Monday, August 27, 2007

The Big Five Dimensions of Personality


This is the individual's vulnerability to psychological distress. It includes maladaptive coping responses and self-defeating behaviors. Poor frustration tolerance, compulsive behavior, and unrealistic ideas are typically seen in individuals who are high on this dimension. Individuals low on this dimension show resilience and psychological health. They are free from psychiatric symptoms, have good reality contact, and self-management skills. The main facets for this dimension include anxiety, angry hostility, depression, self-consciousness, impulsivity, and vulnerability.

Extraversion (extroversion?)

This factor refers to the intensity of the need for social stimulation. It includes the capacity for joy and general activity level. Individuals high in this dimension are sociable, fun-loving, talkative, optimistic, and affectionate. Individuals with low dimension are somber, reserved, independent, and quiet. Such introverts are not depressed or pessimistic, but they don't display the high energy enthusiasm characteristic of extroverts. Facets of this dimension include warmth, gregariousness, assertiveness, activity, excitement seeking, positive emotions.

Openness to Experience

This dimension refers to the active seeking out and valuing of experience for its own sake. Curiosity, imagination, flexibility, and tolerance for entertaining unconventional thinking are characteristic of the person high in this dimension. Closed individuals tend to be conservative, rigid and dogmatic. Facets of this dimension include fantasy, aesthetics, feelings, actions, ideas, and values.


This dimension is the degree to which a person has the capacity for positive feelings and relationships. The polar opposite of agreeableness is antagonism. People high in agreeableness are compassionate, good natured, softhearted, trusting, helpful, forgiving, and altruistic. Antagonistic individuals tend to be cynical, rude, abrasive, suspicious, uncooperative, irritable, ruthless, vengeful, and manipulative. The main facets of this dimension are trust, straightforwardness, altruism, compliance, modesty, and tendermindedness.


This dimension refers to the tendency to be organized, persistent, and motivated in goal direct activity-- like jobs, relationships, etc. Individuals high in this dimension are described as hard-working, self-directed, goal-orientated, punctual, scrupulous, ambitious, persevering, organized, and reliable. Individuals low in this dimension tend to be careless, unreliable, lazy, negligent, hedonistic, and lax. Competence, order, dutifulness, achievement striving, self-discipline, and deliberation are the primary facets.

(From )

Friday, August 24, 2007


crambo \KRAM-boh\ noun


Example sentence:
According to his early letters, James Boswell, friend and biographer of English lexicographer Samuel Johnson, was a keen crambo player.

Did you know?

(From Merriam-Webster)