The personality as the ID

Personality. It's what defines us, what helps us identify not only others, but who we are as a person. But to truly explain what a personality, we'll have to explain the Big Five personality traits, and reflect on my own personality.

So for starters, what is the Big Five personality traits and why are these so important. Well the Big Five are a five broad traits which are composed of many other personality traits. These traits spell out OCEAN. O is for Openness to experience.

Openness describes people who are intellectually curious, appreciative of art and sensitive to beauty. C is for Conscientiousness. People with this trait like to control, regulate, and direct their impulses. This is not necessarily bad, because at times you need to perform decisions on the fly. E is for Extraversion. Extraverts are people who enjoy being with people, they are full of life and energy and often have positive emotions. A is for Agreeableness.This trait is when a person values getting along with others.

Get quality help now

Sweet V

Verified writer

Proficient in: Personality

4.9 (984)

“ Ok, let me say I’m extremely satisfy with the result while it was a last minute thing. I really enjoy the effort put in. ”

+84 relevant experts are online

Hire writer

They are considerate, friendly, generous, helpful, and kind. N is for Neuroticism. Neuroticism trait is generally used to describe how a person reacts to negative emotions. Scoring high with this trait are easily affected by events, while people who score low here can keep calm and are usually emotionally stable. Now all the Big Five helps find out how strong you are in each trait. To find which traits you are strongest in you would have to perform a personality test called NEO Personality Inventory, NEO-PI for short.

There is a revision version called NEO-PI-R and even aN international one called the International Personality Item Pool, or IPIP-NEO for short. The tests themselves are scored by percentage with them scoring lowest to highest or "low", "average", and "high". Now the score itself for the NEO-PI, NEO-PI-R, and the IPIP-NEO doesn't necessarily mean they are absolute in good or bad. It only means that those traits are strongest to weakest for you.

After taking the NEO-PI-R test and looking it the results that came out, it showed some interesting results. I scored high in Extraversion, average in Agreeableness, Openness, Neuroticism, and scored low in Conscientiousness. When it comes to Extraversion, I scored high with a 88 in Friendliness and a low of 46 in Excitement-Seeking. What a high score in Friendliness means is that it's very easy for me to show positive feelings to others which makes it easier for me to make relationships. I scored an average in Excitement-Seeking. What this facet means is that if you score high you are looking for thrills and are willing to take risks to get that level of stimulation they desire. People who scored low here are usually trying to avoid such experiences. For Agreeableness I scored high in Trust with 79 and low in Cooperation with 18. Scoring high in Trust means you feel that most people are fair, honest and usually have good intentions. A low score in Trust means others are selfish, devious, and potentially dangerous in their eyes. I have a high level of trust. When it comes to the facet Cooperation, scoring high means you dislike confrontation. You would rather compromise in order to get along with others, while score low are more than likely to essentially bully or intimidate to get their way. My level here was low. The scores for Conscientiousness facets were a high for Self-Efficacy was 52 and low for Achievement-Striving which was 4. Self-Efficacy is when someone has a feels like they have common sense and drive and self-control to make sure they succeed. My score is considered average. High levels in Achievement-Striving often have strong sense of direction in life. I sadly scored low with this one. The facets for Neuroticism I scored high and low with are Immoderation with 91 and Depression with 38. Immoderation facet talks about how resistant you are to succumbing to cravings and urges. Scoring high means you are weak towards your urges and cravings, while scoring low means you don't find yourself overindulged. I scored embarrassingly high. Depression here talks about how often you feel sad, dejected or discouraged. High scoring here mean you lack motivation and drive while low scoring tends to be free of those feelings. My score was average. The facets for Openness that I scored high and low in is Imagination at 72 and Adventurousness is 38. Imagination facet talks about how some people think the world is too plain and boring so they create fantasy worlds to make the world around them more richer and a more interesting place. Low scoring here means look to facts than fantasy. I scored high in Imagination. Trying new things and want to travel and have various experiences are what you desire if you score high in Adventurousness. Scoring low means you want routine and to be familiar with what you know. I had an average score in Adventurousness.

After looking over the personality profile, I have to admit I was honestly shocked at some of the results. Let me break it down into each section and explain. I've actually grown from being a introvert to now being an extravert. When I was younger I was extremely shy, to the point it was one of the factors of my speech impediment. So seeing that I was high in extravert made me realize how far I've come. For agreeableness I thought most of the scores would be much higher, especially when it came to Morality. I feel like I don't try to manipulate people and so far since this test I know I haven't. When I was younger and really didn't care about other people's feeling that much I would just do and say whatever I wanted in order to get what I wanted. That all changed when I actually got my heart broken the very first time. It was at that point that I realized what I had been doing to others, so I decided to try my hardest not to be that person. Granted I'd do or say things to get my way, but those times I felt like it was either the best for me and the person or for the group itself. Reading over the conscientiousness section made me think hard about my career path and what this means. Right now I can attest that I am highly disorganized. Even though I do my work and get it done on time is what I do. But I do procrastinate at times and I sometimes work in absolute chaos. My room is a prime example of this. I know where mostly everything is, but anyone stepping into there would just think I'm an absolute slob. With knowing this I'll have to take that mantra "A place for everything and everything in its place." Going through this I didn't really knew what neuroticism was about, I honestly just thought it was about how vain a person could be. But due to the course and study, I realize it's more than that. Finding out that my score was in the average range to me meant that some things can really bother and stress me out. That's something I've dealt with my entire life because I've always been a emotional person. I was brought up not to hide who I was, just accept my feelings and emotions and let them out. Going over openness made me realize I do do quite a few of these facets. For example, my imagination score was 72 which is relatively high. Whenever I'm not concentrating on something, I'm usually in my world doing something heroic. I could be the key to saving the world, or have knowledge I didn't have that a secret organization wants. I could have powers, transform, and solve anyone's problems. But I do realize that these are just fantasies. I doubt a dragon god going to come out of nowhere and say I'm going to be the next dragon king or something. But these are all the things I agree with. The ones I don't agree with are a different matter.

I like cooperation. It's something we all have to at some point in our lives. I think hearing people out and getting their ideas can make anything possible. Back when I was working at UPS, I was part of the Health and Safety Committee. We had an issue where this one section of the hub was essentially a possible death trap for some people. We talked and talked and we finally came up with a proposal to hand over to management and what we wanted done in order to make that section more safer. I know there are times I have to lead, it's to make it so the preverbal ball gets moving. But there are plenty of times I've taken the backseat and just listen and gave my insight once in awhile. Seeing that my score in dutifulness made me question how they figured that out. Rules are made so they can either make us safe or know what we can or cannot do. That's something I tell my kids constantly. To see that I apparently relish in rebellion is quite odd to me. I have a moral responsibility to my classmates to make sure I'm there if they need help, my co-workers if they need assistance, and my family for when they need a hand. So in the case of the dutifulness section I think they got it wrong.

In conclusion, the personality is the ID of who you are. And in some cases, who you truly are. By diving into your personality you can find out more about yourself. This NEO-PI-R made me have to step back and question quite a bit about who I am and what I want my life to be.