This post is a re-blog from The Procrastinator’s Mind.

The Big 5 personality factors or test is by far the most accurate personality test available in the world right now. I’ve taken this test during my business school, and it is fairly accurate to not only me but also to all the other 400 students on campus. I was really amazed by the simplicity and the accuracy of the test in predicting your personality and behavior to the closest.

According to Big 5, every persona can be understood basis five characteristic traits (that are both nature and nurture), and they are:

1. Openness
2. Conscientiousness
3. Extroversion
4. Agreeableness
5. Neuroticism

To understand yourself, each of the characteristic trais are evaluated on a bipolar scale, with self-declaration statements such as below.

• I love to try new activities.
• I am imaginative.
• I am an abstract thinker.

You can get a good understanding of the test and its sample here.

Assuming you already took the test and understood your personality on the above 5 factors, there will be one or two dominant factors that determine or explain your personality the most. These are the factors that define you as a personality. Similarly, different people have different factors. Then, in order to navigate life effectively, it becomes important to understand what motivates different types of personalities to act consistently with an inner desire and intrinsic motivation. According to me, what motivates different character types of Big 5 are:

• If you’re extroverted, you want friends. Socializing is what motivates you.
• If you’re agreeable, you want intimate relationships.
• If you’re disagreeable, you want to win competitions.
• If you’re open, you want to engage in creative activity.
• If you’re high in neuroticism, you want security. Security motivates you to act.

Some people put high value on personal appreciation and accomplishment, and they don’t seek too much of appreciation from others. They put the onus on themselves to attain the goals that they set for themselves. Whereas some people find motivated by the social rewards such as attention, friends, approval, status and power. And some people find motivation in beating out other people as if they are in an self-imagined competition for money, status, power, and others. It is important to understand what kind of person you are and what motivates you according to the above. This will, in turn, help you to socialize with the right kind of people, understand oneself acutely, and make choices and set goals in view of one’s strengths and weaknesses. It is said that Big 5 scores of a person don’t change drastically during his or her lifetime by a big margin, and therefore it only becomes more important that we understand and express accordingly.

Hope this is useful, thank you.