Big Five Trait Taxonomy

The Big-Five Trait Taxonomy
As a result of a thorough research on Cattell's and Eysenck's personality trait theories, the Big Five theory was formulated. This model states that there are 5 core traits which collaborate in order to form a single personality. These include:
1. Extraversion - tendency to be active, sociable, person-oriented, talkative, optimistic, empathetic
2. Openness to Experience - tendency to be imaginative, curious, creative and may have unconventional beliefs and values.
3. Agreeableness - tendency to be good-natured, kind-hearted, helpful, altruistic and trusting.
4. Conscientiousness - tendency to be hardworking, reliable, ambitious, punctual and self-directed.
5. Neuroticism - tendency to become emotionally unstable

Mount and Barrick (1995) mentioned that it appears that many personality psychologists have reached a consensus that five personality constructs, referred to as the Big Five, are necessary and sufficient to describe the basic dimensions of normal personality. This study prefers to use the Big Five Model because it widely used to measure personality. According to Paunonen and Ashton (2001), the Big Five personality dimensions of neuroticism, extroversion, agreeableness, openness to experience and Conscientious have been studied extensively and have been associated with a variety of work attitudes and behavior. These five personality dimensions are broad dimensions that are theorized to subsume most narrowly focused personality traits. The breadth of these dimensions is a benefit in that it distils a large number of personality traits into a parsimonious set of dimensions for use in research. It means that this model is widely used and suitable to use in any research. As stated by Harris and Fleming (2005), the Five Factor Model has enjoyed widespread popularity in the field. Five personality traits collectively classify the higher-level dispositions of an individual according to the Five Factor

While Costa and McCrae (1992) stated that extroverts are gregarious, assertive, activity and excitement-seeking. It similar with Mount and Barrick (1995) which mentioned that extraversion is most often described as the degree to which an individual is sociable, gregarious, talkative, assertive, adventurous, active, energetic and ambitious. Based on Watson and Clark (1997), extroverts have been found to be socially engaging, gregarious, assertive, expressive, articulate, and comfortable in group settings and have a great number of friends. Williams (1997), extraverts also tend to be high in positive affectivity, self-efficacy and optimism. According to Harris and Fleming (2005), extroversion represents various aspects such as sociable, gregarious, assertive and talkative. However, Manning et. al (2006) stated that extroversion is about the extent to which people are comfortable in social relationships, how socially inhibited, and the extrovert who is comfortable in social relationships and socially uninhibited. Tallman and Bruning (2008) stated that extroverts’ need for power and recognition may also cause them to take more risks in the job and they would expect the organization to support their work activities. Besides,