Question

What is the Big Five model of personality and what is its relationship to employment testing?

Answer 1

Personality research has developed a number of different theories that seek to define and quantify personality. The most widely accepted personality taxonomy among industrial-organizational psychologists is the Big Five Personality Traits model, or the Five Factor Personality Model.

The Five Factor Model breaks personality down into five components: Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Openness, and Stress Tolerance.

Agreeableness is a indicator of the individual's propensity towards social harmony. This trait reflects how well an person gets along with others, how cooperative or cynical they are, and how they can communicate within a team.

Conscientiousness is a measure of how careful, deliberate, self-disciplined and organized an individual is. Consciousness often predicts employee productivity , particularly in lower-level positions.

Extraversion is a measure of how an individual is sociable, outgoing, and energetic. Individuals who score lower on the extraversion scale are considered to be more introverted, or more intentional, quiet, low-key, and independent.

Openness measures the extent to which an individual is imaginative and creative, rather than down-to - earth and conventional.

Stress Tolerance tests the manner in which individuals react to stress.

An individual's unique combination of these five factors influences his or her work success in three main ways. First, it determines how and why we are motivated to achieve certain goals – for example, people who score high on extraversion are more motivated to achieve a goal if a reward is involved. Second, personality affects our mood, which in turn affects the way we respond to people and work situations. Studies have shown that conscientiousness and joy have an indirect effect on organizational citizenship conduct through their effects on job satisfaction – simply put, if we're happy with our jobs, we're more likely to be better 'people' at work.