Personality is developed out of a unique interaction between genes and environment (Najm, 2019). Therefore, personality can be described as an interrelation of psychological, biological, and sociological factors in an overlapping manner to create the whole world of a man. According to Yang et al. (2014), personality traits encompass ingredients such as explanations, situations, and behaviors. This means that inherently, personality traits can be inherited but at the same time are a product of the environment function. Most scholars agree that an individual’s behavior is greatly influenced by their personality type (Forrester, 2016). To predict a person’s behavior, one must examine and understand how personality and behavior interact completely. Psychologists are always keen on understanding how the environment plays a role in internal processes such as the brain’s mind functions (Hampson, 2012).
The Big 5 trait theory postulates that how people think, act, feel, and interact is a direct result of the differences in five personality dimensions: agreeableness, extraversion, conscientiousness, neuroticism, and openness to new experiences (Forrester, 2016). The Big 5 trait theory (BFT) is the heart of all trait theories (Najm, 2019). This is because BFT is the most widely accepted and used by scholars to demonstrate the difference in personalities. Besides, BFT theory provides a wider range of trait theories compared to the other theories in existence. Due to the broad scope of traits, BFT can create a base in understanding cross-culture traits. BFT, like most personality theories, assumes that people significantly differ one from another in behavior patterns through an expression of a trait (Hampson, 2012).
The Five Traits
The need to understand people’s personalities is increased because they can influence people’s ability to socialize, productivity, profitability, and efficiency in a work set up. The Big 5 personality trait proposes that individuals fall on a spectrum in each of the 5 traits: agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, and openness to a new experience.
Extraversion is commonly recognized as a positive emotion. Individuals who rank higher on the extraversion scale are confident, dominant, active, and adventure seekers. Such individuals are less likely to exhibit anger outbursts in a social context. As a result, it is doubtful for a highly extroverted person to exhibit counter productive behaviors in a social set up. Hampson (2012), suggests that extroverted individuals are happier in their day-to-day life experience because they are capable of creating situations that make them happy such as organizing an event, hanging out with friends, and participating in a sporting activity.
People who have high agreeableness in their personality spectrum are normally compassionate and cooperative instead of being suspicious and antagonistic towards others (Kozako, Safin & Rahim, 2013). Individuals ranking high on the scale of agreeableness are less likely to disagree violently on instances of conflicting opinions. When such a situation arises, they are more likely to seek common ground or compromise.
A highly conscientious individual posses a high level of self-discipline and a desire to achieve above-average results in whatever they do (Kozako, Safin & Rahim, 2013). As a result, such individuals are less likely to engage in self-sabotaging habits.
Neuroticism is directly linked with the degree of an individual’s emotional stability (Kozako, Safin & Rahim,2013). Emotionally unstable individuals rank high on the neuroticism scale and, as a result, are more irritable, insecure, and tense when socializing with people (Forrester, Taschian & Shore, 2016). A person with neurotic tendencies experiences negative thoughts and emotions, resulting in emotional instability (Hampson,2012). In predicting behavior patterns, such individuals with high neurotic tendencies are likely to have lower self-esteem. When compared to emotionally stable people, neurotic individuals react more explosively to environmental stimuli, such as when the action is perceived as unfair, they are likely to react with a lot of anger compared to an emotionally stable individual. Openness is normally characterized by an individual level of creativity, openness, and imagination. One of the shortcomings of the BFT, like other behavioral theories, is that they answer what personality without answers the why and how.
Big 5 Traits and Psychological Development
According to Hampston (2012), the relationship between temperament and personality is key when answering why. For instance, why are highly neurotic people less likely to be happy or form bonds with their peers. Temperament difference in a biological perspective categorizes child behavior in four categories, namely, negative emotions, positive emotions, constraint, and affiliative (Hampson, 2012). The temperament difference forms a base upon which children pick their traits as they grow up. Hampson (2012) suggests that as children grow, their temperament differences fade up while their varying levels of the big 5 traits replace them. A child with negative emotions will likely become a highly neurotic person in their adult life. Positive emotionality is associated with the likelihood of a child growing up to be extraverted. Conscientiousness is correlated with constraining emotions and agreeableness with affiliative emotions. Openness is a factor that is greatly influenced by the environment (Hampson, 2012).
Literature Review
In a study carried out by Kozako, Safin, and Rahim (2013), to examine the big 5 personality traits, a total of 178 individuals from 5 Malaysian hotels were given a personality questionnaire to fill. It was found that four out of the five personality traits correlated positively or negatively with counterproductive behavior in the hotel. The study observed that high levels of agreeableness had a negative relationship with counterproductive behavior. The same applied to individuals ranking high in conscientiousness and extraversion. High levels of neuroticism correlated positively with counterproductive behavior.
In a separate study 219 by Forrester, Taschian, and Shore (2016), a student undertaking a business course were asked to fill a Neo-5 factor questionnaire at the beginning of the semester. The results showed that students ranked high on the agreeable spectrum were more into expressing affection and formed tight bonds with their fellow students. This group of students also avoided expressing behaviors that could be perceived as controlling or domineering. As could be predicted, students who ranked higher on the extraversion scale also formed close relationships with their peers. They were more comfortable bringing people into their inner circle and had excitement for participating in others’ activities.
In the same study, students with high conscientiousness were good at making relationships. However, when the need arose, they were quick to step up and take leadership roles. They kept on doing activities that would improve their performance index. Students who ranked high on the neuroticism scale were much opposed to including other students into their circle. They were hesitant in trying to form close bonds and turned down any opportunity of leadership afforded to them. Openness had no relationship with behaviour orientation.
Studies have linked neurotic tendency with undesirable intrapersonal relationships such as unsatisfying relationships and marriages that end up in divorce (Hampson, 2012). These individuals are more likely to exhibit aggressive behavior and thus are more involved in domestic violence. In the health sector, it has been discovered that men who rank high on the neurotic scale have higher mortality risk.
Lucas et al. (2010) , carried out a study where he observed a group of people over a period of time at random intervals. He found out that extroverts were generally happier compared to introverts. The second section of the study involves observing the happiness level of extroverts after removing all the activities that seem to bring them the most happiness. It was discovered that socialization had a role to play in the happiness of an extrovert.
Early childhood conscientiousness is related to early mortality. People with high functioning conscientiousness had self-control and had high performance in their workplaces. On the contrary, people ranking low on the conscientiousness scale had impulse control issues. This meant that they were more likely to engage in health-damaging activities such as substance abuse and conduct disorder. Studies have shown that low conscientiousness correlated with an individual’s likeability to engage in unsafe sex (Hampton, 2012).
Understanding individuals’ personality traits can come in handy, especially in workplaces, when an employee tries to improve efficiency. It can guide in assigning tasks that resonate well with individual personalities to ensure that their efficiency increases. There is still little literature on the why part. The environment can influence personality to a large percentage; however, not a hundred percent. Much study needs to be done to expound on why people react the way they do.
References
Forrester, W. R., Tashchian, A., & Shore, T. H. (2016). Relationship Between Personality And Behavioral Intention In Student Teams. American Journal of Business Education (AJBE), 9(3), 113-118. https://doi.org/10.19030/ajbe.v9i3.9698
Hampson, S. E. (2012). Personality processes: Mechanisms by which personality traits “get outside the skin”. Annual review of psychology, 63, 315-339.
Yang, Y., Read, S. J., Denson, T. F., Xu, Y., Zhang, J., & Pedersen, W. C. (2014). The key ingredients of personality traits: Situations, behaviors, and explanations. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 40(1), 79-91. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167213505871
Lucas, R. E., Le, K., & Dyrenforth, P. S. (2010). Explaining the extraversion/positive affect relation: Sociability cannot account for extraverts’ greater happiness. Journal of personality, 76(3), 385-414. https://doi.org/ 10.1111/j.1467-6494.2008.00490.x.
Najm, N. (2019). Big 5 Traits: A Critical Review. Gadja Mada International Journal of Business. 21 (2):159
Kozako, I. N. A. M. F., Safin, S. Z., & Rahim, A. R. A. (2013). The relationship of big five personality traits on counterproductive work behaviour among hotel employees: An exploratory study. Procedia Economics and Finance, 7, 181-187. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2212-5671(13)00233-5
