The Big 5 personality traits: do they affect our participation with the

open environment?

Big 5 also known as the Five-factor model of personality (FFM)

Organisation of personality traits

• Authors McCrae and John are frequently cited for the FFM and have written a description of this model and its applications

• The FFM has five areas known as dimensions:– Extraversion– Agreeableness– Conscientiousness– Neuroticism– Openness to experience

How personality traits are used

• The five dimensions are agreed among psychologists as being stable

• This consensus enables the use of this one system so that research findings can be more easily shared and understood

• For each factor or dimension a series of adjectives, items for questions and scales have been identified

• Other applications such as MBTI are based on this

Context in this study

• To investigate whether aspects of being involved in open education and the open environment brings an alteration in personality (or behaviour) is of interest here

• The question of whether being online causes us to alter our personality has been asked in research

• Eg. Specific areas such as shyness and anxiety have been suggested as having an effect (Scealy, Phillips & Stevenson)

• An understanding of this could add to how inclusion is considered

The five dimensions (adjectives)

EXTROVERSION:Active, Energetic,

Outgoing, Talkative

AGREEABLENESS:Appreciative,

Generous, Sympathetic, Trusting

CONSCIENTIOUSNESS:Efficient, Organised, Reliable, Thorough

NEUROTICISM:Anxious, Tense,

Unstable, Worrying

OPENNESS:Artistic, Curious,

Imaginative, Wide interests

Personality trait identification

• The use of a questionnaire which includes questions on each dimension is the usual method to give feedback on personality

• These can be accessed online• There are a number of sites which can be used

freely to give this information• This method is identified as self-reporting or

self-rating

Proposal and invitation

• Participants are invited to do an online personality test for the experience

• They might like to do it again considering each question with working in an ‘open’ situation in mind (and share the results?)

• Participants are invited to get involved in a workshop and contribute to the discussion (which could form an ethnographic piece*)

Citations

• McCrae, RR; John, OP; (1992). An Introduction to the Five-Factor Model and Its Applications.

• https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=2&cad=rja&ved=0CD8QFjAB&url=http%3A%2F%2Fpsych.colorado.edu%2F~carey%2FCourses%2FPSYC5112%2FReadings%2FpsnBig5_Mccrae03.pdf&ei=4hbHUovxDZTH7AaMqoDABw&usg=AFQjCNGf_-UV-3TS0jWXnyJ-TKEXVH5QAw&sig2=BAPiZbbKF6pF-Kg8iVOW5Q&bvm=bv.58187178,d.ZGU

• Scealy, M; Phillips, JG; Stevenson, R . (2002). Shyness and anxiety as predictors of patterns of Internet usage.

• CYBERPSYCHOLOGY & BEHAVIOR; Dec, 2002; 5; 6; p506 – p515.

• * See additional information on ethnographic approach