Big Five: These 5 personality traits shape every human being

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 over the course of our lives. But with the Big Five model, all of our characters can be broken down into five characteristics.

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 like this for a long, long time! As the two US psychologists Gordon Allport and Henry Odbert found out at the end of the 1930s, it is scarce in an extensive language dictionary 18,000 terms that describe human characteristics.

However, as Allport and Odbert quickly discovered, 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 articulate. So the researchers summarized such terms and also clustered properties that usually appear together because they are mutually dependent – for example, someone who is sensitive and compassionate is often also helpful and social.

And whether you believe it or not: so and so The Big Five model emerged from this originally linguistic approach, with the help of which psychologists still describe and research the personality of a person.

Big Five: All humans have these characteristics in common

The Big Five model captures all of the character traits that a person exhibits – more or less pronounced. Whatever you might say about someone to describe their personality fits into the Big Five model from a psychological perspective. 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. On the other hand, if it is weak in your character, you tend to be planned and chaotic.
  • Openness: Strong openness makes people curious, adventurous and creative. Such people are easily bored and constantly need new challenges and variety. At the other end of the scale there are more conservative and value-conscious people who feel particularly comfortable in stable relationships.
  • extraversion: Those who are very extraverted 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 who do not have this characteristic tend to 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 usually optimistic, grateful, sensitive, in need of harmony, willing to compromise and warm-hearted. On the other hand, a low level of tolerance is expressed above all in rationality and emotional coldness, argumentativeness and egoism.
  • neuroticism: If you have a strong tendency to have this trait, 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 balance and inner balance.

Big Five: These factors shape character

Scientists from various disciplines (e.g. psychology, neuroscience, genetic researchers, life course researchers, sociology …) have been researching what exactly shapes our character as it is for decades – and are still right in the middle of it.

It has already been established that there are various Connections between the expression of the characteristics mentioned and our hormone balance are. And it is well known that the latter differs from person to person. Furthermore, you know Genes that encode the production or processing of certain hormones, i.e. created, is. In addition, the researchers agree that they should early childhood experiences play a crucial role in personality 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 the question in our life anyway: Can we change ourselves and our personality?? The answer to that is fortunately very clear: Yes! We often do it without even realizing it because of our experiences and how we (consciously or unconsciously) classify them.

For example, if someone who always plans everything carefully and is super structured accidentally gets into a chaotic situation happy experience it can cause their personality to shift a notch on the conscientiousness scale. The good news: According to psychologists, because of such unconscious changes, we basically 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.

Apropos: Even if we decide, for example, that we want to change bad habits or learn to love ourselves, we can do this best with mindfulness and self-confidence – and then intervene willingly and actively in our personality development. So the Big Five may be set in stone and immutable, but where we place ourselves on each scale, absolutely not.

Video tip: 7 habits that immediately make you more likeable



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