Big Five
All people have these 5 personality traits in common
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People are like snowflakes: no two are alike. We also change in the course of our lives. But with the Big Five model, all of our characters can be broken down into five properties.
Big Five: Psychological model based on human language
There are good and bad people, self-confident and insecure, curious and frugal, introverted and extroverted – and we could go on and on! As the two US psychologists Gordon Allport and Henry Odbert found out at the end of the 1930s, it is scarce to be found in an extensive lexicon 18,000 terms that describe human characteristics.
However, Allport and Odbert quickly discovered that many entries are synonyms, i.e. words that describe the same thing or at least something very similar – e.g. B. conscientious and meticulous, open and sociable, communicative and eloquent. So the researchers summarized such terms and also clustered properties that usually appear in a cluster because they are mutually dependent – for example, those who are sensitive and compassionate are often helpful and social.
And whether you believe it or not: So what this originally linguistic approach gave rise to the Big Five model, With the help of which psychologists still describe and research a person’s personality today.
Big Five: These characteristics are common to all humans
The Big Five model captures all character traits that a person has – more or less pronounced. Whatever you could say about someone to describe their personality fits into the Big Five model from a psychological point of view. Each feature is to be understood as a scale, on which the poles “strongly pronounced” and “weakly pronounced” face each other. The following features belong to the Big Five model:
- Conscientiousness: If you have this characteristic, you are very reliable, disciplined, work in a structured and precise manner, and plan and organize yourself very carefully. If, on the other hand, it is weak in your character, you are more likely to be planned and chaotic.
- Openness: A pronounced openness makes people curious, adventurous and creative. Such people get bored easily and constantly need new challenges and variety. At the other end of the scale, there are more conservative and value-conscious people who, above all, feel comfortable in the most stable conditions possible.
- Extraversion: Those who are very extroverted like to surround themselves with others, are spontaneous, sociable and draw a lot of energy from relationships and social encounters. On the other hand, people in whom this characteristic is less pronounced like to be on their own and attach great importance to their independence.
- Compatibility: A high level of this characteristic makes us particularly receptive to happiness – because we are then mostly optimistic, grateful, sensitive, in need of harmony, willing to compromise and warm-hearted. A low tolerance, on the other hand, manifests itself primarily in rationality and emotional coldness, contentiousness and egoism.
- Neuroticism: If this characteristic is very pronounced in you, you should take good care of yourself – because then you tend to be mentally unstable, nervous and easily irritable. On the other hand, a weak expression of this characteristic means emotional equilibrium and inner balance.
Big Five: These factors shape the character
Scientists from various fields (e.g. psychology, neuroscience, genetic researchers, life course researchers, sociology …) have been researching for decades what exactly shapes our character the way it is – and are still right in the middle of it.
It has already been established that there are diverse Relationship between the expression of the characteristics mentioned and our hormonal balance gives. And it is well known that the latter differs from person to person. Furthermore, one knows Genes on which the production or processing of certain hormones is coded, that is, is created. In addition, the researchers agree, should be right now early childhood experiences play a crucial role in personal development. But let’s let the experts do a little more research before we go into too much detail …
Are our Big Five set in stone?
Much more important than the reason why we are the way we are is often the question for our lives anyway: Can we change ourselves and our personality? Fortunately, the answer is very clear: Yes! Often we even do it without noticing it based on our experiences and how we classify them (consciously or unconsciously).
For example, if someone who always plans everything precisely and is super structured, accidentally falls into a chaotic situation Happiness experience this can cause their personality to shift a bit on the conscientiousness scale. The good news: According to psychologists, because of such unconscious changes, we generally develop in a positive direction.
But if you want to be on the safe side and want to make targeted changes, you can of course do so too – above all through mindfulness and conscious experience. The better we know ourselves and the more attentively and consciously we process our experiences, the more influence we can have on the development of our character.
Speaking of which: Even if we decide, for example, that we want to change bad habits or learn to love ourselves, the best way to do this is with mindfulness and self-confidence – and then deliberately and actively intervene in our personality development. So the Big Five may be set in stone and unchangeable – but absolutely not where we place ourselves on the respective scale.
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