Free Activity: Personality Profile

You’ve probably been told that your personality is unique, and that’s true -- if we all had the same one, we’d all be behaving the same way, and that would get boring really quickly. Also, different personalities fit well with different types of jobs – you can imagine the personality of a computer scientist may not be the same as that of a circus clown (even if they both wear big huge glasses). In the following section, you’ll read the description of an imaginary person’s job and create a five factor model of their personality that you think they’ll need to do their job as best they can. There’s no right or wrong answer here -- but you do have to explain your reasoning!

Click here to download and print the activity below.

This is Nina. As a travel blogger, it’s her job to travel all over the world and take part in as many experiences as each culture has to offer -- then she writes about them. Nina works alone, and only has to communicate with the people of each culture and with her editor, who she only writes to in emails. She’s free to write whatever she wants, but must meet her deadlines without failure. Frequent travel can be stressful, but since she writes on her own time, her stress doesn’t show up in her work, and she doesn’t mind the hustle and bustle.

1. Create a personality for Nina! Circle each number only once.

- Openness: 1 2 3 4 5

- Conscientiousness: 1 2 3 4 5

- Extraversion: 1 2 3 4 5

- Agreeableness: 1 2 3 4 5

- Neuroticism: 1 2 3 4 5

2. Which trait did you rate highest? ___________________________

3. Why did you pick that trait? _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________

4. Which trait did you rate lowest? ____________________________

5. Why did you pick that trait? _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________

This is Joe. He drives around and delivers pizza. Lots of people in Joe’s town want pizza, so he needs to make sure he moves on a tight schedule. Joe has to always deliver on time, needs to deliver the right pizza to the right house, make sure people sign the receipts, and keep all the money carefully in order. Joe spends most of his time alone in his car, but does have to maintain light and friendly interactions with the people to which he delivers. The work is mostly the same every day, but Joe doesn’t mind -- he likes knowing exactly what’s expected of him.

1. Create a personality for Joe! Circle each number only once.

- Openness: 1 2 3 4 5

- Conscientiousness: 1 2 3 4 5

- Extraversion: 1 2 3 4 5

- Agreeableness: 1 2 3 4 5

- Neuroticism: 1 2 3 4 5

2. Which trait did you rate highest? ___________________________

3. Why did you pick that trait? _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________

4. Which trait did you rate lowest? ____________________________

5. Why did you pick that trait? _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________

This is Franklin. He writes romantic poetry. When does he write? Whenever inspiration strikes him! Franklin’s poems are full of heartbreak, sorrow, nostalgia and longing, and he must be feeling each of these deeply to create his most compelling work. Once his poems are done, he sends them to his publisher who takes care of the nuts and bolts. Although Franklin works alone, he often gets inspired by the people in his life, and must socialize often to keep the creative juices flowing. However, they don’t always need to get along -- conflict is the core of art!

1. Create a personality for Franklin! Circle each number only once.

- Openness: 1 2 3 4 5

- Conscientiousness: 1 2 3 4 5

- Extraversion: 1 2 3 4 5

- Agreeableness: 1 2 3 4 5

- Neuroticism: 1 2 3 4 5

2. Which trait did you rate highest? ___________________________

3. Why did you pick that trait? _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________

4. Which trait did you rate lowest? ____________________________

5. Why did you pick that trait? _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________

This is Marisol. She’s a congresswoman, and is in charge of representing the people of her district. To know what the people want, Marisol has to be constantly out talking to her voters, shaking hands, getting to know them, and especially charming them enough to win their votes. It’s not always easy working in politics -- Marisol has to work with many personalities, make compromises, cooperate, and empathize deeply with the people she’s been tasked to help. Being in the public spotlight is a lot of pressure, and Marisol needs to keep her cool under it.

1. Create a personality for Marisol! Circle each number only once.

- Openness: 1 2 3 4 5

- Conscientiousness: 1 2 3 4 5

- Extraversion: 1 2 3 4 5

- Agreeableness: 1 2 3 4 5

- Neuroticism: 1 2 3 4 5

2. Which trait did you rate highest? ___________________________

3. Why did you pick that trait? _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________

4. Which trait did you rate lowest? ____________________________

5. Why did you pick that trait? _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________

This is Angela. She’s a government spy. In her line of work (at least what she can reveal about it) she moves all over the world charming, schmoozing, and occasionally lying to highly powerful figures. Though Angela has to be comfortable meeting and getting to know many people, it’s not her job to be their friend -- it’s her job to keep her country safe. If it comes down to making people happy or protecting her homeland, she’ll disappoint her contacts every time. Angela needs to always be ready for any assignment, and she is -- she knows what’s at stake.

1. Create a personality for Angela! Circle each number only once.

- Openness: 1 2 3 4 5

- Conscientiousness: 1 2 3 4 5

- Extraversion: 1 2 3 4 5

- Agreeableness: 1 2 3 4 5

- Neuroticism: 1 2 3 4 5

2. Which trait did you rate highest? ___________________________

3. Why did you pick that trait? _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________

4. Which trait did you rate lowest? ____________________________

5. Why did you pick that trait? _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________

Possible Answers

1. It’s likely students will rate Nina high in openness due to the range of experiences she’ll be having. Because she works mostly alone, she can afford low extraversion/agreeableness, and a mid level of conscientiousness and neuroticism.
2. Students will probably rate Joe high in conscientiousness for the detail oriented nature of his work, but low in openness for the similarity of each day, with agreeableness and extraversion in between.
3. The emotional aspect of Franklin’s work would lend itself to high neuroticism. His publisher allows for low conscientiousness, and his need for human interactions (though not necessarily positive ones) puts extraversion and openness around 3 or 4.
4. Marisol’s need to “keep her cool” necessitates low neuroticism, and the compromise-driven nature of the work suggest high agreeableness. The public engagement will probably get her a high extraversion rating too.
5. Angela is interacting with a lot of people who she doesn’t need to please, so she can have high extraversion but low agreeableness. Being ready for any assignment would require a mid to high level of openness.