Understanding Your Big 5 Personality Results (2024)

If you took the Big Five Personality Questionnaire on Talent Alpha’s Human Cloud Platform, you measured several psychological traits that describe the fundamental characteristics of your personality. Find out more about the meaning of your results and the questionnaire itself below.

What is the Big Five Personality Questionnaire?

The Big Five Personality Questionnaire is a tool that allows you to measure five dimensions of your personality. The five-factor model by Costa and McCrae1 (they created the theory behind this questionnaire), is one of the most widely used and well-researched models of human personality of all time. The traits measured in the model are:

  • Universal – meaning that every individual in any culture on earth can get a score somewhere on the spectrum
  • Dimensional – meaning that the questionnaire doesn’t classify people into distinct “personality types”, but acknowledges that you can possess each trait “to some extent”

Personality tests tend to be long and time-consuming. In 1992, a scientist named Goldberg2 created a shortened version of a tool for measuring markers of the five factors of personality – and our questionnaire is based on that version.

Is it just a quiz?

No, our version of the Big Five Personality Questionnaire is a psychometric test with tested and proven reliability and validity. Because we don’t have enough data to compare your results to other specialists on the Talent Alpha platform, we compare your results to a sample set from an international database of over 1.5 million records. Big Five Personality results are standardized and individual results can be compared to the reference group – thanks to that, you can quite precisely understand what percent of people exhibit more or less extraversion, agreeableness or openness.

What does the Big Five Personality measure?

  1. Introversion – Extraversion

The extraversion scale concerns how sociable and outgoing people are. Those with higher results draw energy from or recharge by interacting with others, while those with lower results get tired when interacting with others.

  1. Openness – Consistency

The openness experience scale concerns people’s willingness to try new things and their capability to think outside the box. People’s openness ranges from very traditional and conventional to very curious, daring and innovative.

  1. Conscientiousness – Spontaneity

The conscientiousness scale measures the tendency to control impulses and facilitate goal-directed behavior. People’s conscientiousness ranges from more spontaneous and impulsive to more self-disciplined and persistent.

  1. Emotional Stability – Emotional Reactivity

The emotional stability scale measures confidence, general temperament and being comfortable in one’s own skin. People’s emotional stability ranges from very emotionally sensitive and tense to very confident and sure of themselves.

  1. Agreeableness – Competitiveness

The agreeableness scale refers to how people tend to treat others in relationships. People’s agreeableness ranges from more competitive, straightforward and cold to more unselfish, warm and helpful.

How should I interpret my results?

Your results are presented on a scale from 1 to 10. This is a standard scale that reflects the normal distribution of the psychological trait in the population. In easier words, your score can tell how you compare to others.

Understanding Your Big 5 Personality Results (1)

If you have a score of 5, it means that 50% of people scored lower, and 50% higher than you. If you have the score of 10 – it means that your trait is stronger than 97,72% other IT Specialists on our platform. Because of this correlation, your score can change over time – as more Specialists take the test, we will change the reference group from the general population to the population of IT Specialists on our Platform.

Besides a single score, you can also see a colored belt to the left and right of your score – this is our way of showing our confidence in your result. It is an honest approach that takes into account the limitations of the measurement. Because of natural fluctuations of your mood or focus and inevitable measurement error your true trait level lies somewhere in this colored spectrum (with 85% confidence interval). We take into account that the result could be slightly different if you took the measurement on the other day and try to reflect it in a way we communicate the results.

Which results are good and which are bad?

There are no good or bad levels of a given trait. Their variance is an effect of the neurodiversity of human beings. They give us an advantage in certain situations, so the right match between your personality and the context is key to your satisfaction and productivity.

Some of the results may not seem positive to you in an obvious way. Those whose score on the extraversion scale is lower than in 98% of the population belong to the 2% of the most solitary and reserved. They don’t feel the need to be in the spotlight, they have the ability to listen attentively to others and they recharge their energy supply by spending time alone with themselves. Those, whose score on this scale is higher than 98% of the population, belong to the 2% of the most outgoing and loud. These people love being in the centre of attention, are first to start talking and they draw energy from social interactions. Bear in mind, that most people land somewhere in between those extremes. Think about your traits as your strengths – as patterns of behavior that you exercised and strengthened because they have allowed you to adapt to your surroundings as best as you can so far.

References:

1 McCrae, R., & Costa, P. (1987). Validation of the five-factor model of personality across instruments and observers. Journal of personality and social psychology, 52 1, 81-90.

2 Goldberg, L. R. (1992). The development of markers for the Big-Five factor structure. Psychological Assessment, 4, 26-42.

Understanding Your Big 5 Personality Results (2024)

FAQs

How to interpret Big Five results? ›

Your results are presented on a scale from 1 to 10. This is a standard scale that reflects the normal distribution of the psychological trait in the population. In easier words, your score can tell how you compare to others. If you have a score of 5, it means that 50% of people scored lower, and 50% higher than you.

How to interpret personality test results? ›

When you look at the results of a personality test, pay special attention to any extreme scores — either very low or very high — as they may indicate areas of strength or weakness. For example, scoring very low on agreeableness could mean you have a harder time compromising or working well with others.

How do you score on the Big 5 personality factors? ›

One popular option is called the Big Five inventory. This method uses your response to about 50 short statements or phrases. You'll be asked to agree or disagree, on a scale of 1 to 5, to each phrase. Based on your answers, your results will show you where you fall on a spectrum for each trait.

What is the rarest personality in the Big Five? ›

INFJ. INFJ, also known as the advocate, counselor, or idealist, is the rarest type of personality in the general population. It represents about 1.5% of the general population in the United States.

What is an average neuroticism score? ›

Neuroticism is defined by how sensitive, emotional and prone to worry an individual may be. Neuroticism scores range from 10-50. Scores indicating low neuroticism are between 10 and 24, scores indicating moderate neuroticism are between 25 and 35, and scores indicating high neuroticism are between 36 and 50.

What does it mean to be low in conscientiousness? ›

Those who are low in Conscientiousness tend to avoid planning ahead. They may have difficulty pursuing long-term goals because they are easily distracted and tend to follow their impulses. They may struggle with self-discipline in general. Other people may see them as flaky, irresponsible, or unpredictable.

What is the rarest personality test result? ›

INFJ. The INFJ personality type is the undisputed top 1 rarest personality type in the general population coming in at just 2%. INFJs are especially rare among men with only 1% of men qualifying as this personality type. It is slightly more common in women at around 2%.

What is the most common personality test result? ›

According to data provided by the Myers Briggs Foundation , the most common personality type is ISFJ, which stands for Introversion, Sensing, Feeling and Judging. Data from the Foundation indicates that this grouping was the personality type of 13.8% of people tested.

How should you answer personality tests? ›

Here are a few tips to make it go easier:
  1. Answer honestly. Personality tests often include questions that ask for answers on a scale. ...
  2. Avoid too many of the same answers. ...
  3. Study the job description. ...
  4. Consider taking a practice test. ...
  5. Take your time. ...
  6. Expect questions about your honesty and integrity.
Feb 13, 2024

How to calculate scores from BFI? ›

BFI. To recode these items, you should subtract your score for all reverse-scored items from 6. For example, if you gave yourself a 5, compute 6 minus 5 and your recoded score is 1. That is, a score of 1 becomes 5, 2 becomes 4, 3 remains 3, 4 becomes 2, and 5 becomes 1.

What does the Big 5 personality test predict? ›

BACKGROUND. The Big Five personality attributes (i.e. openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism) help to predict health. To predict health, researchers may prefer to use a short version of the Big Five Inventory.

Is the Big 5 personality test accurate? ›

Is the Big 5 test reliable? Theorists say yes. The Big 5 personality traits are respected in the field of psychology. As long as the test you take hews closely to the understanding of these traits, you can be confident that it has the backing of decades of study behind it.

What is the most difficult personality type? ›

One of the rarest and most complex personality types is the Sigma INFJ, which is made up of the following traits: introverted (I), intuitive (N), feeling (F), and judging (J). INFJs make up only about 1–2% of the population, and Sigma individuals, who are thought to be independent and adaptable, are even rarer.

Which personality type is the most attractive? ›

Who Has the Most Beautiful MBTI?
  • INFJ. INFJ often referred to as the "rare" type, INFJs are known for their empathy, intuition, and strong sense of purpose.
  • ENFP. ENFPs are known for their creativity, enthusiasm, and ability to connect with others on an emotional level.
  • INFP. ...
  • ENFJ. ...
  • ISFP. ...
  • ESFP. ...
  • INTJ. ...
  • ISTP.

What is the rarest personality type female? ›

“INTJ is the rarest personality type for women.” In fact, at about 0.5 percent of the population, INTJ women might be the rarest of any gender/type combination (perhaps only rivaled by INFJ men).

What is the Big Five rating scale? ›

The Big Five Inventory (BFI) is an instrument designed to assess the personality of individuals aged 18 and above. The original version consists of 44 items divided into five sub-scales representing each of the five personality factors: agreeableness, neuroticism, conscientiousness, openness, and extraversion.

When you score high in agreeableness it means you are? ›

When someone scores high in agreeableness, they are often very sympathetic and are easily moved to have care and concern for others. They also are emotionally intelligent and very empathetic, often relating to the pain and suffering of other people.

What is the average openness on the Big Five? ›

The average percentage of openness to experience on the Big Five personality test can vary among individuals and populations, but it typically falls around 50%, representing a moderate level of openness. This trait measures one's receptiveness to new ideas, experiences, and creativity.

What does a low score in openness mean according to the Big 5 personality test? ›

Working with someone who is low in Openness

When someone is lower in this trait, they tend to fear or dislike change. They usually prefer routine and tradition and generally think more logically and concretely. They have a more difficult time being honest about how they feel and may feel isolated at times.

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