FIVE FACTOR MODEL BACKGROUND AND THEORY
For three decades, the training community has generally followed the assumptions of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator:
The new paradigm in personality is not a radical departure from the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, but does require a significant shift in thinking. The Five-Factor Model provides:
Personality theories, or models, are metaphors for describing something indescribable--the human personality. Some metaphors are more vague than others. A PET brain scan is less vague than a paper and pencil questionnaire like the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. The history of the study of personality has been one of minimizing vagueness.
Language is the one ingredient that all theories have in common. It is from language that we extract the source metaphor for describing personality. This was the insight that propelled researchers in the 1950’s into the research that led to what we know today as the Five-Factor Model.
Each dimension in the Five-Factor Model is like a bucket holding a set of traits that tend to occur together. The definitions of the five ‘super’ factors describe the common element among the traits, or sub-factors, within each bucket. In 2001, the Center for Applied Cognitive Studies introduced the WorkPlace Big Five Profile, a 107-item survey with workplace-oriented language that measures five ‘super’ factors and 24 subtraits. The Five Factors are:
N - Need for Stability E - Extraversion O - Originality A - Accommodation C - Consolidation
N - Need for Stability
E - Extraversion
O - Originality
A - Accommodation
C - Consolidation
Need for Stability refers to the degree to which a person responds to stress. More resilient people tend to handle stressful workplace situations in a calm, steady, and secure way. More reactive people tend to respond in an alert, concerned, attentive, or excitable way, thus creating the opportunity to experience more workplace stress than others.
Extraversion refers to the degree to which a person can tolerate sensory stimulation from people and situations. Those who score high on extraversion prefer being around other people and involved in many activities. Low extraversion is characterized by preference to work alone and is typically described as serious, skeptical, quiet, and a private person.
Originality refers to the degree to which we are open to new experiences and new ways of doing things. Highly original people tend to have a variety of interests and like cutting edge technology as well as strategic ideas. Those low in originality tend to possess expert knowledge about a job, topic, or subject while possessing a down-to-earth, here-and-now view of the present.
Accommodation refers to the degree to which we defer to others. High accommodation describes a person who tends to relate to others by being tolerant, agreeable and accepting of others. Low accommodation describes someone who tends to relate to others by being expressive, tough, guarded, persistent, competitive or aggressive. Low accommodating people may come across to others as hostile, rude, self-centered, and not a team player.
Consolidation refers to the degree to which we push toward goals at work. High consolidation refers to a person who tends to work towards goals in an industrious, disciplined, and dependable fashion. Low consolidation refers to someone who tends to approach goals in a relaxed, spontaneous, and open-ended fashion. Low consolidation people are usually capable of multi-tasking and being involved in many projects and goals at the same time.
Up until twenty years ago, the personality research community was fragmented, with Freud, Erikson, Horney, Jung, Murray, Eysenck, and others all claiming the best model. All were partially right, but only the Five-Factor Model has arms big enough to include them all.
What is different today versus twenty years ago is that there has been a clear trend towards embracing a single model-- the Five-Factor Model-- as the research paradigm to follow. But while unanimity among personality researchers is still beyond our grasp, one can sense the excitement among researchers in the academic literature:
As fellow human resource professionals, the Center for Applied Cognitive Studies encourages you to study the Five-Factor Model. The academic psychology community is now ahead of the human resource development community. The Five-Factor Model is ideally suited for the following applications:
Questions? info@centacs.com