{"id":77,"date":"2019-03-10T11:54:12","date_gmt":"2019-03-10T15:54:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/introconsumerbehaviour\/chapter\/personality-and-personality-traits\/"},"modified":"2021-06-01T17:34:13","modified_gmt":"2021-06-01T21:34:13","slug":"personality-and-personality-traits","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/introconsumerbehaviour\/chapter\/personality-and-personality-traits\/","title":{"raw":"Personality and Personality Traits","rendered":"Personality and Personality Traits"},"content":{"raw":"
[pb_glossary id=\"260\"]Personality[\/pb_glossary]<\/strong> is derived from our interactions with and observations of others, from our interpretations of those interactions and observations, and from our choices of which social situations we prefer to enter or avoid (Bandura, 1986). In fact, behaviourists such as B. F. Skinner explain personality entirely in terms of the environmental influences that the person has experienced. Because we are profoundly influenced by the situations that we are exposed to, our behaviour does change from situation to situation, making personality less stable than we might expect. And yet personality does matter \u2014 we can, in many cases, use personality measures to predict behaviour across situations.<\/div>\n

Personality Traits<\/h1>\nWhen we observe people around us, one of the first things that strikes us is how different people are from one another. Some people are very talkative while others are very quiet. Some exhibit active behaviour whereas others may live a more sedentary lifestyle. Some worry a lot, others almost never seem anxious. Each time we use one of these words, words like \u201ctalkative,\u201d \u201cquiet,\u201d \u201cactive,\u201d or \u201canxious,\u201d to describe those around us, we are talking about a person\u2019s personality \u2014 <\/em>the characteristic ways that people differ from one another. Personality psychologists try to describe and understand these differences.\n\nAlthough there are many ways to think about the personalities that people have, Gordon Allport and other \u201cpersonologists\u201d claimed that we can best understand the differences between individuals by understanding their personality traits. [pb_glossary id=\"261\"]Personality traits[\/pb_glossary]<\/strong> reflect basic dimensions on which people differ (Matthews, Deary, & Whiteman, 2003).\n\nAn important feature of personality traits is that they reflect continuous distributions rather than distinct personality types. This means that when personality psychologists talk about Introverts and Extraverts, they are not really talking about two distinct types of people who are completely and qualitatively different from one another. Instead, they are talking about people who score relatively low or relatively high along a continuous distribution. In fact, when personality psychologists measure traits like Extraversion<\/em>, they typically find that most people score somewhere in the middle, with smaller numbers showing more extreme levels.\n\nThere are three criteria that are characterize personality traits: (1) consistency, (2) stability, and (3) individual differences<\/em>.\n
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  1. To have a personality trait, individuals must be somewhat consistent<\/em><\/strong> across situations in their behaviours related to the trait. For example, if they are talkative at home, they tend also to be talkative at work.<\/li>\n \t
  2. Individuals with a trait are also somewhat stable<\/em><\/strong> over time in behaviours related to the trait. If they are talkative, for example, at age 30, they will also tend to be talkative at age 40.<\/li>\n \t
  3. People differ<\/em><\/strong> from one another on behaviours related to the trait. Sleeping is not a personality trait and neither is consuming food \u2014 virtually all individuals do these activities, and there are almost no individual differences. But people differ on how frequently they talk and how active they are, and thus personality traits such as Talkativeness and Activity Level do exist.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\nTraits are important and interesting because they describe stable patterns of behaviour that persist for long periods of time (Caspi, Roberts, & Shiner, 2005). Importantly, these stable patterns can have broad-ranging consequences for many areas of our life (Roberts, Kuncel, Shiner, Caspi, & Goldberg, 2007). For instance, think about the factors that determine success in college. If you were asked to guess what factors predict good grades in college, you might guess something like intelligence. This guess would be correct, but we know much more about who is likely to do well. Specifically, personality researchers have also found the personality traits like Conscientiousness<\/em> play an important role in college and beyond, probably because highly conscientious individuals study hard, get their work done on time, and are less distracted by nonessential activities that take time away from school work. In addition, highly conscientious people are often healthier than people low in conscientiousness because they are more likely to maintain healthy diets, to exercise, and to follow basic safety procedures like wearing seat belts or bicycle helmets. Over the long term, this consistent pattern of behaviours can add up to meaningful differences in health and longevity.\n\nThus, personality traits are not just a useful way to describe people you know; they actually help psychologists predict how good a worker someone will be, how long he or she will live, and the types of jobs and activities the person will enjoy. Thus, there is growing interest in personality psychology among psychologists who work in applied settings, such as health psychology or organizational psychology.\n
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    Why Personality Traits Matter in Marketing<\/p>\n\n<\/header>\n

    Various personality types, like people with various motives, are likely to respond in different ways to different market offerings. For example, an extrovert<\/em> may enjoy the shopping experience and rely more on personal observation to secure information; thus, in-store promotion would become an important communication tool. Knowing the basic personality traits of target customers can be useful information for the manager in designing the marketing mix. Marketers have, however, found personality to be difficult to apply in developing marketing strategy. The primary reason for this is the lack of good ways to measure personality traits. Most available measures were developed to identify people with problems that needed medical attention. These have little value with consumers who are mentally healthy. As a result, most marketers have turned to lifestyle analysis.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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    The Five Factor Model<\/h2>\n
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    \n\nThe fundamental work on trait dimensions conducted by Allport, Cattell, Eysenck, and many others has led to contemporary trait models, the most important and well validated of which is the [pb_glossary id=\"251\"]Five-Factor (Big Five) Model of Personality[\/pb_glossary]<\/strong>. According to this model, there are five fundamental underlying trait dimensions that are stable across time, cross-culturally shared, and explain a substantial proportion of behaviour (Costa & McCrae, 1992; Goldberg, 1982).\n

    Descriptions of the Big Five Personality Traits (Diener & Lucas, 2019)<\/h2>\n
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    \n\nA large body of research evidence has supported the five-factor model. This system includes five broad traits that can be remembered with the acronym \"OCEAN\": Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism<\/em>. Each of the major traits from the Big Five can be divided into facets to give a more fine-grained analysis of someone's personality.\n
    \n\nThe Five Factor Model<\/strong>\n\n<\/code>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
    Table that lists key features of the Big 5 Traits<\/caption>\n
    Big 5 Trait<\/th>\nDefinition<\/th>\n\u00a0Key Features<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
    Openness<\/td>\nThe tendency to appreciate new art, ideas, values, feelings, and behaviours<\/td>\n\n
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    • Fantasy prone<\/li>\n \t
    • Open to feelings<\/li>\n \t
    • Open to new and different ideas<\/li>\n \t
    • Open to various values and beliefs<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    Conscientiousness<\/td>\nThe tendency to be careful, on-time for appointments, to follow rules, and to be hardworking.<\/td>\n\n
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    • Competent<\/li>\n \t
    • Orderly<\/li>\n \t
    • Dutiful<\/li>\n \t
    • Achievement oriented<\/li>\n \t
    • Self-disciplined<\/li>\n \t
    • Deliberate<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    Extraversion<\/td>\nThe tendency to be talkative, sociable, and to enjoy others; the tendency to have a dominant style.<\/td>\n\n
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    • Gregarious (sociable)<\/li>\n \t
    • Warm<\/li>\n \t
    • Assertive<\/li>\n \t
    • Active<\/li>\n \t
    • Excitement-seeking<\/li>\n \t
    • Positive emotionality<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    Agreeableness<\/td>\nThe tendency to agree and go along with others rather than to assert one's own opinions and choices.<\/td>\n\n
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    • Trusting<\/li>\n \t
    • Straightforward<\/li>\n \t
    • Altruistic<\/li>\n \t
    • Compliant<\/li>\n \t
    • Modest<\/li>\n \t
    • Tender-minded<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    Neuroticism<\/td>\nThe tendency to frequently experience negative emotions such as anger, worry, and sadness, as well as being interpersonally sensitive.<\/td>\n\n