Presenter: Jack Berry

Mini Conference Reboot: Faculty and staff are often familiar with personality assessments such as the Enneagram and the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, tools that are popular, intuitive, and widely used in professional and spiritual development contexts. Despite their popularity, these assessment systems have well-documented measurement limitations, such as poor stability of personality type over time. Fewer faculty are familiar with the more scientifically robust Big Five model of personality. The Big Five— Openness to Experience, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism (OCEAN)—is one of the most widely studied and empirically supported models in contemporary personality psychology. In this session, participants will be invited to complete a brief (10-tem), validated measure of the Big Five traits (a QR Code will be provided) and to use their own results as a starting point for understanding the model. The presentation will describe the origins of the Big Five, explain what each trait means, and how the traits differ from popular “type” approaches to personality. The session will then consider how Big Five traits are related to academic performance indicators such as grades (achievement), intelligence (aptitude), learning styles, and classroom behavior and engagement. Attention will also be given to how personality may shape students’ interests and vocational choices (such as research on personality profiles of scientists versus creative artists) and which traits influence job performance across different occupations—knowledge that could be useful in advising.