Ian Nance and Joey Bugenstein

The Big Five Personality Trait Theory Survey Analysis

All 20 questions were broken into 5 groups in order to measure certain traits:
Extraversion:
How talkative do you consider yourself to be?
Are you an outgoing person?
Are you energetic?
Would you describe yourself as quiet and reserved?
Agreeableness:
Do you often find yourself feeling sympathy for others?
Do you tend to give people the benefit of the doubt?
Is it easy for you to work with others?
Are you modest?
Conscientiousness:
Do you tend to follow through with your goals?
Do you consider yourself to be lazy?
Are you a neat and orderly person?
Are you a careless person?
Neuroticism:
How often are you anxious?
Are you an emotionally stable person?
Are you easily angered?
Are you a worrier?
Openness to Experience:

Ian Nance and Joey Bugenstein

Do you often try to think of new ideas?
Are you adventurous?
Are you a curious person?
Do you prefer to have things in a routine?

These questions were designed to target each of the 5 traits. Various multiple choice
answers were used to analyze where each volunteer fell on the spectrum of each trait. For
example, responding Very stable to Are you emotionally stable? indicates that a participant
is low on the neuroticism scale. Therefore, these surveys were heavily analyzed according to The
Big Five Personality Trait Theory.
When analyzing the data, it is evident that those who participated in the survey are very
quick to believe that they are excellent, outstanding people. Specifically, my participants tended
to claim that they exhibit high extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and openness to
experience. Meanwhile, nearly everyone stated that they were in no way neurotic. For example,
when asked if they were adventurous, 7/10 participants claimed that they were very open to new
experiences. Likewise, 9/10 claimed that thinking of new ideas is personally a common
occurrence. I believe this may be misleading, as it speaks to the fact that individuals tend to fall
victim to Alfred Adlers, Superiority Complex.
Looking at the individual responses as opposed to the responses of the entire group, the
same can be said. Individuals responded in a way which indicates that they hold themselves to a
high standard. Some information about the Big Five Theory was still provided. For example, the
line between introvert and extrovert was clear in a few individuals, and conscientiousness varied
among a few participants, because some were aware of their laziness. But overall, Alfred Adlers
Superiority Complex was heavily supported by the unintentionally biased responses.