Research Using IPIP Tests On Conscientiousness And Extraversion To Analyse The Participant’s Lifestyle

Introduction

Over the past few decades, a growing number of researches regarding personality has emerged and has mainly revolved around five dimensions: Emotional Stability, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Openness to experience and Extraversion, these are the basis of personality. There are many personality tests such as, the Myers Briggs, Big Five personality test, NEO- PI, IPIP and so on. The International Personality Item Pool (IPIP) has over 3, 000 items to date with new items being added every year, the scale has also been translated to many languages for global commercial use. The IPIP is essentially a pool of English items that measures the Big Five factors of extraversion, conscientiousness, openness to experience, agreeableness and emotional stability. All five factor dimensions are related to important life outcomes. In many cases, a shorter version of tests is used when researchers have limited time, to avoid false-reporting and boredom from participants. The IPIP of 3000 items is the parent inventory, in order to have a brief version, Goldberg, 1992 designed the 50-item IPIP representation markers for the Big-Five factors that measures the Big Five dimensions. This 50-item IPIP is a self-report measure with 10 items per domain.

Brief description of the five personality traits

The IPIP tests for the five-factor model of personality which is inclusive of Openness to experience (O), conscientiousness (C), extraversion (E), agreeableness (A), emotional stability (ES). People who score low on extraversion individuals tend to be quiet, low-key, prefers to be alone whereas those high on extraversion are deemed talkative, sociable, assertive, and generous, as well as other facets that include dominance and courage. Furthermore, people who score low on agreeableness individuals put their self-interest above others, untroubled with others’ well-being; unlikely to extend themselves for other people while individuals high on agreeableness are likely to be pleasant, cooperative, warm, and cares for others. Researchers have described agreeable people as being interested in the maintenance of positive social relationships and extraverts as being interested in social impact.

Ehrhart et al. , 2008 described conscientious individuals as responsible, organised, dependable, and careful; emotionally stable as individuals who are stable, and self-reliant. On the other hand, individuals who scores low on conscientiousness can be seen as fun, lively however, they may be judged for being careless and disorganized, unreliable. Those high in openness to experience as curious, original and imaginative and low on openness to experience individuals tend to be conservative, prefer familiarity over novelty and is resistant to change. Lastly, individuals who score high on emotional stability generally are more composed, calm and do not have enduring negative feeling, whilst low on emotional stability generally means that individuals are emotionally reactive they tend to be insecure, anxious and indecisive. In this report, only conscientiousness and extraversion will be discussed further, as both of this personality traits highlight the participant’s leadership lifestyle.

Results of participant’s 50-items IPIP scale

Participant is 23 years old, heterosexual Chinese male of Malaysian nationality. Participant scored highest for extraversion, conscientiousness, followed by agreeableness, openness to experience then emotional stability. Taking into account that the subject is a 23 year old Asian male, his scores were compared to Zheng, Goldberg, Zheng, Zhao, Tang and Liu, 2008’s study sample of heterosexual Chinese population. Generally, to be interpreted as “above average”, participant should have a positive score higher than 1. 5 SD from the norm mean, scores within 1. 5 SD from the norm mean is labelled “average”, negative scores outside the 1. 5 SD norm mean is labelled “below average”. Participant score the highest for extraversion (raw score = 39, M = 3. 9, z = 1. 065) and conscientiousness (raw score = 39, M = 3. 9, z = 0. 508), followed by agreeableness (raw score = 37, M = 3. 7, z = -0. 085), openness to experience (raw score = 34, M = 3. 4, z = -0. 32) and lastly, emotional stability (raw score = 32, M = 3. 2, z = 0. 316). Social interactions Social interaction is part of our daily lives, having satisfying social relationships also have a positive effect on our well-being. In social situations, participant is considered to be a leader in both of work and sports situations. Participant was previously leading a basketball state team as captain, it showcased his leadership qualities. A team captain spearheads the team to victory, while dealing with internal conflicts, as well as strategy planning with coaches. Participant scored 1. 065 SD above average for extraversion, individuals who score high on extraversion are deemed sociable, assertive and dominant, as the captain, he is also presumed to be assertive and by being sociable, he is expected to maintain positive relationships with all of his team members. Researchers illustrated that extraversion displays a combination of nurturance and dominance, one cannot be all dominant when leading a team, it has to have a balance. Participant is assumed to not show aggression or dominance often when it comes to his team, Moreover, leadership roles that expect persuasion, interaction and motivation of others are aligned with the characteristics of extraverts that include sociability, assertiveness and outgoingness, being a captain leading a team of twelve is nothing short of difficult especially when physical abilities and team coordination comes in play, he is expected to constantly interact with his team, taking their opinions and feedback into consideration and motivate his team members.

Subject is currently self-employed, working towards taking over his family business. One of his highest scored personality dimension, extraversion comes in play when meeting with new customers to build rapport, maintaining a good relationship with existing customers as well as maintaining a positive outlook in life. He likely to be optimistic despite business being slow or when other conflicts arises. Other than meeting new customers, participant is also highly expected to make friends easily by starting conversations to break the ice with strangers or new friends. To add on, researchers have found that individuals high on extraversion are more likely to trust others, this may be a factor that aids in participant’s social interactions. In addition, participant is assumed to have minor and rare conflict with his friends, which may be due to his high extraversion scores; several researchers have observed that peer rated likeability and acceptance were significantly correlated with extraversion and agreeableness. Similarly, higher quality of friendship has also been found to be associated with emotional stability, extraversion, conscientiousness, agreeableness. Conscientiousness was also the subject’s highest scored dimension, he scored 0. 508 SD above average for this dimension. The characteristics of conscientious individuals are responsible, organised and dependable, all of these characteristics are essential for a leader. Judge and Ilies, 2002 mentioned that because of their determination to achieve the given task, those who are more organised, responsible and eager to work harder would have more confidence in the assigned tasks. In other words, conscientious individuals are more likely to be more effective leaders because of their determination and persistence in accomplishing given tasks. In addition, participant should be an organised person, for example, he should be organised in planning training schedules to ensure everyone can attend. In addition, participant is also expected to have many friends as previous researchers have mentioned that individuals high in extraversion generally have many friendships and social skills. Furthermore, participant is also presumed to have regular contact with friends to justify previous research which proposed that conscientiousness is related more to the maintenance of relationship rather than formation.

In an organisational context, Santos, Mustafa and Chern, 2015 suggested that people have a lower tendency to experience work and personal burnout if one scores high in emotional stability and conscientiousness, participant is presumed to have encounter this obstacle; he has been working with his family for two years closing on three years now, he loves his job and is actively searching for opportunities to expand his business further, this is aligned with previous research that affirms emotional stability, conscientiousness, agreeableness and extraversion being connected to job satisfaction. Witt, 2002 found that when high-conscientious individuals that have higher scores of extraversion, it positively impacts their performance. As a business owner, he needs to envision a bigger future, think ahead of time to plan for marketing and business strategies that would ensure expansion and profit, this is congruent with researchers’ proposal that high conscientious individuals generally have better long-term plans and organised support network.

Critical review

According to observation, the results of the 50-item IPIP is accurate as it reflects the participant’s behaviour and personality in regards to his work, friends as well as sports. By scoring highest for extraversion and conscientiousness is beneficial to his job, particularly when meeting new customers, maintaining a good relationship with suppliers and existing customers. As an observer, participant is well-loved among friends and family, he has close bonds with both of these social interactions. These two traits, in particular, allow outsiders to view him as dependable, trustworthy, and friendly; characteristics a leader must have in order for people to want to work for him. According to observation, extraversion plays a big part when it comes to leading a sports team because extroverts are people oriented, they maintain positive relationships with other by getting to know them better as a leader should. For example, participant changes his communication style when talking to different players to accommodate for their personality (i. e. , B player has a short fuse, participant would talk more calmly and explain more thoroughly why they are doing this; C player is more introverted, participant would criticise him one on one rather than in a big group).

Extraversion also has a different facet, which is being assertive and dominant, however, one cannot lead based only on these two. Participant is only assertive and dominant when some of his team is cutting slack right before a competition not only that, he often motivates them to achieve higher as a team. Furthermore, participant might be leaning more towards highly extroverted as showcased during his working hours, he should be capable of initiating conversations with new customers, asking for their feedback about the food and so on.

Conscientiousness being also the highest scored, his friends and teammates find the participant trustworthy and dependable, they confide in him about the conflicts they experience with other team members, which he would then attempt to resolve. Participant is also organised in planning training schedules. Moreover, he take parts in designing various training regimes for his team, as different positions requires different types of training. All of these are evidence of the participant being task driven, extraverted and conscientious, all merging to aid in being an effective leader. Selfhout et al. , (2010) proposed that conscientiousness is related more to the maintenance of relationship rather than formation, participant has various groups of friends, from primary school to his previous colleagues. He does not only keeps in contact with them but are still fairly close, he extends himself to his friends whenever he can whether financially or emotionally. Subject is not only organised when it comes to sports but also work, he has designed very specific protocols to follow through during the morning preparation in order to be more efficient and punctual for opening time. With both of these personality traits facilitating in the participant’s leadership skills, his team has won numerous competitions and his business has landed an interview from a food blogger. Participant may maintain his current behaviour considering the fact that he is a leader in at least two social situations, with his scores of high extraversion and conscientiousness, he leads well with no major conflicts among his family or friends, he is people oriented, organised and dependable. Furthermore, past research has shown that extraverted leaders are associated with better leadership effectiveness as they are more self-assured and confident in their capabilities, being confident in his capabilities also aids in his leadership behaviours as people tend to find confidence in line with being capable. Many of the world leaders highly possess these two particular traits, these traits may allow the participant to excel in life; being extroverted means that he will get to meet many people regardless of education backgrounds and race, meeting new people also means that he will learn more from them by gaining knowledge. It will also mean that he will be dominant in taking charge and brave in meeting obstacles head on. By also scoring highest on Conscientiousness, it may allow the participant to excel as well; being organised and punctual is a great start to effective leadership however, being too organised without a little leeway for fun might not be good for participant’s well-being. A conscientious person is also a dependable person, he has already organised schedules and protocols that they currently follow by, his family may worry less when the participant is set to take over his family’s business.

One of the strengths of this scale is its reliability despite being a shortened version. According to the IPIP Website, Goldberg, 1992 reported that the longer and shorter version scale are highly correlated, the part-whole correlations were. 96 for openness to experience, . 96 for emotional stability, . 95 for conscientiousness, . 94 and. 95 for agreeableness and extraversion respectively, therefore, apart from being cost effective the 50-item IPIP is reliable to be utilised. In addition, The origin of the scale is from an individualistic culture, certain items do not make sense for individuals in collectivistic cultures. Zheng, et al. , (2008) suggested that certain items may need to be improved for specific cultures. For example, one of the items on the scale is “like being the center of attention”, in collectivistic cultures it may be considered rude to accept simply being the centre of attention as collectivistic cultures prioritise humility. Furthermore, certain items on the scale may need to be more specific, (i. e. , use difficult words), when participants writes or speaks? Participant interpreted this item as speaking, which rarely happens because he usually communicates casually with other people. Due to the nature of the 50-item IPIP scale, the scale may possibly encounter issues such as, self-report bias; self-perception may be overstated or diminished and self-serving. This report includes a third-party observation, however, other online administered IPIP tests do not include third-party observations to generate results. According to John and Robins, 1994 they found that people either perceived themselves as more positive or as more negative than when evaluated by peers.

To sum up, participant’s 50-item IPIP scores are congruent with third-party observations. His scores of extraversion and conscientiousness is backed up with real life observations, and examples from participant’s sports, work and friendship lifestyles. Participant may continue on this route, keeping in mind that being too conscientiousness may result is the lack of work-life balance. Future researchers may take into account that different cultures may not necessarily respond the same to certain items on the scale as individualistic and collectivistic cultures are vastly different.