Psychology

Personality researchers have suggested that there are five essential dimensions of personality. The evidence to this theory has been expanding for the last 50 years.

In psychology, the big five factors of personality are described as five wide domains or dimensions of personality which have been proved scientifically to define the personality of man. The factors are developed through lexical analysis. Although there has been a lot of work going on regarding this theory, researchers have failed to reach a consensus on the exact labels of each dimension (Dvorak, 2008).

These five domains include more or less all known personality characteristics and stands for the primary structure behind all personality traits. They have brought some organization to the always confused range of specific lower level personality principles that are persistently being coined by psychologists, which are most of the time found overlapping and perplexing. These factors provide a rich ideological structure for integrating all the research results and theories found in personality psychology. The five traits are also known as five factor model.

This model is regarded as the most inclusive, practical, data rich research findings in the history of personality traits. Identification of the characteristics and framework of human personality has been one of the most essential aims in the study of psychology. For about thirty to forty years of research, these factors have been discovered and described by many independent groups of researchers (McCrae  Costa 2003).

These factors have been found to arrange personality at the highest level therefore they are most helpful as an intangible, organizing structures for regular and lower level personality traits. Since big five model is so wide and inclusive, they are not as powerful as the numerous lower level traits in predicting and elucidating the real behavior. Most studies have revealed that in predicting the real behavior, the numerous lower level traits are far much better (McCrae  Costa 2003).

The widely talked about big five factors are openness, conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism. Neuroticism is also referred to as emotional stability. The openness factor is also referred to as intellect factor and there is controversy on how to interpret it.  Each factor contains a group of more specific characters that are related. A good example is extroversion which includes traits like hospitability, pleasure seeking, hastiness, and positive emotions. This model is mainly a descriptive model of personality and therefore psychologists have decided to develop several theories to work in its place (Draper  Elmer 2008).

The first trait in the model is openness. The trait differentiates imaginative individuals from the low lying, conservative persons. People who like testing situations are found to be academically inquisitive, grateful of art, and very insightful about appearance. People with this character are more creative and understand their way of thinking. They are more likely to embrace eccentric beliefs. People with low traits of openness are conservatives and hold to their traditional beliefs and interests. They tend to like plain, uncomplicated and apparent as compared to complicated, undefined and slight issues. They may look at arts and sciences with a lot of caution and consider these accomplishments as unexciting. There are some self statements which can be used to test for openness in an individual. They include I have a rich vocabulary I have excellent ideas and thoughts among other statements which are trying to portray ones ability to know more (McCrae  Costa 2003).

The second trait of the big five model is conscientiousness.  People with this factor of personality have self discipline, responsible, and are focused on all their actions. The character shows liking for planned instead of abrupt issues. This trait has power in the way we organize, normalize, and direct our impulses. It includes a factor referred to as need for achievement. Sample statement which distinguishes an individual with this trait includes I am always ready. The statement of people with this personality will reveal some degree of organization and need to do things the right way (Cherry 2010).

The third factor of personality is extroversion. This trait is distinguished by positive emotions, surgency, and tendency to look for excitement and company of friends. The most distinctive feature of this trait is involvement with the external world. Extroverts enjoy company of others and are always viewed to be energetic. They tend to be excited, full of actions and will always love doing things in groups so as to get excited. Such people like talking while in a group, insists on their points, and likes creating attention.  Introverts on the other hand are direct opposite of extroverts. They are quite, talks with low key voice, conscious and are less involved in group activities. People tend to interpret their lack of social traits as shyness or depression. Introverts do not require excess excitement and most of the time prefer solitude. The fact that they are quite should not mean that they lack energy. Example of statement of extroverts is I feel good when with people (Draper  Elmer 2008).

The fourth trait is agreeableness.  People with this trait tend to be concerned and cooperate instead of being suspicious and hostile towards other people.  The trait shows personal differences in general concern for social accord. Individuals with this trait value their relationship with others. Such people are considerate, sociable, charitable, helpful, and willing to negotiate their interest with others. They posses optimistic view of human nature and believe that people are honest, civilized, and are truthful.  Disagreeable persons on the other hand value their interest above that of the group.  They do not care about others and are not likely to get along well with other people. Since these people are skeptical about others, they can become doubtful, aloof, and difficult (Wiggins 1996).

The last but not the least trait is neuroticism. This is the predisposition to negative emotions like anger, anxiety, or depression. It can also be referred to as emotional instability. People who have this trait are emotionally unstable and are susceptible to stress. They are likely to construe normal conditions as frightening and minor problems as difficult and impossible. The negative emotional reactions in these people persist for abnormally long periods of time therefore they are constantly in bad mood.  The emotional instability can bar these people from thinking properly, making decisions, and adopt effectively with stressing situations (Wiggins 1996). People who score less in neuroticism do not get upset so easily and are emotionally stable. They are calm, emotionally stable, and free from constant negative emotions. However, the fact that these people score low in neuroticism does not mean that they are full of positive feelings (Cherry 2010).

Conclusion
 Personality of an individual can be tested by using the big five factors of personality. These factors include extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, openness, and neuroticism. They signify extensive areas of personality and the grouping of these personalities is common in many people. This is because we find that people who are friendly tends to talk a lot. In some cases, these traits do not occur together. Personality is complicated and different and each individual may show behaviors traversing these dimensions.