The Big Five personality test

Discuss, argue, whine, talk but not about Elma.

Moderator: Moporators

Post Reply
User avatar
8-ball
39mins club
Posts: 4496
Joined: 9 May 2003, 13:30
Team: MiE
Location: Riga, Latvia

The Big Five personality test

Post by 8-ball »

I personally did the version of the test on http://www.understandmyself.com ($8 with code "h3h3") because I love the work Dr. Jordan B. Peterson has been doing and wanted to give back in a way but you can also do (mostly) the same test on a number of other sites for free (though the results and their explanations might not be as detailed and the questions might be more vague and therefore the results not as accurate): https://www.google.com/search?q=big+five+test

If you do a test, make sure to tell which site you did it on.

My results (the traits are in bold and the two aspects of each of them are below):
Agreeableness: 43rd percentile
Compassion: 85th
Politeness: 7th
Conscientiousness: 31st
Industriousness: 6th
Orderliness: 76th
Extraversion: 94th
Enthusiasm: 86th
Assertiveness: 94th
Neuroticism: 50th
Withdrawal: 67th
Volatility: 34th
Openness to experience: 92nd
Intellect: 86th
Openness: 90th

The full descriptions of my results are quite long and I put them in pastebin, if anyone is interested: https://pastebin.com/DN3TJLM1

This puts some things into perspective - I struggle a lot because of very low industriousness while still having high ambitions and enthusiasm and also because of having low politeness and high assertiveness while trying to remain compassionate, empathetic and open to views of others.
39:37,91
User avatar
danitah
Kuski
Posts: 818
Joined: 24 May 2004, 16:22
Contact:

Re: The Big Five personality test

Post by danitah »

To be honest that looks way too much like a horoscope for me too see much value in those descriptions. Reminds me of this Derren Brown video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=haP7Ys9ocTk
User avatar
8-ball
39mins club
Posts: 4496
Joined: 9 May 2003, 13:30
Team: MiE
Location: Riga, Latvia

Re: The Big Five personality test

Post by 8-ball »

You can learn more about the scientific basis of the test here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4IdzC6mJzLA

It basically lets you see (pretty accurately, given a quality test such as Dr. Peterson's) where you stand on the spectrum of the five universally held aspects of difference among people.

If that doesn't help separate this concept from something like astrology, then I don't think anything could.
39:37,91
User avatar
danitah
Kuski
Posts: 818
Joined: 24 May 2004, 16:22
Contact:

Re: The Big Five personality test

Post by danitah »

I didn't really see much about the scientific basis in that video, he was mostly just describing the product and the different categories.

Maybe the model is good, I don't really know enough to say, though there's a Critique section in Wikipedia probably worth reading.

What I mean is I get the feeling that they take something very broad (your personality), generalize it to a few different groups, and then try to make specific assumptions, and the way those assumptions are written reminds me a lot of those astrology readings that make it look like it's written for you but in reality most people would feel the same way.
User avatar
8-ball
39mins club
Posts: 4496
Joined: 9 May 2003, 13:30
Team: MiE
Location: Riga, Latvia

Re: The Big Five personality test

Post by 8-ball »

That doesn't make much sense as someone who scores very low in an aspect will get assumptions that are opposite to those of someone who scores very high in the same aspect, so how can they all apply to "most people"?

This is probably the most useful psychometric tool I've seen thus far as if you complete the test honestly you can clearly identify problematic aspects of your personality and that's the first step to making a change or at the very least you get to learn more about yourself and where you statistically stand in comparison to others.
39:37,91
User avatar
Tigro
Kuski
Posts: 2198
Joined: 6 Jan 2009, 13:08
Location: Srdcom vychodniar
Contact:

Re: The Big Five personality test

Post by Tigro »

MBTI is enough for me and is fairly accurate. And free.
Image
User avatar
8-ball
39mins club
Posts: 4496
Joined: 9 May 2003, 13:30
Team: MiE
Location: Riga, Latvia

Re: The Big Five personality test

Post by 8-ball »

Both can be useful but MBTI says practically nothing about the emotional stability (neuroticism) element and seems to be less elaborative in general, I don't think 16 different labels is nearly enough to cover every type of person and is not a realistic aim to begin with. Doing the test 4 times over the past couple of years I got 4 different results so I didn't really get anything substantial out of it and the comparisons to astrology are far more applicable here than with the Big Five model.

There's a plethora of free tests for Big Five around but you'll find them of a predictably poorer quality and lacking the two aspects of each trait that the test I used goes into (which come from recent research by Dr. Peterson himself). You get what you give, I guess.
39:37,91
User avatar
Tigro
Kuski
Posts: 2198
Joined: 6 Jan 2009, 13:08
Location: Srdcom vychodniar
Contact:

Re: The Big Five personality test

Post by Tigro »

Well, I have done MBTI combined with DiSC, and together it gave me pretty fine measurement in several different fields.
Image
Post Reply