Name	Description
Conscientiousness	impulsive, disorganized (low) vs. disciplined, careful (high)
Agreeableness	suspicious, uncooperative (low) vs. trusting, helpful (high)
Neuroticism	calm, confident (low) vs. anxious, pessimistic (high)
Openness to Experience	prefers routine, practical (low) vs. imaginative, spontaneous (high)
Extraversion	reserved, thoughtful (low) vs. sociable, fun-loving (high)

2 Results

2.1 Overall results

In order to compare overall results between all examined people, the results of five scale were plotted and ordered decreasingly.

Then all observations were groupped in clusters using UPGMA algorithm. The results are provided below

2.2 Neuroticism subscale

Neuroticism is the trait disposition to experience negative affects, including anger, anxiety, self‐consciousness, irritability, emotional instability, and depression. Persons with elevated levels of neuroticism respond poorly to environmental stress, interpret ordinary situations as threatening, and can experience minor frustrations as hopelessly overwhelming. Neuroticism is one of the more well established and empirically validated personality trait domains, with a substantial body of research to support its heritability, childhood antecedents, temporal stability across the life span, and universal presence.

Neuroticism has enormous public health implications. It provides a dispositional vulnerability for a wide array of different forms of psychopathology, including anxiety, mood, substance, somatic symptom, and eating disorders. Many instances of maladaptive substance use are efforts to quell or quash the dismay, anxiousness, dysphoria, and emotional instability of neuroticism. Clinically significant episodes of anxiety and depressed mood states will often represent an interaction of the trait or temperament of neuroticism with a life stressor.

Neuroticism is comparably associated with a wide array of physical maladies, such as cardiac problems, disrupted immune functioning, asthma, atopic eczema, irritable bowel syndrome, and even increased risk for mortality. The relationship of neuroticism to physical problems is both direct and indirect, in that neuroticism provides a vulnerability for the development of these conditions, as well as a disposition to exaggerate their importance and a failure to respond effectively to their treatment.

Neuroticism is also associated with a diminished quality of life, including feelings of ill‐will, excessive worry, occupational failure, and marital dissatisfaction5. High levels of neuroticism will contribute to poor work performance due to emotional preoccupation, exhaustion, and distraction. Similar to the duel‐edged effect of neuroticism on physical conditions, high levels of neuroticism will result in actual impairment to marital relationships but also subjective feelings of marital dissatisfaction even when there is no objective basis for such feelings, which can though in turn lead to actual spousal frustration and withdrawal.

Given the contribution of neuroticism to so many negative life outcomes, it has been recommended that the general population be screened for clinically significant levels of neuroticism during routine medical visits. Screening in the absence of available treatment would be problematic. However, neuroticism is responsive to pharmacologic intervention. Pharmacotherapy can and does effectively lower levels of the personality trait of neuroticism. Barlow et al have also developed an empirically‐validated cognitive‐behavioral treatment of neuroticism, called the Unified Protocol (UP). They have suggested that current psychological treatments have become overly specialized, focusing on disorder‐specific symptoms. The UP was designed to be transdiagnostic. Recognizing the impact of neuroticism across a diverse array of physical and mental health care concerns, the authors of the UP again note that “the public‐health implications of directly treating and even preventing the development of neuroticism would be substantial”.

From: Widiger TA, Oltmanns JR. Neuroticism is a fundamental domain of personality with enormous public health implications. World Psychiatry. 2017 Jun;16(2):144-145. doi: 10.1002/wps.20411. PMID: 28498583; PMCID: PMC5428182.

For interested: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/neuroticism

2.2.1 Anxiety

Anxiety is both a mental and physical state of negative expectation. Mentally it is characterized by increased arousal and apprehension tortured into distressing worry, and physically by unpleasant activation of multiple body systems—all to facilitate response to an unknown danger, whether real or imagined.

The cognitive feelings of dread in anticipation of some bad outcome, and physical sensations such as jitteriness and a racing heart are designed for discomfort. Anxiety is meant to capture attention and stimulate you to make necessary changes to protect what you care about. Occasional bouts of anxiety are natural and can even be productive. Anxiety can be considered the price we humans pay for having the ability to imagine the future.

Anybody can experience a bout of debilitating anxiety. But some people seem to be inclined to anxiety: Because of genes or temperament, possibly as a result of early experience, possibly through over- or underactivity of some area of the brain, they interpret neutral situations as threatening or overreact to threatening situations.

Stress is a major contributor to anxiety, and the two conditions overlap in many ways. Stress can both set off anxiety and be a response to it.

From: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/anxiety

2.2.2 Self-consciousness

Do you find yourself thinking about how others see you? Do you often worry about offending or upsetting others? Do you get stressed out about having to perform in front of others? Then you might be self-conscious.

According to those who study self-consciousness, it’s human nature to focus on ourselves sometimes and to focus on others at other times. We might reflect on our thoughts, emotions, and behaviors or the thoughts, emotions, and behaviors of others. The extent to which we focus or self-reflect on ourselves is thought to indicate our level of self-consciousness. Given this broad definition of self-consciousness, researchers suggest that there are two types of self-consciousness:

Private self-consciousness: Habitual attendance to our thoughts, motives, and feelings.
Public self-consciousness: The awareness of oneself as a social object. Such a person might have concerns about how they appear to others

When we feel self-conscious, we might also experience emotions including:

Shame
Guilt
Pride
Embarrassment
Jealousy
Empathy

From: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/click-here-happiness/202205/how-overcome-self-consciousness

2.2.3 Vulnerability

A decade ago, no one spoke much about emotional vulnerability. Being vulnerable emotionally was generally compared to being weak, or at least easily hurt or frightened. Maybe it was never discussed much, because it is a natural, daily, unavoidable part of our existence as human beings, and frankly it feels bad. If you’ve ever felt the unease of being the first to say ”I love you” or of asking for a raise at work, you know the feeling. You may be more familiar with the uncertainty of waiting for a phone call with test results from a doctor or reaching out to a friend who just lost a loved one. It is uncomfortable, unsettling, and anxiety-provoking. It’s about as welcome a subject as death or getting taxes filed. So why talk about it? Because allowing ourselves to be emotionally vulnerable is also a tremendous source of strength and the only way we can truly connect in our most personal relationships. Let’s begin with a definition.

Emotional vulnerability is most often felt as anxiety about being rejected, shamed, or judged as inadequate. It has been defined by Brene Brown as “uncertainty, risk, and emotional exposure” (2012).

Think about that for a moment. Uncertainty is a given in every day of our lives. It is deeply tied to anxiety. In fact, very often those who suffer from chronic anxiety have particular difficulty accepting the uncertainty in their daily lives. Risk: For example, the risk of feeling rejected if the object of your love does not love you back. Or, that your boss will not only deny the raise but will also tell you why you are not worthy of it. Emotional exposure: You’ve decided to partner with someone, and you begin to feel the fear that this person will get to know you better than you know yourself.

These situations are more frightening to some of us than to others, depending upon our personal histories, our cultural backgrounds, and our basic personality traits. The feeling of shame is a particular risk for many individuals, especially if they were raised in a shame-based culture. However, nearly everyone struggles with emotional vulnerability to some degree every day. (The exceptions are those with no desire to feel connected, such as extreme narcissists and sociopaths.)

From: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/in-it-together/201902/emotional-vulnerability-the-path-connection

2.2.4 Depression

“The grey drizzle of horror,” author William Styron memorably called depression. The mood disorder may descend seemingly out of the blue, or it may come on the heels of a defeat or personal loss, producing persistent feelings of sadness, worthlessness, hopelessness, helplessness, pessimism, or guilt. Depression also interferes with concentration, motivation, and other aspects of everyday functioning.

According to the World Health Organization, depression is the leading cause of disability worldwide. Globally, more than 300 million people of all ages suffer from the disorder. And the incidence of the disorder is increasing everywhere. Americans are highly concerned with happiness, yet they are increasingly depressed: Some 15 million Americans battle the disorder, and increasing numbers of them are young people.

Depression comes in forms ranging from major depression to dysthymia and seasonal affective disorder. Depressive episodes are also a feature of bipolar disorder.

Depression is a complex condition, involving many systems of the body, including the immune system, either as cause or effect. It disrupts sleep and it interferes with appetite; in some cases, it causes weight loss; in others, it contributes to weight gain. Depression is also often accompanied by anxiety. Research indicates that not only do the two conditions co-occur but that they overlap in vulnerability patterns.

Because of its complexity, a full understanding of depression has been elusive. There is mounting evidence that depression may actually be a necessary defense strategy of the body, a kind of shutdown or immobilization in response to danger or defeat, that is actually meant to preserve your energy and help you survive.

Researchers have some evidence that depression susceptibility is related to diet, both directly—through inadequate consumption of nutrients such as omega-3 fats—and indirectly, through the variety of bacteria that populate the gut. But depression involves mood and thoughts as well as the body, and it causes pain for both those living with the disorder and those who care about them. Depression is also increasingly common in children.

Even in the most severe cases, depression is highly treatable. The condition is often cyclical, and early treatment may prevent or forestall recurrent episodes. Many studies show that the most effective treatment is cognitive behavioral therapy, which addresses problematic thought patterns, with or without the use of antidepressant drugs. In addition, evidence is quickly accumulating that regular mindfulness meditation, on its own or combined with cognitive therapy, can stop depression before it starts by diminishing reactivity to distressing experiences, effectively enabling disengagement of attention from the repetitive negative thoughts that often set the downward spiral of mood in motion.

From: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/depression

2.2.5 Immoderation

An individual that is highly immoderate feels strong cravings/urges that are hard for them to resist. In addition, they tend to be concerned with short-term pleasure and reward rather than long-term consequences. In contrast, low scorers do not experience strong cravings and are not tempted to overindulge.

From: https://www.txopps.com/single-post/2018/11/30/neuroticism-a-call-to-change-our-multidimensional-perfectionist-mindset

2.2.6 Anger

Anger is one of the basic human emotions, as elemental as happiness, sadness, anxiety, or disgust. These emotions are tied to basic survival and were honed over the course of human history.

Anger is related to the “fight, flight, or freeze” response of the sympathetic nervous system; it prepares humans to fight. But fighting doesn’t necessarily mean throwing punches. It might motivate communities to combat injustice by changing laws or enforcing new norms.

Of course, anger too easily or frequently mobilized can undermine relationships or damage physical health in the long term. Prolonged release of the stress hormones that accompany anger can destroy neurons in areas of the brain associated with judgment and short-term memory, and weaken the immune system.

For those who struggle with chronic anger, or for those who only experience occasional outbursts, learning skills to identify and navigate this powerful emotion can lead to growth and change.

Research suggests that the tendency to become angry is associated with high neuroticism and low agreeableness. Outside of the Big Five personality traits, a few habits and attitudes may be linked to anger. These include:

Entitlement (believing that one’s rights and privileges are superior to those of other people)
Focusing on things out of personal control (such as a partner’s behavior)
External regulation of emotions (trying to regulate emotions by controlling one’s environment)
External locus of control (believing well-being is controlled by sources outside of oneself)
Refusal to see other perspectives (viewing different perspectives as threats)
Low tolerance for discomfort
Low tolerance for ambiguity
Hyperfocus on blame
A fragile ego

From: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/anger

2.3 Extraversion subscale

Extraversion has been recognized as a major personality variable in contemporary psychological writings. It may be viewed as a personality dimension that describes a number of more specific personality traits, ranging from sociability and liveliness to dominance and adventure seeking. Extraversion is thought to have a biological basis associated with both cortical arousal and the dopaminergic system. The lower level of cortical arousal and the lower dopaminergic responsiveness found in extraverts is used to explain their greater need for activity, excitement, and general stimulation. Extraversion has been linked with a wide range of human behaviors, from academic achievement and occupational performance to antisocial behaviors and risk taking.

From: D.H. Saklofske, … W. Revelle, in Encyclopedia of Human Behavior (Second Edition), 2012

Extraversion includes traits such as talkative, energetic, assertive, and outgoing. Social interaction is the key here. Extraverts often take on positions of leadership; first to offer their opinion and suggestions. They are often quick to approach others, especially on the dating scene. They often report greater levels of happiness. Many people consider extraversion a very positive trait but it can be problematic as they are often easily distracted from a task by their social interactions which can be hazardous under some circumstances (such as driving down the LA freeways!).

Birth order effects on extraversion have often been confusing because some of the specific components, like assertiveness and dominance, are ones that firstborns score highest on. On the other hand, components such as sociability are ones on which laterborns score higher than firstborns. As a result, many studies do not show clear birth order effects on extraversion unless they break it down into those aspects associated with dominance and those associated with sociability. It should not be surprising that firstborns score high in dominance-related aspects of extraversion considering their often pseudo parental (and sometimes physical) authority in the family and the expectations parents typically have for them and their future success. Laterborns follow a different strategy, one of being outgoing, willing to try new things, meet new people; they are extraverted in a highly sociable way, finding pleasure and excitement in the company of others.

From: C. Salmon, in Encyclopedia of Human Behavior (Second Edition), 2012

Extraversion is a measure of how energetic, sociable and friendly a person is. Extraverts are commonly understood as being a ‘people’s person’ drawing energy from being around others directing their energies towards people and the outside world. Often seen as the ones talking the most in a social situation, extraverts are traditionally characterized by sociability, talkativeness, assertiveness, and excitability.

It is however unfair to think that extroverted people are attention seekers. On the contrary, they are gaining energy from their social interactions and extroverts need social stimulation to feel energised.

We will all encounter an extraverted person in our lives, whether professional or personal. Importantly this personality type thrives on excitement and are generally very enthusiastic about social interactions. Impulsive in nature, extroverts prefer to do an activity rather than ponder or think about doing something.

Important to note is how an extraverted individual will or can impact behaviour in a workplace. We will take a closer look at this shortly however, the main points to note include:

Extroverts enjoy being around people and larger social groups. A workplace environment that is suited towards cooperation, teamwork and even allowing space for this personality to thrive is essential.
Extroverts also enjoy talking a lot; this is where they gain ‘energy’ to go about their day and complete their tasks. This could be more problematic in a workplace that deals with more data led and analytical environments where distractions can be problematic to completing tasks.

From: https://www.thomas.co/resources/type/hr-blog/extraversion-personality-trait

2.3.1 Friendliness

Friendliness is a down-to-earth approach to others that is welcoming and positive.

Think about a time when someone was friendly to you - maybe drawing you into a gathering, saying hello on the sidewalk, or smiling from across the room. How did that make you feel? Probably more included, comfortable, and at ease; safer; more open and warm-hearted.

When you are friendly to others, you offer them these same benefits. Plus you get rewarded yourself. Being friendly feels confident and happy, with a positive take on other people, moving toward the world instead of backing away from it. And it encourages others to be less guarded or reactive with you, since you’re answering the ancient question from millions of years of evolution - friend or foe? - with an open hand and heart.

In its own quiet way, ordinary friendliness takes a stand that is almost subversive these days: that the world has many more opportunities than threats, that most people want the best for others, that simple informal human connections tie this battered old planet together much more than jumbo corporations or mass media flickering on the walls of our upholstered caves.

You can be friendly with intimates and strangers, co-workers and in-laws, babies and bosses - even those you know only in the abstract, like people on the other side of the world. Of course, it is not always appropriate to be friendly with someone, such as to an adversary, or to someone who would misunderstand you. But opportunities for greater friendliness are probably all around you this week.

From: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/your-wise-brain/201211/be-friendly

2.3.2 Gregariousness

The tendency for human beings to enjoy the company of others and to want to associate with them in social activities. Gregariousness gives people security, companionship, acceptance, and a sense of belonging. In nonhuman animals, gregariousness is seen in the tendency to congregate in herds or flocks

From: https://dictionary.apa.org/gregariousness

The tendency for people to associate with others in groups, organisations and activities so they can enjoy social life for its own sake. Develops slowly as we age from children. Gregariousness is a drive to be social.

From: https://psychologydictionary.org/gregariousness/

2.3.3 Assertiveness

Assertive behavior reflects an individual’s ability to stand up for their best interests without being excessively anxious. When effective, they are “exercising their own rights without denying the rights of others” (Speed, Goldstein, & Goldfried, 2017). As humans, we are challenged daily to deal with a wide variety of situations in our lives, often having to choose between a mixture of approaches to handle each one.

Do we engage, compete, or show aggression? Each behavior has a time and a place, appropriate depending on context and the importance of the outcome. How we respond and judge our own and others’ behavior exists along a dimension known as interpersonal assertiveness. Too little or too much decides whether we let others’ needs take precedence or whether we push for our own desired outcomes (Ames et al., 2017).

The source and degree of assertive behavior come from aspects of our mental state, including our “motivations, expectancies, and failures of self-regulation” (Ames et al., 2017). When assertiveness goes wrong, it can lead to negative consequences. Pushing too hard or too ineffectually results in resistance and a failure to meet needs.

Ames et al. (2017) consider assertive communication an aspect of our behavior, most relevant when our goals are instrumental (i.e., get us nearer to our final goals) and fail to align with those of others. When we avoid others’ needs or our own, we are displaying low assertiveness. And when we compete or show aggression, we are exhibiting a high degree of assertiveness. Being overly assertive can be appropriate, for example, for a police officer who is moving people away from a dangerous incident but is ill advised when parenting a child who is lacking the confidence to complete their homework. Balance and timing in assertiveness are everything.

From: https://positivepsychology.com/assertiveness-psychology/#assertiveness

2.3.4 Activity level

The level of activity is related to the complexity of the skills that demands and has an impact on an individual’s occupational performances. This term is related to several characteristics that might influence the type and amount of effort required from the individual to perform a specific activity, task, or occupation. The term “activity level” is of great importance when designing occupational therapy interventions.

When describing a person’s activity level of daily living, it is possible to use the terms occupation and activity synonymously. However, these terms are not fully interchangeable as they describe two different aspects of the same function (Christiansen & Townsend, 2004; Hinojosa & Kramer, 1997). Occupation is the “active process of living: from the beginning to the end of life, … occupations are all the active processes of looking after ourselves and others, enjoying life, and being socially and economically productive.

From: Buchain P.C., Vizzotto A.D.B., Martini de Oliveira A., Ferraz Alves T.C.T., Cordeiro Q. (2013) Activity Level. In: Gellman M.D., Turner J.R. (eds) Encyclopedia of Behavioral Medicine. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-1005-9_868

2.3.5 Excitement seeking

Sensation-seeking, also called thrill-seeking or excitement-seeking, is the tendency to pursue new and different sensations, feelings, and experiences. The trait describes people who chase novel, complex, and intense sensations, who love experience for its own sake, and who may take risks to pursue those experiences.

Sensation-seeking encompasses the drive for new, exotic, and intense experiences. As pioneering psychologist Marvin Zuckerman summarized it, “sensation seeking is a personality trait defined by the search for experiences and feelings that are varied, novel, complex, and intense, and by the readiness to take physical, social, legal, and financial risks for the sake of such experiences.”

Thrill-seekers aren’t motivated by danger. They’re driven to conquer new challenges and soak up every experience life has to offer—and they simply don’t let danger dissuade them. Therefore, they may not fear the risks that accompany activities like mountaineering, cliff diving, gambling, or experimenting with drugs.

Despite the hazards of certain behaviors, risk-taking has value and serves an important evolutionary purpose. Without the courage to advance into unknown, potentially dangerous territory, human beings may not have found new mates, populated the globe, or flourished as a species.

Sensation-seekers embody valuable attitudes and traits. The unique experiences they chase can cultivate joy, fulfillment, and coveted memories. New adventures provide an opportunity to grow and expand one’s sense of self.

Thrill-seekers can be proactive and helpful in their communities. Many people plan and overanalyze how to respond to a situation, and the Bystander Effect demonstrates the tendency to shy away from unsettling circumstances. But thrill-seekers charge headlong into the fray and trust themselves to respond accordingly.

Navigating rocky terrain also instills confidence in one’s ability to conquer future obstacles. Placing oneself in an unfamiliar or even perilous situation—learning to scuba dive or pilot a plane—pushes a person out of their comfort zone, forces them to pay complete attention to a task, and instills confidence in their mind, body, and instincts.

“High sensation-seekers see potential stressors as challenges to be overcome rather than threats that might crush them,” says Emory psychologist and sensation-seeking expert Kenneth Carter. “This mindset is a buffer against the stress of life.”

From: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/sensation-seeking

2.3.6 Cheerfulness

Most people think of cheerfulness as a feeling or temperament. Which means that cheerful people are those who got lucky genetically and are blessed with an “easy demeanor” or “upbeat personality.” And while that’s an intuitive way of looking at cheerfulness, I think it’s actually dangerous.

But before I explain why, let’s back up a second and define our terms. Merriam and Webster define cheerfulness as a “lightness of mind and feeling.” I think this is a good definition for a couple reasons:

Lightness is a pretty accurate summary term for all those adjectives we used earlier to describe a cheerful-looking or feeling person: easy-going, upbeat, optimistic, etc. In general, people who appear cheerful are aptly described as having a lightness about them.
The idea that cheerfulness involves both “mind” and “feeling” is important because it suggests that cheerfulness isn’t just a feeling. It also involves the mind or thinking.

This mental aspect to cheerfulness is at the heart of why I think it’s unhelpful and potentially dangerous to think of cheerfulness primarily as a feeling or trait—as something that some of us are lucky enough to be born with that allows us to act and be a certain way (upbeat, optimistic, etc.)

Instead of viewing cheerfulness as a trait or feeling, what if we thought of it as a behavior or set of actions? What if we thought of cheerfulness as a habit of thinking and behaving in a way that is upbeat, optimistic, and easy-going, regardless of how we may feel at a given moment?

From: https://nickwignall.com/cheerfulness-virtue-personality-trait/

2.4 Openess to experience subscale

Brief:

People who are “open to experience” tend to be intellectually curious, creative and imaginative. Personality researchers have shown that such people literally see the world differently.
Less open people experience latent inhibition, a brain function that filters out extraneous visual and cognitive input. But highly open people are less subject to such cognitive inhibition.
Because their perception allows more information to flow into their visual system, more open people tend to see things that others block out. Researchers also found that open people can feel very complex emotional states because seemingly incompatible feelings break through into their consciousness simultaneously.

What does it mean to be “open-minded?” Are some people genuinely more inclusive in their thinking, more expansive in how they process information? Experiments in personality psychology show that open-minded people do indeed process information in different ways and may literally see the world differently from the average person. The personality trait that best reflects the lay concept of open-mindedness is called “openness to experience,” or simply “openness.” Open people tend to be intellectually curious, creative and imaginative. They are interested in art and are voracious consumers of music, books and other fruits of culture. They also tend to be politically liberal. According to personality theorists, openness reflects a greater “breadth, depth, and permeability of consciousness” and propensity to “cognitively explore” both abstract information (ideas and arguments) and sensory information (sights and sounds). In other words, open people engage with the various percepts, patterns and perspectives that clamor for space in our mind—information is like catnip for their brain.

These abstract notions may well seem like academic hand waving, but they are anchored in concrete data from many research studies. For example, consider the superior performance by open people on tests of creativity called divergent thinking tasks. These require individuals to generate multiple, diverse solutions to a simple problem, such as: “How many uses can you think of for a brick?” Less open people typically generate fewer and more obvious answers to this question—building walls, building houses, building other stuff. But for highly open people, the possibilities flood in. A brick can be used as a weapon, a paperweight, a replacement leg for a broken sofa. Or it can be smashed up and mixed with water to make paint. Open people see more possibilities in even the most mundane of objects.

We see something similar in studies of latent inhibition, a process also known as learned irrelevance. Learning what to ignore is critical for effective psychological functioning—it would be simply overwhelming to process the full stream of information available to our senses as we make our way through the world. So we cull through this information for relevant details, screening out everything else. The problem is, the screened-out information might be useful later, but by then we are slow to realize its significance, to unlearn its irrelevance. This process can be modeled in the laboratory by preexposing participants to seemingly unimportant stimuli that later form the basis of a learning task. For the average person, this preexposure stifles subsequent learning—the critical stimulus has been rendered “irrelevant” and fails to penetrate awareness. Not so, however, for those high in openness, who are less susceptible to latent inhibition. This again demonstrates a more inclusive mode of thinking—a “leaky” cognitive system, if you will—that lets in information that others filter out.

These studies show that open people are less susceptible to the psychological “blind spots” that help us pare back the complexity of the world. And research shows that this characterization is more than a metaphor: open people literally see things differently in terms of basic visual perception.

Consider inattentional blindness—the screening out of visual information beyond our attentional focus. You have experienced this if you have ever been so preoccupied with one thing that you failed to see something else right in front of your eyes. (Smartphone-jabbing pedestrians dawdling along the bike path, this means you.) In a classic study often dubbed the “Invisible Gorilla” test, researchers showed participants a film clip of several people passing a basketball back and forth and asked them to count the number of passes between players in white and to ignore the players in black. During the film, someone in a gorilla costume wanders in among the players. In full view, this hairy interloper looks into the camera, beats its chest and drifts off again. Amazingly, most participants in this study reported that they did not see anything unusual or surprising during the clip. Highly open people, on the other hand, are less susceptible to inattentional blindness: they tend to see the things that others block out.

My colleagues and I at the University of Melbourne in Australia have explored these ideas further. In one recent study, we examined links between openness and a perpetual phenomenon called binocular rivalry. This occurs when one image is presented to our left eye while a different image is presented to the right eye. Because the brain cannot extract a coherent picture from these incompatible percepts, the two images seem to flip back and forth in our mind’s eye, each image rivaling the other for dominance. But sometimes both images do break through into conscious perception as a scrambled mash-up. In our study, we found that open people perceived this “mixed percept” for longer periods. It is as though the gates of perception are agape, allowing more visual information to flow into consciousness for open people.

We have also examined how these findings extend to a very different kind of experience called mixed emotions—the simultaneous experience of contrasting feeling states (bittersweetness, nervous excitement, and so on). Might open people also be susceptible to such experiences, to have seemingly incompatible feelings break through into conscious experience, analogous to the two percepts in binocular rivalry? Indeed, we found that such individuals do report experiencing mixed emotions more frequently in their lives. This may be another example of the “permeability of consciousness,” in this case giving rise to complex emotional experiences.

What is happening in the brains of open people to produce these distinctive experiences? Here our knowledge is far murkier and less certain, the neuroscience of personality being a fraught and fledgling field. Some evidence implicates dopamine, a neurochemical that—among many other functions—signals the incentive value of information. This process might explain why open people seem to have more sensitive radars for detecting and processing all kinds of concepts, percepts and qualia. Another clue is an association between openness and activity in the “default network,” a neural system that simulates various experiences such as mind wandering, mental time travel and imagining others’ point of view. More research is needed to determine whether these neural processes underpin the flexible and inclusive cognition that characterizes open people.

As personality psychologists delve deeper into openness to experience, we push back the boundaries of knowledge of this fascinating trait. Is it an advantage to be higher on openness, or are there downsides? Can we change our level of openness and, if so, how? Is openness a uniquely human trait? How did it evolve? As the answers to these questions unfold, we better understand what it means to be open-minded and how it shapes our experience of the world.

From: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/openness-to-experience-the-gates-of-the-mind/

2.4.1 Imagination

Albert Einstein famously said, “Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.” Through imagination, people can explore ideas of things that are not physically present, ranging from the familiar (e.g., a thick slice of chocolate cake) to the never-before-experienced (e.g., an alien spacecraft appearing in the sky).

Unlike perception, imagination is not dependent on external sensory information taken from what a person can see, hear, feel, taste, or touch in the moment. Rather, it’s generated from within and often unconsciously influenced by memories and feelings. Humans use imagination for a variety of reasons: to acquire experience and knowledge about the world, to better understand another person’s perspective, to solve problems, to create and interact with artistic works, and more. Imagination tends to go hand-in-hand with creativity and plays a pivotal role in the different stages of development.

Daydreaming (or mind-wandering) is an information-processing state that combines knowledge and imagination, the dynamic duo. Being more imaginative allows a person to make creative connections and inferences using their past experience and knowledge base. As a result, research indicates that more robust daydreaming is associated with superior intelligence.

For the most part, having an imagination is hugely beneficial to your life, lending you greater perspective and helping you achieve lofty goals. However, imagination can be harmful in those rare instances where imagination is mistaken for perception. This can occur whenever someone struggles with mentalization or the ability to differentiate between what’s real and what’s made up in their mind. A lack of mentalization can lead a person to react to an imagined fear (e.g., that the plane they’re in is going to crash) as if it’s real, frequently leading to great stress, anxiety, fear, and trauma.

From: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/imagination

2.4.2 Artistic interests

A second approach to the study of personality and art has focused on artistic interests or the extent to which individuals engage in artistic activities, such as visiting museums, watching art programmes, buying and reading art books, etc. Studies have long pointed out that individuals who invest in one domain of art (e.g. fine or visual arts) are also more likely to invest time and money in others (e.g. music, performing arts, theatre, etc.) (McManus & Furnham, in press). But which personality traits may account for this relationship? As with art preferences, personality differences underlying individuals’ art interests seem to be captured mostly by the Openness to Experience dimension. Thus open individuals are more likely to both enjoy art works and engage in art-related behaviours. However studies have yet to examine which specific aspects of Openness are relevant with regard to aesthetic interests. Conceptually, one may expect the fantasy (dreamy, imaginative etc), aesthetics (original, versatile etc), and feelings (spontaneous, affectionate etc) facets of this trait to be more influential in determining artistic interests than the facets of action, ideas and values would be. McManus and Furnham (in press) have recently investigated the main (direct) and interactive (indirect) effects of demographic variables (e.g. gender, age, and socio-economic status), previous educational background, and personality traits in regard to broad aesthetic activities. Overall, results showed that previous education – training in the arts rather than sciences – is a significant predictor of aesthetic activities, and that highly open individuals, such as those with low Agreeableness or low Conscientiousness scores, tended to be more engaged in aesthetic activities. Whereas social class had a predictable impact, there were no significant gender (masculinity-femininity) or sex (male-female) correlates of aesthetic activities. Furthermore, aesthetic interests were found to be more strongly related to personality traits (notably Openness) than to social class, age, and gender.

From: https://thepsychologist.bps.org.uk/volume-20/edition-2/personality-and-art

2.4.3 Emotionality

The degree to which an individual experiences and expresses emotions, irrespective of the quality of the emotional experience.

From: https://dictionary.apa.org/emotionality

Emotionality is the observable behavioral and physiological component of emotion. It is a measure of a person’s emotional reactivity to a stimulus. Most of these responses can be observed by other people, while some emotional responses can only be observed by the person experiencing them. Observable responses to emotion (i.e., smiling) do not have a single meaning. A smile can be used to express happiness or anxiety, while a frown can communicate sadness or anger. Emotionality is often used by experimental psychology researchers to operationalize emotion in research studies.

From: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emotionality

2.4.4 Adventurousness

Adventurousness is viewed as a personality trait, as a stable propensity to adventurous behavior, which is characterized by the internal, mental activity of a person (attitudes, expectations, emotional experiences, thoughts, thought-forms, etc.). This mental activity (energy) induces the person to the corresponding external, physical activity, which manifests itself in adventurous actions, behavior, deeds.

From: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33814402/

Dr. John M. Oldham has defined the Adventurous personality style. The following eight characteristic traits and behaviors are listed in his The New Personality Self-Portrait.

Nonconformity: Men and women who have the Adventurous personality style live by their own internal code of values. They are not strongly influenced by other people or by the norms of society.
Challenge: To live is to dare. Adventurers love the thrill of risk and routinely engage in high-risk activities.
Mutual independence: They do not worry too much about others, for they expect each human being to be responsible for him- or herself.
Persuasiveness: They are silver-tongued, gifted in the gentle art of winning friends and influencing people.
Wanderlust: They love to keep moving. They settle down only to have the urge to pick up and go, explore, move out, move on. They do not worry about finding work, and live well by their talents, skills, ingenuity, and wits.
Wild oats: In their childhood and adolescence, people with the Adventurous personality style were usually high-spirited hell-raisers and mischief makers.
True grit: They are courageous, physically bold, and tough. They will stand up to anyone who dares to take advantage of them.
No regrets: Adventurers live in the present. They do not feel guilty about the past or anxious about the future. Life is meant to be experienced now.

From: https://www.ptypes.com/adventurous.html

2.4.5 Intellect

The intellectual functions of the mind considered collectively.
An individual’s capacity for abstract, objective reasoning, especially as contrasted with his or her capacity for feeling, imagining, or acting

From: https://dictionary.apa.org/intellect

[…] Intellect was seen to denote cognition—the rational mental processes that constitute ‘knowing’: the ability to identify and analyze, memorize, and categorize… the physical characteristics and implications of whatever thing or event is perceived by the senses, thus bringing one to comprehend the objective facts of the external situation. Intelligence, however, was regarded as a mental faculty in its own right—a function of consciousness taking one beyond the facts as such, to suggest meaning or purpose, and determine the course of action to be taken.

It is a level of consciousness that is triggered by the arousal of Feeling: the psychological phenomenon that accompanies every act of cognition—the ‘felt-thoughts’ that bring to mind one’s latent emotions and sensibilities that accompany not only every sensory experience of the external world… but also attend those moments when internally generated abstract ideas and thoughts take over consciousness. It is the way we feel, and the strength of feeling, that determines how we evaluate the facts of life and how we are driven to respond to them. ‘Feeling-attitudes’ motivate the actions we take: they may stir little or no interest or engage a questing curiosity; give rise to enthusiasms and passions demanding creative (intelligent) responses; or provoke apprehension, fear and a negative retreat.

Intellect (Fact) and Intelligence (Feeling) determine the existential course of one’s journey through life.

From: https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/the-consciousness-question/201205/intellect-and-intelligence

In the study of the human mind, intellect refers to, describes, and identifies the ability of the human mind to reach correct conclusions about what is true and what is false in reality; and how to solve problems. Derived from the Ancient Greek philosophy term nous, intellect derived from the Latin intelligere (“to understand”), from which derives the term intelligence in the French and English languages. The discussion of intellect is in two areas of knowledge that concern the relation between intelligence and intellect.

From: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intellect

2.4.6 Liberalism

Liberalism (from the Latin liberalis, “of freedom; worthy of a free man, gentlemanlike, courteous, generous”) is the belief in the importance of individual freedom. This belief is widely accepted today throughout the world, and was recognized as an important value by many philosophers throughout history.

At the personal level liberalism is associated with a a willingness to be tolerant of difference and to take the view that society should not impose any specific code of behaviour, and to defending the rights of non-conformists to express their own identity however they see fit. It is to some degree the opposite of the authoritarian personality.

From: https://psychology.fandom.com/wiki/Liberalism

An attitude characterized by acceptance of alternative, even noncompliant, forms of thinking or acting and sometimes (but not necessarily or wholly) by advocacy of change to the status quo and tradition.
Historically, a broad political philosophy emphasizing individual freedom, constitutional government, and social progress through open debate and the pragmatic reform of existing institutions and laws.

From: https://dictionary.apa.org/liberalism

2.5 Agreeableness subscale

Agreeableness is a personality trait that can be described as cooperative, polite, kind, and friendly. People high in agreeableness are more trusting, affectionate, altruistic, and generally displaying more prosocial behaviors than others. People high in this prosocial trait are particularly empathetic, showing great concern for the welfare of others, they are the first to help those in need. Agreeableness is one of five dimensions of personality described as the Big Five.

When a person is high in this personality trait, they are less me-centric and more we-centric. They look for the common good in others, are quick to hear out opinions of the people around them, and look for harmony instead of discord.

The agreeable don’t insult others, nor do they question a person’s motives or intentions. They also don’t think that they are better than others. Everyone is their equal, and they are quick to empathize and respect others.

The less amenable and more combative person, however, is more inclined to be manipulative, callous, aggressive, and competitive. They don’t care much about other people, make disparaging or offending comments, have little patience, and are easily irked and annoyed.

From: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/agreeableness

Agreeableness is a personality trait that describes a person’s ability to put others needs before their own. Those who are more agreeable are more likely to be empathetic and find pleasure in helping others and working with people who need more help.

Commonly used to describe the level of friendliness, kindness and even politeness a person displays, agreeableness is one of the five traits that make up the big five personality model. Agreeable people are generally well-liked and prefer cooperation over conflict and scoring high in agreeable tendencies also means that you have an ability to maintain relationships.

Whilst being agreeable is widely considered to be a good thing, it can lead to its own unique issues. Being too agreeable can make taking criticism quite difficult, asserting yourself or making tough decisions can also be problematic in the course of your professional and personal life. One of the main concerns with overly agreeable people is that they struggle to progress in their professional careers because they are too concerned with others progressing, placing themselves in the background of what could be a positive step forwards.

Like with the other personality traits, agreeableness can impact individuals in the workplace as well as the workplace environment. Depending on the sector where you work you may require more agreeable personalities in order to deliver a product or service that meets the needs of the sector.

We will all encounter an agreeable person in our lives. Like with other personality traits, agreeableness works on a sliding scale from highly agreeable to low agreeableness. We will look at a few of the sub-traits of both high and low agreeableness.

High agreeableness

Polite - Being polite or exhibiting politeness is a common characteristic of agreeableness. This may be from the way you speak on the phone to someone to engaging in conversation with strangers.
Considerate - Showing empathy and consideration for others is again, a common characteristic. Understanding how someone else is feeling and considering how the actions of others or yourself can contribute to that person or group of people is common.
Trusting - Highly agreeable people are prone to assume that others mean well and have good intentions. They are less likely to judge others or make snap decisions about people choosing to show compassion and kindness in abundance.
Cooperative - Often seen as peacemakers over those that like confrontation and disruption. Highly agreeable people will often compromise their own needs for others.
Modest - This is also very common, where agreeable individuals are very down to earth and humble.

Low agreeableness

Abrasive - Showing a lack of patience with people or even snapping on basic requests is common with individuals who score low on agreeableness.
Argumentative - Preferring confrontation over cooperation, someone who scores low agreeableness will even be very aggressive towards others in order to get what they want.
Critical - Rather than taking the time to praise a person’s work or someone’s home, low agreeability is common with those who like to criticise and single out opportunities to do so as well.
Condescending - Taking little to no time to consider others, when in the company of other people, low agreeableness can come across as condescending in discussion or even directly as a response mechanism.
Selfish - Low agreeable individuals commonly have selfish tendencies. Supporting others is very low on their list of priorities.

From: https://www.thomas.co/resources/type/hr-blog/agreeableness-personality-trait

2.5.1 Trust

Trust—or the belief that someone or something can be relied on to do what they say they will—is a key element of social relationships and a foundation for cooperation. It is critical for romantic relationships, friendships, interactions between strangers, and social groups on a large scale, and a lack of trust in such scenarios can come with serious consequences. Indeed, society as a whole would likely fail to function in the absence of trust.

The sense that one can depend on another person lays the groundwork for social exchanges yielding benefits like affection, a sense of security, and achievements that would be impossible alone. When trust is absent—or someone betrays the trust that has been invested in them—the possibility of a successful future relationship diminishes.

Trust comes in as many varieties as there are links between people. In well-functioning relationships, individuals can trust that a parent or romantic partner will show them love, that business partners will hold up their end of a deal, and that someone in a position of power will wield it responsibly. To an extent, people also trust complete strangers—doctors, taxi drivers, first-time babysitters—to follow social rules and not to take advantage of them or their loved ones despite the opportunity.

Trust is a cornerstone of any social relationship, whether romantic, professional, or between friends. People who trust each other can work together more effectively at home, at work, or elsewhere. They are also more willing to share intimate information, which can reduce the risk of anxiety and depression and build a stronger sense of self

Anxiety can make it difficult to know who to trust. But while negative emotions, including anxiety, may result in excessive distrust, that’s not the only possible outcome. In one study, anxious participants actually found it more difficult to recognize untrustworthy people, and continued to collaborate with them even when their behavior did not warrant it.

Chronic distrust—colloquially known as “trust issues”—have several possible sources. For some, early relationships with caregivers taught them that their needs would not be met and that others would continuously let them down. Trauma can also damage trust; traumatized individuals often find it difficult to let their guard down, even with loved ones. Trust issues may also be a matter of personality; naturally less agreeable people tend to be more prone to distrusting others.

From: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/trust

2.5.2 Morality

Moral principles indicate what is a “good,” “virtuous,” “just,” “right,” or “ethical” way for humans to behave (Haidt, 2012; Haidt & Kesebir, 2010; Turiel, 2006). Moral guidelines (“do no harm”) can induce individuals to display behavior that has no obvious instrumental use or no direct value for them, for instance, when they show empathy, fairness, or altruism toward others. Moral rules—and sanctions for those who transgress them—are used by individuals living together in social communities, for instance, to make them refrain from selfish behavior and to prevent them from lying, cheating, or stealing from others (Ellemers, 2017; Ellemers & Van den Bos, 2012; Ellemers & Van der Toorn, 2015).

The role of morality in the maintenance of social order is recognized by scholars from different disciplines. Biologists and evolutionary scientists have documented examples of selfless and empathic behaviors observed in communities of animals living together, considering these as relevant origins of human morality (e.g., de Waal, 1996). The main focus of this work is on displays of fairness, empathy, or altruism in face-to-face groups, where individuals all know and depend on each other. In the analysis provided by Tomasello and Vaish (2013), this would be considered the “first tier” of morality, where individuals can observe and reciprocate the treatment they receive from others to elicit and reward cooperative and empathic behaviors that help to protect individual and group survival.

Philosophers, legal scholars, and political scientists have addressed more abstract moral principles that can be used to regulate and govern the interactions of individuals in larger and more complex societies (e.g., Haidt, 2012; Mill 1861/1962). Here, the nature of cooperative or empathic behavior is much more symbolic as it depends less on direct exchanges between specific individuals, but taps into more abstract and ambiguous concepts such as “the greater good.” Scholarly efforts in this area have considered how specific behaviors might (not) be in line with different moral principles and which guidelines and procedures might institutionalize social order according to such principles (e.g., Churchland, 2011; Morris, 1997). These approaches tap into what Tomasello and Vaish (2013) consider the “second tier” of morality, which emphasizes the social signaling functions of moral behavior and distinguishes human from animal morality (see also Ellemers, 2018). At this level, behavioral guidelines that have lost their immediate survival value in modern societies (such as specific dress codes or dietary restrictions) may nevertheless come to be seen as prescribing essential behavior that is morally “right.” Specific behaviors can acquire this symbolic moral value to the extent that they define how individuals typically mark their religious identity, communicate respect for authority, or secure group belonging for those adhering to them (Tomasello & Vaish, 2013). Moral judgments that function to maintain social order in this way rely on complex explanations and require verbal exchanges to communicate the moral overtones of behavioral guidelines. Language-driven interpretations and attributions are needed to capture symbolic meanings and inferred intentions that are not self-evident in behavioral displays or outwardly visible indicators of emotions (Ellemers, 2018; Kagan, 2018).

The interest of psychologists in moral behavior as a factor in maintaining social order has long been driven by developmental questions (how do children acquire the ability to do this, for example, Kohlberg, 1969) and clinical implications (what are origins of social deviance and delinquency, for example, Rest, 1986). Jonathan Haidt’s (2001) publication, on the role of quick intuition versus deliberate reflection in distinguishing between right and wrong, marked a turning point in the interest of psychologists in these issues. The consideration of specific psychological mechanisms involved in moral reasoning prompted many psychological researchers to engage with this area of inquiry. This development also facilitated the connection of psychological theory to neurobiological mechanisms and inspired attempts to empirically examine underlying processes at this level—for instance, by using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) measures to monitor the brain activity of individuals confronted with moral dilemmas (Greene, 2013; Greene, Sommerville, Nystrom, Darley, & Cohen, 2001).

From: Ellemers N, van der Toorn J, Paunov Y, van Leeuwen T. The Psychology of Morality: A Review and Analysis of Empirical Studies Published From 1940 Through 2017. Personality and Social Psychology Review. 2019;23(4):332-366. doi:10.1177/1088868318811759

For interested: https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-morality-5076160

2.5.3 Altruism

Altruism is acting to help someone else at some cost to oneself. It can include a vast range of behaviors, from sacrificing one’s life to save others, to giving money to charity or volunteering at a soup kitchen, to simply waiting a few seconds to hold the door open for a stranger. Often, people behave altruistically when they see others in challenging circumstances and feel empathy and a desire to help.

Altruistic urges and behaviors are an important part of the glue that binds families and social groups together, helping them to cooperate and thrive. Individuals who go out of their way to aid others often receive something in return—whether it’s an intangible reward, such as admiration and respect, or material support at a later time. Altruistic impulses and the reciprocation of kind deeds help ensure all members of a tight-knit group have backup when they need it. It seems to be for most people. Cooperative behavior allowed our ancestors to survive under harsh conditions, and it still serves a purpose in a highly complex society.

From: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/altruism

Altruism is the unselfish concern for other people—doing things simply out of a desire to help, not because you feel obligated to out of duty, loyalty, or religious reasons. It involves acting out of concern for the well-being of other people.

In some cases, these acts of altruism lead people to jeopardize themselves to help others. Such behaviors are often performed unselfishly and without any expectations of reward. Other instances, known as reciprocal altruism, involve taking actions to help others with the expectation that they will offer help in return.1

From: https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-altruism-2794828

2.5.4 Cooperation

A process whereby two or more individuals work together toward the attainment of a mutual goal or complementary goals. This contrasts with competition, in which an individual’s actions in working toward a goal lessen the likelihood of others achieving the same goal. In game theory, cooperation is regarded as the strategy that maximizes the rewards and minimizes the costs for all participants in the game; this is sometimes posited as an explanation for altruism. Studies of nonhuman animals often suggest cooperation, but whether animals understand that individuals must act together to reach a common solution or whether they act randomly and occasionally appear to cooperate by chance is still unclear. Often cooperation leads to outcomes, such as increased food, predator avoidance, or survival of kin, that make it adaptive (see adaptation), but the benefit to each individual is not always obvious.

From: https://dictionary.apa.org/cooperation

2.5.5 Modesty

Standards of modesty (also called demureness or reticence) are aspects of the culture of a country or people, at a given point in time, and is a measure against which an individual in society may be judged. Though the term can be applied to both men and women, and boys and girls, it is most commonly applied to women, and girls.

Modesty is most often rendered as humility, shyness, or simplicity. The general principles of modesty include:

Avoiding attracting attention to oneself by moderating one’s actions or appearance;
Downplaying one’s accomplishments (see humility);
Avoiding insincere self-abasement through false or sham modesty, which is a form of boasting.

2.5.6 Sympathy

Definitions:

Feelings of concern or compassion resulting from an awareness of the suffering or sorrow of another.
More generally, a capacity to share in and respond to the concerns or feelings of others. See also empathy.
An affinity between individuals on the basis of similar feelings, inclinations, or temperament.

From: https://dictionary.apa.org/sympathy

2.6 Conscientiousness subscale

Conscientiousness is a fundamental personality trait—one of the Big Five—that reflects the tendency to be responsible, organized, hard-working, goal-directed, and to adhere to norms and rules. Like the other core personality factors, it has multiple facets; conscientiousness comprises self-control, industriousness, responsibility, and reliability.

A conscientious person is good at self-regulation and impulse control. This trait influences whether you will set and keep long-range goals, deliberate over choices, behave cautiously or impulsively, and take obligations to others seriously. (The other Big Five personality traits are extraversion, agreeableness, openness, and neuroticism.) Conscientiousness is generally a key ingredient for success—in love as well as work. It’s also a major predictor of health, well-being, and longevity.

Conscientious people are proactive in making decisions big and small. For example, the conscientious don’t just set goals, they set a timeline for meeting each goal. People with a conscientious personality do well in jobs that require attention to detail, such as surgeons and pilots; and it’s no surprise that the conscientious are less likely to wind up behind bars.

These people are not impulsive. They are planners and they abide by schedules. They also do not miss bill payments, they take notes, keep their promises, and show up on time. They engage in self-care through exercise, proper sleep, and a healthy diet. They are less likely to engage in risky behaviors like smoking and heavy drinking.

Conscientious individuals tend to be high achievers in academics and in professional life. On the job, along with high productivity, they garner higher earnings, good relationships, work satisfaction, and achievement. In addition, the conscientious tend to land more leadership positions.

From: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/conscientiousness

Conscientiousness is defined as the propensity to follow socially prescribed norms for impulse control, to be goal directed, to plan, and to be able to delay gratification. Most researchers are familiar with the term conscientiousness because of its inclusion in the Big Five taxonomy of personality traits: Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Emotional Stability, and Openness/Intellect. There are a few things to note about the origin of the term conscientiousness in the context of the Big Five. First, conscientiousness is a personality trait, which is defined as a “tendency to respond in certain ways under certain circumstances”, or, more generally speaking, the tendency to think, feel, and behave in a relatively enduring and consistent fashion across time in trait-affording situations. Clearly, given its definition, conscientiousness should be an important correlate of a wide swath of social behavior. Speaking in historical terms, traits associated with the domain of conscientiousness have some of the longest histories in psychology, beginning with Freud’s idea of the superego. A third thing to note about the term conscientiousness is that it is something of a historical artifact. Many terms have been used to describe this family of traits.

From: https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2009-12071-025

2.6.1 Self-efficiacy

Self-efficacy is a person’s belief in their ability to succeed in a particular situation. Psychologist Albert Bandura described these beliefs as determinants of how people think, behave, and feel.

When facing a challenge, do you feel like you can rise up and accomplish your goal ,or do you give up in defeat? Are you like the little train engine from the classic children’s book (“I think I can, I think I can!”), or do you doubt your own abilities to rise up and overcome the difficulties that life throws your way?

Self-efficacy can play a role in not only how you feel about yourself, but whether or not you successfully achieve your goals in life. The concept of self-efficacy is central to Albert Bandura’s social cognitive theory, which emphasizes the role of observational learning, social experience, and reciprocal determinism in developing a personality.

Self-efficacy is part of the self-system comprised of a person’s attitudes, abilities, and cognitive skills, according to Bandura. This system plays a major role in how we perceive situations and how we behave in response to different situations. Self-efficacy is an essential part of this self-system.

From: https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-self-efficacy-2795954

The term ’self-efficacy” was first coined by psychologist Albert Bandura (1977) a Canadian-American psychologist and a professor at Stanford University. He originally proposed the concept, in his own words, as a personal judgment of “how well one can execute courses of action required to deal with prospective situations” (1977).

Bandura was responsible for bringing the term to light, but psychologists have studied self-efficacy from several perspectives. To give an example of another perspective, Kathy Kolbe – educator and best-selling author – thinks that believing in one’s own abilities can be vital in measuring cognitive strength (2009). She believes that self-efficacy also involves determination and perseverance – seeing as how it helps one overcome obstacles that would interfere with utilizing those innate abilities to achieve goals.

From: https://www.simplypsychology.org/self-efficacy.html

2.6.2 Orderliness

The tendency to be neat and tidy and to keep everything in place. Excessive orderliness may be a symptom of obsessive-compulsive disorder or obsessive-compulsive personality disorder.

From: https://dictionary.apa.org/orderliness

Orderliness is a quality that is characterized by a person’s interest in keeping their surroundings and themselves well organized, and is associated with other qualities such as cleanliness and diligence, and the desire for order and symmetry. It could be strongly related to living a well-organized life and it could be related to maintaining a disciplined life, such as following rules and regulations, and building good habits. Orderliness could mean being considerate at events and functions, due to a desire for symmetry.

In psychology, an excessive desire for orderliness can be associated with obsessive–compulsive disorder and the term anal retentive, (or simply anal)—from Freudian psychoanalysis—is used conversationally to describe a person with such attention to orderliness and detail that it becomes close to a mental disorder. On the other side, excessive disorderliness may be associated with a tendency to hoard, to collect objects compulsively (compulsive hoarding).

Professional organizing services support individuals and organizations find ways to achieve and maintain ways to be organized, including decluttering and maintaining an orderly environment. The tendency of professional organization can lead to more professional success. Professionals of all stripes have found this useful to help themselves by having set places to hold their tools, papers and objects that find a proper place that contributed to their success.

From: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orderliness

2.6.3 Dutifulness

When someone scores high in dutifulness, they are typically a very reliable person with a strong sense of duty and moral obligation. They honor their commitments and follow through on their promises. Leaders with this trait have higher ratings in integrity and accountability.

People who score low in dutifulness tend to view rules and regulations as restricting, limiting, and confining. They may not feel responsible for anyone other than themselves. Consequently, low scorers may be viewed as irresponsible and insubordinate.

From: https://www.verywellmind.com/how-conscientiousness-affects-your-behavior-4843763#:~:text=Dutiful&text=People%20who%20score%20low%20in,viewed%20as%20irresponsible%20and%20insubordinate.

2.6.4 Achievement striving

Achievement striving (typically referred to as “achievement” in this paper for brevity) describes behaviors associated with working toward goals and other positive outcomes. Individuals who are high in this trait can be described as hard working, ambitious, confident, and resourceful (Drasgow et al., 2012). They may prioritize their work-related objectives over their personal lives (Neuman & Kickul, 1998). Achievement striving is one of the most criterion-valid facets of conscientiousness (Dudley et al., 2006).

From: Golubovich, J., Lake, C. J., Anguiano-Carrasco, C., and Seybert, J. (2020). Measuring Achievement Striving via a Situational Judgment Test: The Value of Additional Context. Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 36(2) , 157 - 167. https://doi.org/10.5093/jwop2020a15

2.6.5 Self discipline

Self-control—or the ability to manage one’s impulses, emotions, and behaviors to achieve long-term goals—is what separates humans from the rest of the animal kingdom. Self-control is primarily rooted in the prefrontal cortex—the planning, problem-solving, and decision making center of the brain—which is significantly larger in humans than in other mammals.

The richness of nerve connections in the prefrontal cortex enables people to plan, evaluate alternative actions, and ideally avoid doing things they’ll later regret, rather than immediately respond to every impulse as it arises.

The ability to regulate one’s emotions and behavior is a key aspect of executive function, the suite of skills that allow an individual to plan, monitor, and attain goals. There is debate surrounding the degree to which self-control is an innate individual difference, versus a learned skill. Most experts believe that people who are disposed to lower levels of less self-control can still cultivate healthy habits and take counter-measures to control their behavior.

The idea of self-control as a stable trait isn’t always true. A person’s level of self-control tends to wax and wane over the course of a day, suggesting that self-control is less like a mental capacity such as intelligence and more a fluctuating resource along the lines of physical energy.

From: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/self-control For interested: https://www.psychologicalscience.org/news/full-frontal-psychology/where-does-self-discipline-come-from.html

2.6.6 Cautiousness