (in self-report and questionnaire data, peer ratings, and objective measures from experimental settings) in order to find the basic, underlying factors of personality. 1) Extraversion 2) Agreeableness 3) Conscientiousness 4) Emotional stability 5) Openness to experience
In this assignment THE BIG FIVE PERSONALITY TEST has been taken on two people in order to analyze their basic personality traits. 1) Gagan Sethi 2) Disha Chawla Gagan Sethi, age 26, my brother who is currently running our family business in Gujarat. Since we have grown up together he is one of my closest friends and confidant along with being my brother. Disha Chawla, age 24, a very close friend of mine whom I know for the past 6 years. She is housewife and currently living in Kanpur. The assignment plan is as follows:- * What is personality? * Factors affecting personality The big five personality dimensions * Comparison and analyses of the subjects * Value of the Big Five Model for managers * Discussing the ODHRM statement:- Individuals have their own way of thinking & acting, their own unique style or personality. The personality traits/characteristics- including how one looks, thinks, acts, &feels-are the product of interacting genetic & environmental influences. I. WHAT IS PERSONALITY? Personality is made up of the characteristic patterns of thoughts, feelings, behaviors, attitudes, beliefs and values that make a person unique.
In addition to this, personality arises from within the individual and remains fairly consistent throughout life. In addition to this personality could also consist of how a person behaves and reacts in different situations and how he conducts himself. Our personality dimensions determine how we adjust to our environment and how we react in specific situations. II. THE BIG FIVE PERSONALITY DIMENSIONS The Big Five Personality Test analyses and assesses a person on the basis of five personality traits. These factors are very distinct from each other and cover almost every area and dimension of personality a person can have.
Each factor consists of a cluster of more specific traits that correlate together. For example:- Extroversion:-This dimension decides how extrovert or introvert a person is. It also determines the qualities such as sociability, excitement seeking, impulsiveness, and positive emotions. High scorers tend to be sociable, friendly, fun loving, talkative; Low scorers tend to be introverted, reserved, inhibited, quiet. Agreeableness:- This dimension determines how trusting, good-natured, cooperative and soft hearted a person is.
High scorers tend to be good natured, sympathetic, forgiving, courteous; Low scorers tend to be critical, rude, harsh, and callous. Conscientiousness:-This dimension determines how dependable, well organized and painstaking a person is. It determines how he takes on to a job/task and how responsibly he finishes it. This characteristic is considered to be the best in a work scenario. High scorers tend to be reliable, well-organized, self-disciplined, careful; Low scorers tend to be disorganized, undependable, and negligent. Emotional stability:-It is also called neuroticism.
It determines how calm, self-confident and cool a person is. This also states how strong or weak a person is mentally. High scorers tend to be nervous, high-strung, insecure, worrying; Low scorers tend to be calm, relaxed, secure, and hardy. Openness to experience:- This dimension is also called as the “intellect”. It determines how open minded, creative, conventional and curious a person is. High scorers tend to be original, creative, curious, complex; Low scorers tend to be conventional, down to earth, narrow interests, uncreative. III. COMPARISION AND ANALYSES OF THE SUBJECTS 1. GAGAN SETHI | Your Results| |
Closed-Minded| | Open to New Experiences| Disorganized| | Conscientious| Introverted| | Extraverted| Disagreeable| | Agreeable| Calm / Relaxed| | Nervous / High-Strung| | | | . Openness to Experience/Intellect| | | | | You prefer traditional and familiar experiences. | (Your percentile: 10) | | | | | Conscientiousness| | | | | You tend to do things somewhat haphazardly. | (Your percentile: 21) | | | | | Extraversion| | | | | You are relatively social and enjoy the company of others. | (Your percentile: 79) | | | | | Agreeableness| | | | | You tend to consider the feelings of others. (Your percentile: 79) | | | | | Neuroticism| | | | | You probably remain calm, even in tense situations. | (Your percentile: 9) | | | | | 2. DISHA CHAWLA | Your Results| | Closed-Minded| | Open to New Experiences| Disorganized| | Conscientious| Introverted| | Extraverted| Disagreeable| | Agreeable| Calm / Relaxed| | Nervous / High-Strung| Openness to Experience/Intellect| | | | | You prefer traditional and familiar experiences. | (Your percentile: 12) | | | | | Conscientiousness| | | | | You are neither organized nor disorganized. | (Your percentile: 52) | | | | | Extraversion| | | | You probably enjoy spending quiet time alone. | (Your percentile: 15) | | | | | Agreeableness| | | | | You find it easy to express irritation with others. | (Your percentile: 32) | | | | | Neuroticism| | | | | You tend to become anxious or nervous. | (Your percentile: 71) | | | | | Now let’s compare the test results of Gagan and Disha: DIMENSIONS| PERCENTILE| GAGAN SETHI | PERCENTILE| DISHA CHAWLA | Openness to experience/intellect| 10| You prefer traditional and familiar experiences. 12| You prefer traditional and familiar experiences| Conscientiousness| 21| You tend to do things somewhat haphazardly. | 52| You are neither organized or disorganized| Extraversion| 79| You are relatively social and enjoy the company of others. | 15| You probably enjoy spending quiet time alone. | Agreeableness| 79| You tend to consider the feelings of others. 32| You find it easy to express irritation with others| Neuroticism| 9| You probably remain calm, even in tense situations. | 71| You tend to become anxious or nervous. | According to the comparison of the test results of our subjects in the table given above, it clearly states the similarities and dissimilarities between the two of them. IV. COMPARISION OF ALL THE DIMENSIONS AND EVALUATION OF THE ODHRM STATEMENT:- INDIVIDUALS HAVE THEIR OWN WAY OF THINKING ; ACTING, THEIR OWN UNIQUE STYLE OR PERSONALITY.
THE PERSONALITY TRAITS/CHARACTERISTICS-INCLUDING HOW ONE LOOKS, THINKS, ACTS ; FEELS-ARE THE PRODUCT OF INTERACTING GENETIC ; ENVIRONMENTAL INFLUENCES. I would agree to this statement because an individual’s personality is developed mainly due to 3 factors. THE MAIN FACTORS AFFECTING PERSONALITY ARE: * Heredity * Environment * Situation HEREDITY:-Everyone has certain characteristics that are present in them from birth in their genes. (body, build, hair-type, eye color and skin). Heredity characteristics also include certain aptitudes.
An aptitude is a capacity to learn a particular skill or acquire a particular body of knowledge. For e. g. A natural talent for music or art. ENVIRONMENT:-Environment also plays a big role in molding an individual’s personality. It basically comprises of the upbringing of a person and the culture he is exposed to since his or her birth SITUATION:-Situation is also considered one of the factors affecting personality. A person would react in a different way in different situations. This makes every individual different from each other.
OPENNES TO EXPERIENCE/INTELLECT:-In this particular dimension Gagan has scored 10 while Disha has scored 12, which is quite a similar score. This score states that both prefer traditional and familiar experiences. People who score low on openness are considered to be closed to experience. This could be due to their family background or the way they have been brought up. Gagan and Disha both belong to very traditional families who do not reside in big cities or metropolitans. They both have grown up in small towns, where people are not very open- minded.
This could have let them to be not so open to experiences. CONSCIENTIOUSNESS:- In this dimension Gagan has scored 21 while Disha has scored 52, which shows that they quite dissimilar in this aspect. Gagan has scored very less in this dimension because he has been careless and unorganized since childhood. Being the only son in the family he has always been pampered. This has led him to take lot of things very casually in life and thus he lacks in self-discipline. This could be one of the reasons for him to be not that conscientious.
While Disha on the other hand scores somewhere in the middle which states that she is neither organized nor disorganized. Disha has stayed away from home for a few years which has made her a little independent, careful and self disciplined. This could be the reason for her to score a little higher than Gagan. EXTRAVERSION:-In this dimension Gagan has scored 79 which is quite high as compared to Disha who has scored 15. The results show that Gagan is relatively more social and enjoys the company of other while Disha on the other hand prefers to spend some quiet time alone.
Gagan, being a very friendly, outgoing and social person who took part in all extracurricular activities in school transformed him into an extrovert person. On the other hand Disha has been a very shy, private and introvert person since the very beginning. AGREEABLENESS:-Gagan scored 79 and Disha scored 32 in this particular dimension which states that Gagan considers the feelings of others more than Disha does . Yet making her less agreeable. Gagan has been a people’s person, while, Disha has been an introvert justifies this result. NEUROTICISM:-Gagan scored 9 while Disha scored 71 in this dimension.
This result states that Gagan remains calm even in tense situations while Disha becomes anxious or nervous pretty soon. Gagan being an emotionally strong person, while, Disha being a timid and emotionally weak person, makes them a complete opposite in this aspect. These results clearly show that both of them conduct themselves similarly in few situations while differently in other. No two individuals have same personalities. Each individual has his or her own way of interacting with other people and with his or her social environment. V. VALUE OF THE BIG FIVE MODEL FOR MANAGERS:-
First impressions are not always correct. Thus, understanding what makes a person “right” for a job goes beyond interviewing and instinct. Here a personality test plays a very important role for a manager. Most industrial-organizational psychologists believe that objective personality tests are valuable tools for selecting good employees. Many large organizations use tests that are designed to measure dimensions of personality and related characteristics. Most of these tests are not designed to predict behavior, but to help weed out employees who might be troublemakers or engage in theft and fraud.
Moreover these tests also help an employer to know whether a candidate is a good performer and a diligent worker or not. For instance, if a person scores high in conscientiousness would mean that he/she is a hard-working and dependable person, which is a very important quality for an employee to have. These tests give a basic outline of a person’s character rather than in depth details of his personality, which are sufficient for a manager in the hiring process. In order to hire a right fit for the job, the employers just need know general characteristics of a candidate and The Big Five Personality Test serves that purpose.
Employers of all sizes use personality evaluations, hiring tests and hiring assessments as a apart of hiring an employee. The process results in increased employee retention, happiness and productivity, because candidates who are the best fit for a particular discipline, environment, or company culture are the ones selected. Organizationally, manager must understand that all the subordinates are not alike and that each subordinate is unique and may or may not respond to the same stimuli, such as pay raise or reprimands. In order to know their personalities better these personality tests play a big role.
Thus, these tests are very helpful for managers in every aspect, from hiring and selection to giving them a raise. CONCLUSION:- With the help of this assignment we have learnt that personality is a product of heredity, environment and situation and no two individuals can have same personalities. People can have similar personality traits but can never be entirely same. Moreover, by comparing the two people above has made me understand their personality a little better. The Big Five Personality Test helps to analyze and study a person’s basic personality traits.
With the help of these tests we can get to know a person better. By holding such tests the managers can get to know the subordinates better and select the right candidate for the job. Moreover, in an organization, managers can use these tests to know their subordinates better so that they can motivate them in the right way, in order to achieve their set goals. Thus, these personality tests are very helpful in every aspect of life, be it business or otherwise. REFERENCES:- www. wikipedia. org www. bigfivepersonalitytest. com www. ebullpen. com www. college. cengage. com