Extroversion

The concept of extroversion/introversion as an aspect of personality began in the Greco-Roman

era and appears in the writings of Hippocrates. At this time it was believed that an excess of
blood or black bile produced a "sanguine" (outgoing) or "melancholic" (introverted) personality.
These ideas persisted through the Renaissance. In modern psychology, the concept was
pioneered by Carl Jung, who believed that the essential difference between the two types is the
way they relate to the world. Introverts are focused on internal, subjective experience, and
extroverts are focused on other people and the world around them.

Your Extroversion
You are an extrovert - sociable, and very comfortable around people. Your self-esteem is usually
strong and you are a natural leader. You love to talk and you love to make people laugh. You like
to have fun and make sure that everyone around you is having fun too. You generate lots of
enthusiasm in those around you and you are generally well-liked and popular.

For a successful work career, however, it is important for you to understand that when working in
a group, you have a need to be in the leadership position. If you are working co-operatively with a
group of peers, you need to curb your natural tendency to grab the limelight, otherwise be warned
that people may see you as arrogant. Whenever possible, look for or volunteer for positions that
allow you to lead or co-ordinate the groups you have to work with, as this simply fits better with
your personality.

In work and outside of work, you are good at negotiating "deals" for yourself, as you are quite
assertive and do not allow people to take advantage of you. Beware, however, of crossing the
line from assertive to aggressive, as this will cause a negative reaction.

You tend to be very active and always on the go - your social calendar is full and you are involved
in a variety of activities. You are not the type to sit quietly alone in your room.

You have a lower risk of depression than introverts do, and when you are sad, spending time
with friends or doing favorite activities tends to cheer you up quite easily.

In the world of dating, you are often a "serial dater" - you are interested in a number of different
people and your relationships can be short-lived because your attention turns to someone else
when the first bloom of the relationship is over. You are quite a romantic type - your spontaneity
and energy charm your partners. You are drawn to other strong personalities - but you’ll be
happiest ending up with someone who allows you to dominate them from time to time... that’s
how you get your kicks, after all.

Conscientiousness

Conscientiousness is a slightly controversial character trait - researchers disagree over whether it

has a positive or negative effect on a person’s life. Before the industrial revolution, there was less
emphasis on a work ethic, and conscientiousness was seen as "an exceedingly minor virtue of
shopkeepers" (in the phrase of psychologist J.M. Digman). During the 19th and early 20th
centuries, Freud further stigmatized conscientiousness as part of what he called the "anal"
personality. However, later researchers considered conscientiousness an important factor in
predicting a person’s success in life. R.B. Cattell considered it a sign of superego strength, and
gave Abraham Lincoln and Florence Nightingale as good examples of persons high in this trait.
Several modern psychologists have suggested that the phrase "Will to Achieve" might be a better
description of the trait than "Conscientiousness."
Different societies place differing value on conscientiousness. In China, it is considered highly
important to be conscientious, while in the U.S. many people consider it unimportant. European
societies tend to fall somewhere in between.
Your Conscientiousness
You score in the middle of the Conscientiousness range. You have enough motivation and
organization to achieve what you need to. You may not be on top of everything 24/7, but wouldn’t
it be boring if you were?

You are hardworking, but not workaholic. You want to maintain a balance between work and the
other, more personal, aspects of your life. You are the kind of person who cuts corners when you
have to, but you always get the important things done in time. While you’re consistently reliable
with this big stuff, projects that you put on the back burner may stay there for quite a while before
you get around to them, and you have a tendency to let less important tasks pile up.

When you make decisions, you think things over carefully, but you also go with your gut when you
have a strong instinct about something. You follow instructions as long as you agree with them,
but aren’t afraid to go with it if you think you have a better idea about how to get something done.

You are very organized in the area that matters most to you - whether it’s your work schedule,
your kitchen or your checkbook - but other things in your life tend to be a little less organized. You
can usually find what you need, but it’s not picture-perfect.

Worldly, financial or career success isn’t your only aim in life. You have a certain amount of
ambition, but sometimes you don’t always plan carefully to ensure that you meet your goals.
While self-discipline isn’t a huge problem for you, you may sometimes procrastinate. You like to
make schedules for yourself, but you also like to deviate from them when something more
enjoyable comes up. You are good at working in bursts - you can apply a lot of care and
concentration to a task, but you run out of steam after a while and need a break.

The most important skill you can develop is the ability to set priorities for yourself. Like most of
us, you will usually accomplish only a certain percentage of the things you set out to do. Make
sure you’re putting your primary effort where it matters most.

Agreeableness

Agreeableness is one of the most fundamental dimensions of personality, used to describe

people both in literature and art and in our everyday lives. From early childhood on, we tend to
label individuals as "manageable, sweet" or "difficult." Psychologist R. Hogan argues that the
importance of agreeableness is an evolutionary factor - since our ancestors lived in groups,
depending on each other for survival, it became important to encourage members of the society
to co-operate with the group. However, there have always been some cultures that value
disagreeableness - for example, the Mundugumor of New Guinea, a group studied by Margaret
Mead, valued fierce, possessive men and women and ridiculed those who were warm and
nurturing. Most societies expect a higher degree of agreeableness from women and are more
prepared to reward men for being disagreeable and competitive.

Your Agreeableness
You are in the middle of the road where agreeableness is concerned. You manage to strike a
good balance between your own needs and those of the people around you. You’re not a
pushover, but neither are you selfish. You can be sentimental, but you know how to put sentiment
aside when you have to take cold, hard decisions. You manage to reap the benefits of an
agreeable personality - you have good relationships with others, are not rude or manipulative and
avoid unnecessary conflicts. However, you also avoid the drawbacks of being overly agreeable -
such as gullibility, excessive generosity to your disadvantage, and an inability to stand up for what
you want.

There are some people who you are simply not interested in befriending, and you steer clear of
them. You save your time and energy for the people whom you view as worth the effort.

You have an interesting and enviable ability to adapt to the situation you find yourself in. Let’s
face it, sometimes it’s easier to go along with the crowd, do the traditional thing, and co-operate
with everyone else. You know how to do this. However, when you can see that a looming problem
calls for a break with tradition and handling something your own way, you know how to do this
too.

If you’re ever in need of extra cash, you should know that you would do very well in customer-
service positions. You have the right ability to sympathize with someone who is upset or looking
for help, but you won’t let the person take advantage of you and you’re savvy enough to slip in a
sales pitch when it’s called for.

To your friends, you are warm, friendly, affectionate and kind, and they appreciate you for it.
However, people you don’t know as well may find it difficult to "read" you. You don’t go out of your
way to win people over; you let them come to you. When you want to, however, you are good at
turning on the charm.

Emotional Stability

Emotional stability describes a broad range of normal personality types, from the very confident
and poised at one end of the scale, to a tendency to experience chronic negative emotions at the
other end of the scale. However, all of these positions describe a person in normal mental health.
Although some psychologists (like H.J. Eysenck) have labeled this dimension "Emotional
Stability-Neuroticism," the person who scores low in emotional stability is not necessarily more
likely to become a true neurotic or clinical depressive than a person with a medium to high score.
We all have a different baseline emotional state.

Your Emotional Stability

You aren’t particularly emotionally stable. A lot of the time you’re up and down like a yo-yo - and
again, there isn’t necessarily anything wrong with your mental health, it’s just the way you are.
Your emotions change continually and they can be extreme. You react strongly to things that
happen to you or around you, and it takes you a long time to shake off the feelings that arise.
Often you may feel that negative feelings are more frequent than positive feelings. The danger
comes when you try to suppress those feelings and you become numb and flat emotionally. In
this instance, you do have a higher risk for depression than other personality types. It is
particularly dangerous if you suppress your emotional state with overworking, overeating or drink
and drugs.

Sometimes you struggle with low self-confidence. Anxiety is also a problem for you, and
something you need to work on. You may find that you are frequently afraid - of the future, of your
own failings, or even of mass catastrophes outside your control. In any situation, your thoughts
tend to return to things that might go wrong. Learning to deal with and work through your fears is
very important.

You can definitely be tense and vulnerable to stress, and you need to work on healthy ways of
releasing your pent-up nerves, whether it be exercise, art, or talking to friends. These types of
cathartic activities will help you avoid physical stress symptoms like headaches or difficulty
sleeping.

You may not be very self-aware and may ignore what is going on inside your head. You are quick
to become angry or upset when things don’t go your way, and you are often depressed or sad.
You have a tendency to worry. Other people may regard you as moody. Often, you don’t have a
lot of energy and you avoid too much excitement - even minor tasks can seem exhausting.

Take care of yourself and work on getting more in touch with those feelings, rather than letting
them scare you. There’s nothing wrong with being moody, as long as you avoid being
unnecessarily blue.
Intellect/Openness

Intellect/openness tends to be more variable than the other factors, altering as a person’s
interests, value and lifestyle change. The intellect/openness scale does not measure a person’s
IQ - this personality test is for non-cognitive personality functions and is not a test of ability.
However, regardless of a person’s IQ, his or her personality makes him or her more or less likely
to approach the ‘intellectual’ fields of problem-solving and cultural activities in a particular way.
Curiosity, which is linked to intellect, is also a personality function. Researchers are divided as to
the best label for this factor, and have suggested various names including "Creative Mentality"
(Johnson, 1994), "Inquiring Intellect" (Fiske, 1949) and "Culture" (Tupes & Christal, 1961).

Your Intellect/Openness
You score on the low end of the intellect/openness scale. This doesn’t mean that you aren’t
intelligent! It’s a reflection of your more functional approach to life. You’re not a daydreamer and
you keep your feet firmly on the ground. To you, practical bread-and-butter matters are far more
important that airy-fairy intellectual and artistic ideas. Beer and football (or, as your taste may go,
a marathon shopping session, dinner and a movie, or an evening watching sitcoms and eating
pizza) sound better than a night at the opera. You’ve probably never been to an art gallery other
than on class trips and vacations.

In your day to day life, you aren’t particularly curious - you tend to stick to what you know. If a
method or product is tried and tested, that’s good enough for you. New scientific or political ideas
often seem weird or too extreme and don’t interest you. Your taste in entertainment is also quite
mainstream. You enjoy many of the blockbuster movies and prime-time TV shows.

You don’t like to be an obvious stand out from the crowd. You don’t understand people who feel
the need to dress in a very non-conformist way, dye their hair unnatural colors or decorate their
houses with odd items.

Finding the right career may be difficult for you because you’re usually not particularly into any
one thing and don’t know where you’d be happiest. Work for you is about earning money - your
sense of being fulfilled and happy rests more on your personal life and the leisure-time activities
you enjoy than on what you do on the job.

The academic life is definitely not for you and you don’t particularly enjoy studying. Often you are
just not interested in school. The lower you score on Conscientiousness, the more noticeable this
effect is.

You are happiest living close to home, or in a culture that is similar to the one you grew up in. You
are not the kind of person who would enjoy moving frequently, or living in a foreign country for a
number of years. You are a person of habit and like to have familiar people and things around
you.