Trait Theory Essay

The Big Five are broad categories of personality qualities. Extraversion, Agreeableness, Consciousness, Neuroticism, and Openness are the five categories (Magidson, Roberts, Collado-Rodriguez & Lejuez, 2014). I will discuss my personality in relation to each of the Big Five Trait Theory mentioned above.
Extraversion: I am an extravert because I am an extroverted person who gets a lot of energy from social situations. I love meeting new individuals and initiating a conversion with them. My social network of acquaintances and pals is quite large, and I wouldn't mind expanding it even further.  Agreeable: in this dimension, I can say that I am a person who is high in this trait. This is because I am always interested in other people more than myself. I care about people and like giving contributions to ensure others are happy. Also, I feel concerned whenever somebody is suffering and is I cannot help; I empathize with them.

Consciousness: in this character, I can rate myself as low in consciousness. To start with, I do not like schedules and structures, in fact, I try to avoid them as much as possible. Most of the time I fail to return or place things where they are supposed to be. I find myself procrastinating on issues that are important to me and others. Finally, I fail to complete most of the things that am supposed to do.

Neuroticism: In this trait, I rank low. I am a person who is stable emotionally, and I do not have a problem dealing with stress. Most of the time I am relaxed, and even if there is something tragic that has happened, I worry less, I rarely feel depressed or sad.

Openness: in openness continuum, I rank high, this is because I am a creative person and will always try new things. I track new challenges and tries to face them one on one.

Hexaco trait theory was created in 2004, the word hex stands for six, and this means that the trait contains six character traits, which includes honesty-humility, emotionality, extraversion, agreeableness, consciousness, and openness (Ashton, Lee, de Vries, Hendrickse & Born, 2012).

Honesty-Humility: I rank high in this trait, this is because I am a sincere person and will tell the truth no matter the situation. Also, I treat all people with fairness, regardless of their backgrounds, race, and ethnicity.

Emotionality: I can say I am an independent, I like taking care of my issues. Also, I am a fearless person who approaches all issues with bravely.

Extraversion: just like in the big five traits, I am an extraversion person. I portray social self-esteem, liveliness, social boldness, and sociability.

Agreeableness: in this character trait, I rank high because am interested in other people more than myself

Consciousness: I am not a perfectionist, in fact, sometimes I am a disappointment when it comes to matters that require some orderliness.

Openness: I have a very high score on the openness, this is because I am a person who is easily absorbed by the beauty of nature and art. I use my imagination freely in my everyday activities and takes an interest in unusual things, people, and ideas.

Among the two theories, the Big Five trait theory is the most effective for understanding personality because these traits give individuals insights of how they react to in different situations, and this is helpful especially when choosing an occupation. Reflecting on my personality traits, these traits are not things that can be changed; they occur naturally in somebody regardless of the environment one is growing up in.

The role of person-situation debate in personality trait theory is to account for the human behavior. It recognizes that behaviors are affected by both situational factors, personal dispositions, and also as a result of the interaction of both (Cobb-Clark & Schurer, 2012). An example of person-situation interaction is the case where we have a student who is confident and easygoing. However, in a situation where he has to take a test exam, he becomes anxious. This shows how a situation can provoke a behavior that is not a part of someone's character. Here, a person acts in a certain manner due to the current circumstances. However, this cannot be used to understand the human behavior since the action of a person is forced by circumstances.

















References

Ashton, M. C., Lee, K., de Vries, R. E., Hendrickse, J., & Born, M. P. (2012). The maladaptive personality traits of the Personality Inventory for DSM-5 (PID-5) in relation to the HEXACO personality factors and schizotypy/dissociation. Journal of Personality Disorders, 26(5), 641-659.

Cobb-Clark, D. A., & Schurer, S. (2012). The stability of big-five personality traits. Economics Letters, 115(1), 11-15.

Magidson, J. F., Roberts, B. W., Collado-Rodriguez, A., & Lejuez, C. W. (2014). Theory-driven intervention for changing personality: Expectancy value theory, behavioral activation, and conscientiousness. Developmental Psychology, 50(5), 1442-1450.