Human behavior is an inherently complex subject matter which pertains to the manner and
reasons behind people’s actions. Of course, there are countless theories associated with human
behavior and various types of conduct. Understanding human behavior is very important in
society; the knowledge sheds light on patterns, the reasons people make certain decisions, and
much more. Of course, the more one understands about human behavior, the better they can
position themselves and comprehend how others see, interpret, and adapt to their various
environments.
Theories Of Human Behavior
Of theories about human behavior, one of the most prevalent ones of all is that of conditioning.
Conditioning occurs when someone is groomed into behaving in a certain manner. There are two
main types of conditioning, and different people may be more impacted by one form over the
other. Of course, conditioning human beings to behave in a certain way can have prompt ethical
or moral debates, especially when someone is conditioned to act in a manner which fails to suit
their best interests. Then, others maintain that human beings are all inherently programmed to
behave in one way or another.
Classical Conditioning
Classical conditioning occurs when someone comes to associate specific stimuli with various
outcomes. In turn, this manner of conditioning often encourages people to behave in ways which
will bring them joy and pleasure. For instance, if someone finds that they tend to do well when
they follow their instincts as opposed to following the rules, they are likelier to be a
nonconformist and take risks. Classical conditioning does not always have to occur from the
actions or manipulations of a specific individual. Sometimes, this type of conditioning happens
from society or from the environment in which someone is routinely exposed to.
Operant Conditioning
Quite simply, operant conditioning controls human behavior via positive and negative
reinforcement. A person who finds themselves constantly in trouble with the law when they
break certain rules typically learns to associate rule-breaking with legal issues. Likewise, an
individual who regularly studies for exams and aces them comes to associate studying with
positive grades. When it comes to human behavior, people tend to steer clear of what causes
them pain and gravitate towards pleasure and personal satisfaction. These are some of how
conditioning, both classical and operant, is theorized to impact human behavior.
Cognition
In the realm of human behavior, cognition is a very prevalent theory which maintains that human
behavior is determined by an individual’s thoughts, inner judgment, personal motivations, etc.
This particular theory places great emphasis on people’s internal states and maintains that what a
person is feeling, thinking, or battling will eventually impact the behavior which the world sees.
Of course, cognitive theories which pertain to human behavior are heavily supported by mental
health studies, psychological studies, and more. Much of what exists within the tangible, external
world today originally existed within an individual’s mind.
Types Of Human Behavior
Many theories of human behavior are widely used and accepted in today’s world. Understanding
these theories makes a difference, but so does understanding the types of human behavior and
the factors which drive them. As a unique species, human beings will collectively and individually
fall into different or even multiple categories. Certain people may be inclined in one direction,
whereas others are driven by something else entirely. Nevertheless, the following information is
required to understand what human behavior is true.
Personality-Based
How people behave is largely impacted by their personality. Some individuals may be patient and
easygoing, while others are impatient and hot-headed. In most cases, you cannot tell someone’s
personality right off the bat. Usually, it takes time to get to know them, interact with them, and
truly get a feel for what you’re dealing with. Some personalities are friendlier than others, and
there are a series of factors which can shape or alter someone’s personality. Culture,
environment, the peer can influence an individual’s personality, and so much more.
Interest-Based
A person’s level of interest significantly plays a role in their human behavior. Interest can
determine whether or not someone behaves in a way which is not consistent with who they are.
Furthermore, interest often determines whether or not someone takes risks or pursues a goal.
More often than not, when someone is interested in a person or subject, they are more likely to
devote attention than if they were not interested. Gauging a person’s interest in something can
be a very great way of predicting or theorizing forthcoming human behavior.
Attitude-Based
Like personality and interest, individual attitude also deeply affects human behavior. Attitudes
can be right or wrong, by one’s development or by outside influence. Nevertheless, there is no
denying that a person’s attitude determines the choices they make, the way they interact with
others, and their general human behavior in a nutshell. A positive attitude can make someone
more open and receptive to a certain person or situation. Likewise, a negative attitude tends to
cause individuals to avoid or shut out what they view disfavorably.
Emotion-Based
Emotions are deeply relevant when it pertains to human behavior. So many actions and decisions
in life are emotionally charged, even when people don’t realize this on the surface. A positive
emotional state can cause someone to be open-minded, more likely to take risks, and otherwise
engage in certain behaviors. Likewise, a negative emotional state can lead to destruction,
isolation, or a person’s decision to withdraw. Virtually all manners of human behavior can be
traced back to emotions of some sort, even if additional factors are involved.
Human Behavior And Self-Control
A more thorough comprehension of human behavior has positively contributed to society on so
many levels. This is an undeniable fact, and yet, in spite of the definition, theories, and types of
human behavior, self-control is still very much relevant. How you behave always makes a
difference because when it’s all said and done, you are accountable for your actions. Behaving
well and controlling yourself is very easy when everything is going well, and your back isn’t
against the wall. However, behavior in the face of stress, worries, and challenges is often what
turns out to be the most defining.
Self-control matters because it determines whether or not you stay grounded even in the face of
adversity or tough times. Someone who lacks self-control will have a significantly harder time
staying out of trouble than someone who knows how to manage themselves. Exercising self-
control doesn’t mean that you will never feel angry. It doesn’t mean that your personality,
interest levels, and attitudes won’t come into play; however, when you have self-control, you can
manage these factors instead of allowing them to manage you.
Consequences, whether positive or negative, are inevitable factors when it comes to human
behavior. The choices you make and how you choose to behave determine whether or not you
experience desirable or undesirable outcomes. Self-control is what allows you to manage your
behavior and avoid negative consequences which you don’t want to be exposed to. There are
countless situations where people have looked back and either wished they’d exercised better
self-control or felt thankful that they did exercise self-control.
Many modern and traditional studies in psychology point to 5 basic dimensions of
personality. Evidence of this theory has grown over the years with the principle theory
emerging in 1949. The five broad personality traits described by the theory are
extraversion (also often spelled extroversion), agreeableness, openness,
conscientiousness, and neuroticism.
The five basic personality traits is a theory developed in 1949 by D. W. Fiske (1949) and
later expanded upon by other researchers including Norman (1967), Smith (1967),
Goldberg (1981), and McCrae & Costa (1987).
Researchers had spent years before trying to pin down character traits as a way of
analysing people’s behaviour. At one point, Gordon Allport found over 4000 traits. Even
when this was reduced to 16 it was seen as too complicated. This is where the five big
personality traits began.
These broad categories have been researched and developed over the years and, whilst
there is extensive study into each area, researchers don’t always agree on the definition
of each characteristic.
What are the big five personality traits?
Openness
Openness is a characteristic that includes imagination and insight. The world, other
people and an eagerness to learn and experience new things is particularly high for this
personality trait. It leads to having a broad range of interests and being more
adventurous when it comes to decision making.
Creativity also plays a big part in the openness trait; this leads to a greater comfort zone
when it comes to abstract and lateral thinking.
Think of that person who’s always ordering the most exotic thing on the menu, going to
different places and having interests which you would never have thought of… that is
someone who has a high openness trait.
Anyone low in this trait tends to be viewed with more traditional approaches to life and
may struggle when it comes to problem solving outside their comfort zone of
knowledge.
Conscientiousness
Conscientiousness is a trait that includes high levels of thoughtfulness, good impulse
control, and goal-directed behaviours. This organised and structured approach is often
found within people who work in science and even high-retail finance where detail
orientation and organisation are required as a skill set.
A highly conscientious person will regularly plan ahead and analyse their own behaviour
to see how it affects others. Project management teams and HR departments regularly
have highly conscientious people working in their teams to help balance out the
structural roles within the overall team development.
A good example of a conscientious person would be someone you know who is always
planning ahead for the next time you meet - and in the meantime, regularly staying in
contact, checking in on your wellbeing. They like to organise around certain dates and
events and are focused on you when you meet.
People low in conscientiousness tend to dislike structure and schedules, procrastinate on
important tasks and fail to complete tasks as well.
Extraversion
Extraversion (sometimes referred to as Extroversion) is a trait that many will have come
across in their own lives. It’s easily identifiable and widely recognisable as “someone who
gets energised in the company of others.”
This, amongst other traits which include, talkativeness, assertiveness and high amounts
of emotional expressiveness, have made extraverted people widely recognisable over
many years of social interaction.
We all have that one friend or family member - or several - who aren’t exactly wall
flowers in a social interaction. They thrive on being the centre of attention, enjoy
meeting new people and somehow tend to have the biggest friends and acquaintance
group you have known.
The opposite is, of course, someone else in our lives we may know, an introvert. They
prefer solitude and have less energy in social situations. Being at the centre of attention
or making small talk can be quite taxing.
Extroverts tend to have very public facing roles including areas such as sales, marketing,
teaching and politics. Seen as leaders, extroverted people will be more likely to lead than
stand in the crowd and be seen to not be doing anything.
Agreeableness
People who exhibit high agreeableness will show signs of trust, altruism, kindness, and
affection. Highly agreeable people tend to have high prosocial behaviours which means
that they’re more inclined to be helping other people.
Sharing, comforting and cooperating are traits that lend themselves to highly agreeable
personality types. Empathy towards others is commonly understood as another form of
agreeableness even if the term doesn’t quite fit.
The opposite to agreeableness is disagreeableness but it manifests in behaviour traits
that are socially unpleasant. Manipulation and nastiness towards others, a lack of caring
or sympathy, a lack of taking interest in others and their problems are all quite common.
Agreeable people tend to find careers in areas where they can help the most. Charity
workers, medicine, mental health and even those who volunteer in soup kitchens and
dedicate time to the third sector (social studies) are high in the agreeableness chart.
Neuroticism
Neuroticism is characterised by sadness, moodiness, and emotional instability. Often
mistaken for anti-social behaviour, or worse a greater psychological issue, neuroticism is
a physical and emotional response to stress and perceived threats in someone’s daily life.
Individuals who exhibit high levels of neuroticism will tend to experience mood swings,
anxiety and irritability. Some individuals who experience sudden changes in character
from a day-to-day perspective could be highly neurotic and respond to high stress levels
in their work and personal lives.
Anxiety, which plays a large part in the makeup of neuroticism, is about an individual's
ability to cope with stress and perceived or actual risk. People who suffer with
neuroticism will overthink a lot of situations and find difficulty in relaxing even in their
own space.
Of course, those who rank lower on the neurotic level will exhibit a more stable and
emotionally resilient attitude to stress and situations. Low neurotic sufferers also rarely
feel sad or depressed, taking the time to focus on the present moment and not get
involved in mental arithmetic on possible stress-inducing factors.
Who developed the big 5 personality traits?
Originally developed in 1949, the big 5 personality traits is a theory established by D. W.
Fiske and later expanded upon by other researchers including Norman (1967), Smith
(1967), Goldberg (1981), and McCrae & Costa (1987).
It’s suggested that as early the late 19th century social psychologists were trying to gain
a more scientific understanding of personality but it wasn’t until the first official study in
the 1930s by Gordon Allport and Henry Odbert that personality had some sort of
scientific acknowledgement. They took 18,000 words from Webster’s Dictionary to
describe personality traits and found adjectives that described non-physical
characteristics creating a 4500 word bank of observable behaviour markers.
Later studies were able to identify many overlaps and specific traits per person which
has allowed a more condensed and comprehensive review of personality traits. The big 5
are still widely used today as the basis of global study.
What factors influence the big 5 traits?
From nature and nurture to age and maturation, the big 5 traits have been widely
studied where we can see what influences their impact on a person’s behaviour and
character.
Personality has often been hypothesised as a question of nurture or nature. One
particular study looked at 123 pairs of identical twins and 127 pairs of fraternal twins.
“The findings suggested that the heritability of each trait was 53 percent for
extraversion, 41 percent for agreeableness, 44 percent for conscientiousness, 41
percent for neuroticism, and 61 percent for openness.”
It has also been widely recognised that the older we get, the more our behaviour traits
will change. We become less extraverted, less neurotic, and less open to
new experiences whilst our agreeableness and conscientiousness will grow as we get
older.
Do men and women differ with the big 5 traits?
The general consensus is that men and women are actually more alike than what
normative social science would have us believe. But as the title would suggest, there are
some exceptions.
Weinsberg and DeYoung in 2011 studied the big 5 traits and in particular Gender
Differences in Personality across the Ten Aspects of the Big Five. They concluded that
women tend to score higher on Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism than men.
Other studies have concluded that whilst the differences may be present, some traits are
not extensively separate. Getting older will tend to align behaviour traits such as
agreeableness and extraversion where both genders tend to score lower as time moves
on.
Big 5 personality traits tests
We can successfully measure personality traits with different tools and techniques. All in
all, these tests are trying to discover how much your behaviour varies from high to low in
the five traits which include; Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness
and Neuroticism.
How are the traits measured?
Traditionally, a big 5 personality test is taken with a questionnaire and a multiple choice
response.
For example, these questions will ask how much a person agrees or disagrees that he or
she is someone who exemplifies various specific statements, such as:
“Is open to trying new experiences” (for openness, or open-mindedness)
“Is always thinking about others” (for conscientiousness)
“Is the centre of attention at a party” (for extroversion)
“Is trusting of others” (for agreeableness)
“Is anxious about the future all the time” (for neuroticism, or negative
emotionality)
The responses, Strongly agree to Strongly Disagree (with alternatives in between) will
determine to what scale the person may be grouped into different personality traits.
Are big five personality tests reliable?
Assessments based on the big 5 personality tests are very reliable, provided that
sufficient research has been carried out and substantiated.
It is, to date, the most scientifically validated and reliable psychological model to
measure personality. It is used to help predict behaviour as well as personality.
It remains a dependable model that businesses and scientific studies have been able to
use consistently over a long period of time in helping to create new models, which
predict someone’s behaviour at work, response to stressful situations and even
understanding aspects of recorded social studies.
How do the big five personality traits predict behaviour at
work?
When hiring employees (or testing current ones), the big 5 personality traits help us
understand behaviour in the workplace and accurately predict, in many cases, future
performance. Each personality type will have an impact within the working environment
and amongst other staff. Being able to identify where there could be a positive or
negative impact can help influence decisions around hiring or retaining staff.
A candidate with a high openness score would be willing to learn new skills and tools.
Presented with more abstract problems, they are more likely to think of abstract
solutions and would be focused on tackling new problems that were perhaps previously
overlooked.
Candidates with a high conscientiousness score wouldn’t necessarily be sat at their desk
until midnight every evening! They would however be keen to get their work done, meet
deadlines and be a self-starter; requiring little hand-holding to get the task done.
Someone scoring low on the other hand, would need a lot more focus, time and
attention to the task at hand.
The ideal extraversion scores would depend on the role you’re hiring for. Seen by many
to be leaders in a team, a high extraversion score would do well in environments where
they thrive off interaction with others:; sales, marketing & PR all require a level of
people- facing skills. More technical job setups where specific focus or a degree of
isolation is needed would, however, not be a good fit.
A candidate who shows high agreeableness would suit a role where personal skills and
an ability to be at the service of others are needed. Of course, the opposite would be
bad in a strong team environment and cause significant issues in order to work towards a
common goal or task.
Finally, a candidate who exhibits high neuroticism will not be suited to a role where
there are consistent changes, tasks that require strong self-starter tendencies or high
stress levels. Those with low neuroticism scores will, however, thrive in these kinds of
workplace scenarios.
These traits help us to understand how we may behave in the future, in our workplace
and under certain circumstances as. For businesses, they can identify future talent,
derailers and even potential for success.
