Personality Trait Essay

Apriele Minott
Professor Bohns
Intro to Organizational Behavior
Personality Test Essay
27 January 2015
Big Five Personality Test: A Critical Analysis
Throughout our lives, we have encountered people that we either had an immediate connection with, felt that we need to discover more about the person to determine if there is a positive or negative connection, or, we simply cannot maintain a proper relationship with. One’s personality can determine whether we can get along with them or not. The Big Five Personality Survey helps to decipher these characteristics within a person. The Big Five Personality Traits are five broad factors that are used to describe the human personality. These five distinguishable factors are openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism. Researchers believed that these five traits are the umbrella factors to all other characteristics. This personality test became popular for its ability to demonstrate order and simplicity at a time where personality tests were disorganized and extensive. The relationship between personality and job performance has been a largely debated topic for years. Job performance shows employers how well employees perform expected tasks, the amount of initiative that was taken, and the resources that were used in the process. How would one be able to decipher these qualities whilst interviewing for the position? Employers take advantage of personality tests to see who is deemed fit for the job. In theory, this mechanism seems like the perfect solution in finding well-qualified employees, however, there are a few flaws with using the Big Five Personality survey to hire employees. A weakness that is prevalent in the process is the fact that the survey is a self-report. In this, there can be self-report bias or falsification in the responses. Potential employees may not be displaying answers that are true to themselves but answers that the employer would want to see. Also, the mood and environment that the test-taker was in could also affect the scores they received. If in a positive mood, scores for certain factors may be higher than usual, while on the other hand, if one was in a negative mood, scores could be higher for different factors. For example, a potential employee at a law firm, Aliyah, was asked to take a personality test at her interview. Aliyah’s boyfriend broke up with her less than twenty four hours ago. This situation causes her to be in a more negative mood, which is portrayed by her test results as she scored high in neuroticism, emotional stability, when she normally would not have. Aliyah’s current situation and mood had a negative effect on the test. The scores for the survey may not always be constant or truly portray the personality of the potential employees, which is not helpful for an employer. My personal experience with taking the test was on the negative side because I was sick.
As a result, I was in a slightly less positive mood and was not thinking as in-depth as I would have if I were to have taken the test while I was well. This brings me back to my previous point where moods and the environment can affect ones score. The test in itself was very straightforward and not difficult to answer. I personally believe that I answered the questions as honestly as I could have at that point in time.