TRAIT THEORIES: THE BIG FIVE TRAITS

MINI-RESEARCH

IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENT FOR THE COURSE

PSY 5 - THEORIES OF PERSONALITY

SUBMITTED BY:
ARRELANO, JADE NEIL
PAJUYO, KATE

SUBMITTED TO:
MRS. YAYETTE DE LA PENA

August 14, 2020

 RATIONALE

Personality is a complex thing and there are a lot of studies and theories

that can help give explanation for it. The researchers were tasked to measure

the Big Five traits of five participants which they will connect and reflect by

utilizing each person's social media platforms. This mini research uses Paul

Costa and Robert McCrae's version of the Big Five Personality Theory which

is the most widely accepted personality theory model by psychologists

today. The purpose of this study is to measure the personality trait of five

individuals and to find out the accuracy of the theory being used.

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

The big five personality traits are self-regulating personality factors that

described five major personality dimensions that include Openness to

Experience, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, and

Neuroticism (Goldberg, 1992; Barrick & Mount, 1991).

According to Goldberg (1981), Openness to experience are those people

who prefer a different variety of experience rather than sticking with familiar

people and things. Agreeableness distinguishes soft-hearted people from

ruthless ones. Conscientiousness describes people who like order and

control, and are achievement focused and self-disciplined. On the other hand,

Extraversion manifests the tendency and intensity to which someone seeks

interaction with their environment, particularly socially. Neuroticism describes

the overall emotional stability of an individual through how they perceive the

world (Lim, 2020)

Table 1. The Five-Factor Model of Personality

Factor Low Score Description High Score Description

Neuroticism Calm, Even-tempered, Worrying, Temperamental,

Self-satisfied, Self-pitying, Self-

Comfortable, conscious, Emotional,

Unemotional, Hardy Vulnerable

Extraversion Reserved, Loner, Quiet, Affectionate, Joiner,

Passive, Sober, Unfeeling Talkative, Active, Fun-

loving, Passionate
Openness to Down-to-earth, Imaginative, Creative,

Experience Uncreative, Conventional, Original, Prefer variety,

Prefer routine, Uncurious, Curious, Liberal

Conservative
Agreeableness Ruthless, Suspicious, Softhearted, Trusting,

Stingy, Antagonistic, Generous, Acquiescent,

Critical, Irritable Lenient, Good-natured

Conscientiousness Negligent, Lazy, Conscientious,

Disorganized, Late, Hardworking, Well-

Aimless, Quitting organized, Punctual,

Ambitious, Persevering
Taken from McCrae and Costa (2003)

The general descriptions of extraversion, neuroticism, openness,

agreeableness, and conscientious are listed in Table 1. It is important to note

that these five factors are distinct, and neither low nor high scores are

necessarily better or ‘good’ or ‘bad:’

METHODS
Participants 

The researchers chose the five participants randomly. They are friends

with the researchers who informed them about the survey. The participants

had ages ranging from 16 to 20 and all of them were female.

Data Gathering Procedure

To obtain the data, the researchers conducted their research by first

greeting the participants and informing the them about the survey. The

researchers then sent a PDF copy of the informed consent through

messenger to the participants. After agreeing and signing the informed

consent, the researchers then sent a link of the psychological assessment

developed by Goldberg (1992). The test consists of fifty item questions and

the participants must rate each question using a five point scale where 1 =

Disagree, 3 = Neutral, and 5 = Agree. The observations were made by

scrolling through each participants’ Facebook feed and analyzing how their

posts associate to their dominant trait based on the result of the psychological

assessment. The researchers also based their observations on the real life

behavior of the respondents to determine the consistency of their dominant

trait.

Data Analysis
 

Table 1. Age of Participants

Age  Frequency  Percent (%)  Cumulative Percent (%) 

16  1  20  20 
19  3  60  80 
20  1  20  100 
Total  5  100   
 

Table 2. Sex of Participants

Sex  Frequency  Percent (%)  Cumulative Percent (%) 

Female  5  100  100 
 

Table 3. Descriptive Table for the Mean of Big Five Traits 

Big Five Traits  Number of Participants  Mean 

Openness  5  3.8 
Conscientiousness  5  2.6 
Extraversion  5  2.0 
Agreeableness  5  4.8 
Neuroticism  5  1.8 

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The sources of personality data used are self-report and observer-report. 

The participant 1, a nineteen year old female, has a dominant trait of

agreeableness and has a very low rating on extraversion. In her Facebook

profile, she only shares few contents and observes the news or issues

circulating around the social media. Some of her friends mention or tag her in
humorous posts and she responds politely. She is always helping her friends

in need. Thinking about others and helping people is her focus.

Table 4. Big Five Trait of Participant 1

Very Somewhat Average Somewhat Very

Low Low High High

Openness ✔

Conscientiousnes ✔

Extraversion ✔

Agreeableness ✔

Neuroticism  ✔
 

The participant 2 is a sixteen year old female, which shows a very high

rating of agreeableness and a very low rating on neuroticism. In her Facebook

profile, she shares informative contents about the current local and global

issues and school events which shows her generosity on sharing information.

She also helps her friend’s business by sharing it to spread it to customers.

Since she has a low rating on neuroticism, she spreads positivity and funny

contents. She is  an acquiescent person who motivates her friends to be

productive and always help them in their needs even though she forgets to

focus on herself.

Table 5. Big Five Trait of Participant 2

 Very Somewhat Average Somewhat Very

Low Low High High

Openness ✔

Conscientiousnes ✔

Extraversion ✔

Agreeableness ✔

Neuroticism  ✔
 

The participant 3, a nineteen year old female, who has a very high rating

in openness to experience and very low in extraversion. In her Facebook

profile, she often shares contents about artistic materials and creates a

product by her creativity. She also shares diverse posts which shows that she

is open to any topics that she will be engaging. 

Table 6. Big Five Trait of Participant 3

Very Somewhat Average Somewhat Very

Low Low High High

Openness ✔

Conscientiousnes ✔

Extraversion ✔

Agreeableness ✔

Neuroticism  ✔
 

 
 The participant 4, a twenty year old female that has a very high rating in

agreeableness and very low in neuroticism. In her Facebook profile, she

supports her friends’ inclination about music, hobby and movie relish. She

also shares sorrowful events globally and sympathizes with the victims of

such catastrophes.

Table 7. Big Five Trait of Participant 4

Very Somewhat Average Somewhat Very

Low Low High High

Openness ✔

Conscientiousnes ✔

Extraversion ✔

Agreeableness ✔

Neuroticism  ✔
 

The participant 5, a 19 year old female who has a very high rating in

agreeableness and has a very low rating in extraversion. In her Facebook

profile, she shares about her common interests the same as her friends. The

contents she shared are relatable which made her posts gain numerous likes

and reactions. 

Table 8. Big Five Trait of Participant 5

Very Somewhat Average Somewhat Very

 Low Low High High

Openness ✔

Conscientiousnes ✔

Extraversion ✔

Agreeableness ✔

Neuroticism  ✔
 

These results highlight the big five traits of the five participants. The

results show that the agreeableness has the most very high rating among five

traits while extraversion and neuroticism are common in the very low rating.

Since the five respondents are all female, the scope only focuses on them.

Agreeableness merges love and submissiveness. Females scored higher in

this trait because it is factual that they are more loving and submissive than

males (Budaev, 1999). Women are nurturing in nature as it is their societal

role.  According to Costa et al., (2004) females are expected to have a high

score in agreeableness which means that they are acquiescent and altruistic.

The participants’ age ranges between 16 to 20 years old which means that

they are in the adolescent and young adulthood stage. These individuals

show various acquiescence responses which are marked results in this range

of age (Soto et al., 2008).

 
 CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS.

Based on the results and analysis, the evident trait from the test results

corresponds to the actual trait of the participants. It shows a complete concept

and has high accuracy results but it also varies on the current state of an

individual.The big five trait theory shows significance on the analyses of the

personality of individuals. Various categorizations of a specific trait are

applicable to an individual being tested. It shows consistency between the

results obtained and the personality trait of an individual. It is a useful theory

to measure the traits of the people. In order to acquire a more precise result,

the researchers need to have both male and female participants. Having both

participants enables the researchers to differentiate them well. Also, the

participants should also have different age ranges in order to compare the

trait of a specific age. Lastly, the number of participants are not enough to

gain the best results of the study. Numerous participants will make the study

more accurate. 

  
 

REFERENCES

Barrick, M.R., & Mount, M.K. (1993). Autonomy as a moderator of the

relationships between the Big Five personality dimensions and job

performance. Journal of Applied Psychology. 78, 111-118.

Costa, P., Terracciano, A., & McCrae, R. (2001). Gender Differences in

Personality Traits Across Cultures: Robust and Surprising Findings. Journal

of Personality and Social Psychology, 81(2), 322-331.

Goldberg, Lewis R. The development of markers for the Big-Five factor

structure. Psychological assessment 4.1 (1992): 26.

Goldberg, L. R. (1981). Language and individual differences: The search for

universals in personality lexicons. In L. Wheeler (Ed.), Review of personality

and social psychology (Vol. 2, pp. 141–165). Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.

 
Lim, A (2020, June 15). The big five personality traits. Simply Psychology.

https://www.simplypsychology.org/big-five-personality.html

Soto, C. J., John, O. P., Gosling, S. D., & Potter, J. (2008). The

developmental psychometrics of big five self-reports: Acquiescence, factor

structure, coherence, and differentiation from ages 10 to 20. Journal of

Personality and Social Psychology, 94(4), 718–737.

https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.94.4.718

APPENDICES

Informed Consent Form

Participant’s Signature

Participant 1
Participant 2

Participant 3
Participant 4

Participant 5

Questionnaire
Personal Insights
 Arellano, Jade Neil

The Trait Theory by McCrae and Costa are broad but these are

adequate concepts about the traits of an individual. It provides psychometric

properties in order to make the results reliable and valid. It measures an

individual’s expressed traits that varies in different levels that will be able to

identify the dominant and evident trait. Throughout the duration given to

conduct this mini research, the majority of obtained results from the

participants correspond in their activities online and personal interaction.

Based on the results, women are very high in agreeableness since women

are sympathetic and caring. Although this theory has an excellent rating,

recent studies are not related to the results acquired by the researchers due

to the few participants involved.  Women are found to be a high scorer in

neuroticism but from the results, they are not due to a motivating and

supportive environment. Traits may be added as diversity of personality traits

are increasing. Overall, it is a good theory to utilize by future researchers

because it has comprehensive and simplified concepts.

Personal Insights
Pajuyo, Kate D.

Robert McCrae and Paul Costa’s model of the Trait theory or the Five-

Factor Model has been proven to be comprehensive. The five factors stand

up well when measured with a variety of other tests and within other

theoretical perspectives. It is particularly useful in psychology today in

understanding a person’s behavior.

Conducting this mini research resulted to varied outcome. Majority from

the obtained results correspond in their activities online and personal

interaction. Although the results were different from what we expected, it was

still a great help to come to an understanding with the theory. The theory gave

a way to easily discern a person’s personality. Though, we would’ve gotten a

more accurate results if we had more participants and if there was diversity

among them.

Overall, I think this theory has proven its validity and reliability. Even

though it is not a perfect theory and has it’s limitations and flaws, it is still a big

help for psychologist and other professionals to understand an individual’s

behaviors, thoughts, and emotions. It is one of the good theories to put to use

by future researchers because of it’s simplified concepts and

comprehensiveness.