Chapter 14:
Personality Tests:
The Big Five &
Type A vs. B
Mr. McCormick
Psychology
The Big Five

The Big Five:
Five broad dimensions that are used to describe
human personality
 Developed by Paul Costa and Robert McCrae
 Five dimensions assessed:

Openness (“Open” vs. “Closed”)
 Conscientiousness (“Conscientious” vs. “Spontaneous”)
 Agreeableness (“Agreeable” vs. “Hostile”)
 Extraversion (“Extraverted” vs. “Introverted”)
 Neuroticism (“Neurotic” vs. “Stable”)

Dimensions of The Big Five
The Big Five:
High and Low Scores
Type A vs. B Personality

Type A vs. B Personality:
Two major personality types
 Controversial idea
 Not entirely supported by modern psychology
 Established by Meyer Friedman and Ray Rosenman
(1950’s):

9 year study of 3,000 healthy men ages 35-59
 By the end of the study, nearly 257 men had suffered
from heart attacks
 69% were Type A
 No “pure” Type B suffered from coronary heart disease

Type A vs. B Personality

Type A:
Structured
 Competitive
 Hardworking
 Easily stressed
 Impatient
 Aggressive
 Anger prone
 Sense of urgency
 Less social


Type B:
Less structured
 Less competitive
 Easy-going
 Less easily stressed
 Patient
 Less aggressive
 Less anger prone
 Relaxed
 Social

Type A vs. B Personality
The Big Five
Find out what you score
on the Big Five!
Take the test:
http://www.outofservice.com/bigfive/
Type A vs. B
Find out whether your
personality is more
Type A or B!
Take the test:
http://www.psych.uncc.edu/pagoolka/typea-b-intro.html