Using OCEAN to Interview
A strong, valid framework in psychology is the Big-5, a long
established set of personality traits known by the acronym CANOE or
OCEAN:
 Openness (to experience)
 Conscientiousness
 Extroversion
 Agreeableness
 Neuroticism
IQ, more sure ground in psychology, loads heavily onto “Openness”,
and IQ and conscientiousness are the best predictors of lifelong success
in life. Most of the negative emotions load on “Neuroticism”. Another pair
of traits under consideration for inclusion is honesty and humility, as a
possible sixth trait1.
Dr. Jordan B. Peterson, a professor of psychology at the University of
Toronto, specifies that we know some things exist in psychology: IQ and
the Big-5 personality traits. Maybe other things exist but (as of now)
there is no credible evidence to support their sure existence; much of life
is faith. No one has ever challenged the weak hypothesis or weak claim of
the Big-5 theorists:
“Insofar as you can measure personality with language, you are going
to measure one or more of the Big-5 traits well or badly.2”
This means that the only thing that any survey ever measures, well or
badly, is one or more of the Big-5 personality traits. An interview is a
type of survey, and intrinsic motivation is the most important trait of a
prospective employee.
Intrinsic motivation or engagement in the classroom is particularly
important because it works “as a behavioral pathway through which
students’ motivational processes contribute to their subsequent learning
and development” including the development of skills and the grades
they obtain (588). In an engaged classroom, “there is almost always
some aspect of the teacher’s behavior that plays a role in the initiation
and regulation of the engagement” (588)3. Brain research adds a
secondary perspective on intrinsic motivation, making it “more real” or
further validating the construct, an application of the multi-method of
construct (measurement) validation.
fMRI results confirm previous research findings showing that the
posterior cingulate cortex (PCC) is more activated in the extrinsic
motivation condition. Breaking new ground in neural research, the FMRI
results also showed that the insular cortex was more activated in the
intrinsic motivation condition4.
The general function of the insular cortex is emotional processing.
Studies on addiction and craving suggest that the insular cortex relates to
hedonic feelings generated by bodily need satisfactions. Intrinsic
motivation uses “gut-felt” decision making, whereas the choice of
extrinsic motivation calculates cost-benefit analyses. The neural evidence
from one fMRI study supports the assumptions of intrinsic motivation
theorists who propose that human motivation is not singular; they argue
that qualitatively different types of motivation exist. These theorists
define intrinsic motivation as that which arises from the satisfaction of
inherent psychological needs (for autonomy and competence)4.
Lastly, although most psychological research has only looked at the
place or setting insofar as it influences intrinsic motivation, a study by
Japanese researchers included the people-side, the intrinsic motivation
that a worker may bring to a situation5. Both sides obviously affect
intrinsic motivation, and in an employee intrinsic motivation presents an
obvious asset. The authors state the key finding as follows: “both
personality and job content factors are strongly correlated with intrinsic
motivation”. In the past, most research focused simply on job content
(the environment) and not on the personality traits of the people in the
study. Watanabe and Kanazawa, seeing the wisdom of looking at intrinsic
motivation from both the people-side and the environmental-side, have
contributed a new path of research, a helpful, more balanced view of the
intrinsic motivational theory5.
Scores on conscientiousness and openness did not correlate, which
indicates that these constructs are dissimilar. Age, positively linked to
intrinsic motivation in past studies, did not reach statistical significance.
This study demonstrates that stable personality traits that are “inside” of
the person could also be significant sources of intrinsic motivation. A
theme of this study is the notion that motivation is a function of both
person and situation factors; this point was proven empirically5.
A practical implication from this research by Watanabe and
Kanazawa is that one way to increase the levels of people’s intrinsic
motivation in the organization is to hire people who are high on openness
and conscientiousness. Twelve measures from McCrae and Costa’s (1985)
eighty bipolar adjectives scale were selected to measure personality
traits. Six measures applied to conscientiousness (negligentconscientious, careless-careful, undependable-reliable, lazy-hardworking,
disorganized-organized, and lax-scrupulous). The other six measures
applied to openness to experience (conventional-original, down to earthimaginative, uncreative-creative, narrow interests-broad interests,
unadventurous-daring, and prefer routine-prefer variety)5.
For use in an interview, these bipolar adjectival scales have been cast
into statements, to be evaluated with a Likert scale.
1)
“I organize my space and work to keep things running
smoothly.” (5 is best)
2)
“I avoid hard work; I prefer to take it easy, doing only the bare
minimum.” (1 is best)
3)
“I am not very demanding or careful as a teacher.” (1 is best)
strongly disagree
1
4)
strongly agree
2
3
4
5
“When doing something, I almost always pay attention to the
details”. (5 is best)
5)
“At work, I always do what I say I will do or what is reasonably
demanded of me.” (5 is best)
6)
“I like to do things as fast as possible, even carelessly.” (1 is
best)
7)
“I am down to earth not very imaginative.” (1 is best)
8)
“My interests are narrow not wide.” (1 is best)
9)
“I see myself as a highly creative person.” (5 is best)
strongly disagree
1
strongly agree
2
3
4
5
10) “I like to do the same things all the time; I dislike variety and
change.” (1 is best)
11) “I often come up with original ideas by disregarding generally
believed ideas”. (5 is best)
12) “I am daring, an experimenter who always likes trying new
things.” (5 is best)
Works Cited
Nahai, Nathalie. “The Big 5 Personality Traits.” YouTube. 19 February
2014. Web. 12 December 2015.
1
Peterson, Jordan B. “Personality: 14 Existentialism: Solzhenitsyn /
Intro to Biology & Psychometrics.” YouTube. University of Toronto
PSY230. 4 March 2015. 1:19 to 1:22:44. Web. 12 December 2015.
2
Jang, Hyungshim; Johnmarshall Reeve; and Edward L. Deci. Journal
of Educational Psychology. “Engaging Students in Learning Activities: It is
Not Autonomy Support or Structure but Autonomy Support and
Structure.” American Psychological Association: 2010, Vol. 102, No. 3,
588–600. Web. 20 October 2015.
3
Lee, Woogul; Johnmarshall Reeve; Yiqun Xue and Jinhu Xiong.
Neuroscience Research. “Neural differences between intrinsic reasons for
doing versus extrinsic reasons for doing: An fMRI study.” Elsevier Ireland
Ltd and the Japan Neuroscience Society: 1 March 2012, 73, 68–72. Web.
20 October 2015.
4
Watanabe, Shinichiro; and Yuichiro Kanazawa. Japanese Journal of
Administrative Science. “A Test of Personality-Based View of Intrinsic
Motivation” Volume 22, No. 2, 2009, 117-130.
5