Monday, August 18, 2008

Big Five Personality Test

My Results: I'm a O84-C41-E15-A57-N55 Big Five!!

Here is a bit about the test:

Personality psychologists are interested in what differentiates one person from another and why we behave the way that we do. Personality research, like any science, relies on quantifiable concrete data which can be used to examine what people are like. This is where the Big Five plays an important role.

The Big Five was originally derived in the 1970's by two independent research teams -- Paul Costa and Robert McCrae (at the National Institutes of Health), and Warren Norman (at the University of Michigan)/Lewis Goldberg (at the University of Oregon) -- who took slightly different routes at arriving at the same results: most human personality traits can be boiled down to five broad dimensions of personality, regardless of language or culture. These five dimensions were derived by asking thousands of people hundreds of questions and then analyzing the data with a statistical procedure known as factor analysis. It is important to realize that the researchers did not set out to find five dimensions, but that five dimensions emerged from their analyses of the data. In scientific circles, the Big Five is now the most widely accepted and used model of personality (though of course many other systems are used in pop psychology and work contexts; e.g., the MBTI). For a fuller account of the background and history to the Big Five check out: http://www.centacs.com/quickstart.htm

For the past several years, we have been using the Big Five to study personality in terms of how it changes over time (see research paper) and how it relates to other variables (such as self-esteem and music preferences; see research paper). During this period of time, we have collected personality data from literally millions of people from around the world.

Analyses of the data have revealed a number of interesting findings about personality, and have allowed us to identify some major patterns in our personalities. For example, contrary to the then prevailing view, our findings suggest that personality is not “set like plaster” at age 30; instead it continues to change, with the exact pattern of change depending on the trait.

We want to emphasize that we are talking about generalizations here, and these generalizations don't apply to all people. To illustrate, consider the generalization that men are generally taller than women. This does not mean that every man is taller than every woman. Instead, it means that, on average, men are taller than women. This same logic applies to the feedback that is given on this site. Even though, on average, people tend to become more conscientious as they get older, not everyone follows this pattern.

More detail on my results:

Your Results

Closed-MindedOpen to New Experiences
DisorganizedConscientious
IntrovertedExtraverted
DisagreeableAgreeable
Calm / RelaxedNervous / High-Strung

What aspects of personality does this tell me about?
There has been much research on how people describe others, and five major dimensions of human personality have been found. They are often referred to as the OCEAN model of personality, because of the acronym from the names of the five dimensions.
Openness to Experience/Intellect

High scorers tend to be original, creative, curious, complex; Low scorers tend to be conventional, down to earth, narrow interests, uncreative.

You enjoy having novel experiences and seeing things in new ways. (Your percentile: 84)

Conscientiousness

High scorers tend to be reliable, well-organized, self-disciplined, careful; Low scorers tend to be disorganized, undependable, negligent.

You are neither organized or disorganized. (Your percentile: 41)

Extraversion

High scorers tend to be sociable, friendly, fun loving, talkative; Low scorers tend to be introverted, reserved, inhibited, quiet.

You probably enjoy spending quiet time alone. (Your percentile: 15)

Agreeableness

High scorers tend to be good natured, sympathetic, forgiving, courteous; Low scorers tend to be critical, rude, harsh, callous.

You are neither extremely forgiving nor irritable. (Your percentile: 57)

Neuroticism

High scorers tend to be nervous, high-strung, insecure, worrying; Low scorers tend to be calm, relaxed, secure, hardy.

You aren't particularly nervous, nor calm. (Your percentile: 55)

Cool test that can be taken here.
Where can I learn more about the Big Five?

SignalPatterns.com: This company offers several free, research-based interactive tests with visual feedback; see their Big 5 Personality Patterns and Music Patterns tests.

http://www.personalitylab.org/: This site has a number of Big Five-based studies from Dr. Oliver John's group at UC Berkeley.

http://www.personalityresearch.org/: This provides an accessible overview of the academic field of personality.

http://www.rap.ucr.edu/: Home page of lab of very well respected researcher - will give you an idea what it is personality researchers do!

http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/perscontents.html: An online textbook that will give the reader a basic background on personality psychology.

http://homepage.psy.utexas.edu/homepage/faculty/gosling/: One of this site's researcher's homepage, which contains more information and results from studies using data from this site

We extend our thanks to some of the above sites for providing occasional sponsorship that allows outofservice.com to remain online.

Finally, The following citation may be of use to those interested in understanding more about the Big Five: John, O. P., & Srivastava, S. (1999). The Big Five trait taxonomy: History, measurement, and theoretical perspectives. In L. A. Pervin, & O. P. John (Eds.), Handbook of personality: Theory and research (pp. 102-138). New York: Guilford Press.


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