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3.3 Personality Traits
Personality traits are enduring characteristics that describe an individual’s behavior.
Identifying personality traits helps organizations select employees and match workers to job.
Early work on the structure of personality tried to identify and label enduring characteristics
that describe an individual’s behavior, including shy, aggressive, submissive, lazy, ambitious,
loyal, and timid. When someone exhibits these characteristics in a large number of
situations, we call them personality traits of that person. Now the dominant frameworks for
identifying and classifying traits are Myers-Briggs Type Indicator and the Big Five Model.
a) The Myer-Briggs Type Indicator
The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) is the most widely used personality
assessment instrument in the world. 10 It is a 100-question personality test that asks
people how they usually feel or act in particular situations. Respondents are classified
as extraverted or introverted (E or I), sensing or intuitive (S or N), thinking or feeling
(T or F), and judging or perceiving (J or P). These terms are defined as follows:
● Extraverted (E) versus Introverted (I). Extraverted individuals are outgoing,
sociable, and assertive. Introverts are quiet and shy.
● Sensing (S) versus Intuitive (N). Sensing types are practical and prefer routine and
order. They focus on details. Intuitive rely on unconscious processes and look at the
“big picture.”
● Thinking (T) versus Feeling (F). Thinking types use reason and logic to handle
problems. Feeling types rely on their personal values and emotions.
● Judging (J) versus Perceiving (P). Judging types want control and prefer their world
to be ordered and structured. Perceiving types are flexible and spontaneous.
b) The Big Five Model
The model that have five basic dimensions underlie all others and encompass most of
the significant variation in human personality. Moreover, test scores of these traits do
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