Essay On Conscientiousness

Definitions and Complications

Conscientiousness encompasses the characteristics of dependency, carefulness, thoroughness, responsibility, and organization (VandenBos & American Psychological Association, 2007). People who possess conscientiousness as a personality trait also have the greater potential to be hardworking, achievement oriented, and persevering. (Barrick & Mount, 1991). The definition of conscientiousness is not a set one, there are different definitions that define the personality which can become controversial as to what exactly conscientiousness really is. Another study had the scales of “ordered, methodical, organized” and at the other end “haphazard, disorganized, sloppy” (Widiger & Lowe, 2007). By comparing two of many of the definitions that are presented in different
The only problem with this is that conscientiousness has different meanings and may be confused or compiled with other characteristics and when determining who to hire will be problematic because the definition will be interpreted in many different ways. For example, a study in the University of Delaware (Becker, 1998), set out to differentiate integrity and conscientiousness for future employment tests. They wanted to know if there was any relationship between the two or if these personality types were independent of each other. In Becker’s study, integrity and conscientiousness had a close relationship but were characterized as two different things. They found that a person with conscientiousness has characteristics of responsibility. Integrity can be connected in this case because a person has the responsibility to complete a task when they are assigned to it and therefore must complete it. Integrity was also found to be connected with conscientiousness because in order to complete the task that was assigned to them they need to be organized and finish with a well done, final