Understanding Your Personality

The term personality refers to the set of traits and patterns of thought, behaviour, and feelings that make you into the person you are. Our personalities are influenced by our genes, early bonds, temperament, life experiences, parenting styles that we were conditioned by, and cultural influences.

If you had a difficult childhood that involved – neglect, abuse, trauma- you may have developed certain beliefs about the way people think and behave and on how relationships work.

The environment at home and the social circumstances we grew up in, the quality of care and attention we received at home, all affect the way our personalities developed. Research points out that it is difficult to know whether similarities in temperament and behaviour have been handed down the generations genetically or through behaviours that were mirrored and modeled to us while we were growing up.

There are 5 basic traits to personality. Each trait represents a range between two extremes. Understanding each personality trait and what it means to score high or low in that trait can give you insight into your own personality.

Like all other theories on personality, the big 5 model is influenced by both nature and nurture. By ranking individuals on each of the 5 traits, it is possible to effectively measure individual differences in personality.

Lets take a closer look at the 5 basic traits:

• Conscientiousness – This measures a person’s ability to regulate impulse control to engage in goal-oriented behaviour. It measures elements like control, persistence of behaviour and inhibition.
• Agreeableness – Agreeableness refers to how people tend to treat relationships with others. Those who are highly disagreeable will be suspicious, uncooperative, and manipulative, thus making them less likely to be trusted and well liked.
• Extroversion – It is the intensity with which people seek interaction with their environment, particularly socially, and it also reflects the sources from which someone draws energy.
• Openness to Experience – This refers to one’s willingness to try new things and engage in imaginative and intellectual activities that includes the ability to “Think outside the box”. Those who score low in this trait prefer routine, are uncomfortable with change, and they prefer the familiar over the unknown.
• Neuroticism – This describes the overall emotional stability of an individual through how they perceive the world, it also includes how likely a person is to interpret events as threatening or difficult, such a person’s propensity to experience negative emotions are rather high. People who score high in this trait are often feeling anxious, are self-pitying, moody, and irritable.

The big 5 traits are measured along a continuum, so individuals can fall anywhere along the spectrum for each trait. It is common for individuals to have a unique combination of high and low scores across the 5 traits.