A FaceBook App Based on the Big 5 Personality Dimensions

As we all know, the vast majority of FaceBook applications are annoyingly silly and a complete waste of time. And, as we all know, the vast majority of popular online personality tests are also annoyingly silly and a complete waste of time.

What a huge surprise it was, then, to find this really good FaceBook personality test application: My Personality

The great thing about this test is that it actually measures the Big 5 personality dimensions, one of more scientifically validated frameworks for characterising individual differences. The important thing to understand about the Big 5 traits is that they were identified using a statistical procedure called factor analysis. Essentially, a very large sample of people were given a very long list of adjectives and were asked to rate someone they knew on these adjectives. These ratings were then analysed to identify clumps of adjectives that vary together. For example, people who are rated as being very 'happy', might, on average, tend to be rated as being very 'cheerful'. Thus both of these adjectives could be seen as tapping an underlying 'happy' factor. Factor analysis examines the relationships between all possible combinations of adjectives seeking to extract the underlying factors.

Using this procedure, five major clumps (factors) were identified and given a label based on what the items in each clump seemed to have in common. They are:

- Openness
- Conscientiousness
- Extraversion
- Agreeableness
- Neuroticism

The mnemonic is OCEAN.

These dimensions are continuous and independant of each other. Different people will have different 'amounts' of each one and the mix accounts for a reasonable amount of your stable core personality. And these dimensions weren't plucked out of the air, they arise from the trends in the way people actually differ (or at least the way people describe the way that people differ).

No, these dimensions don't predict everything you'll ever do, no they don't account for all of the differences between people, and yes, there is some personality change over the life span. But the Big 5 do seem to account for a good deal of stable individual differences; these factors come up again and again in personality research. Research, of course, continues into refining this model and understanding the underlying causes of these dimensions. And as with everything, the Big 5 has its detractors.

It's also important to note that there's nothing good or bad about where a person lies on these dimensions. Some of the labels (e.g., openness and agreeableness) might seem to suggest that the more than the better. I mean, who'd want to be disagreeable. But there's advantages and disadvantages to all personality traits. It's horses for courses.

Anyway, so the My Personality FaceBook app taps these dimensions using items from the International Personality Item Pool. You start with 10 items, but you can do a full 100 if you decide (and I recommend that you do do the full 100 to increase the reliability). You can then post your results to your facebook profile, compare yourself with friends, and search for a 'personality twin' amongst other users. You can also invite friends to give their ratings of your personality to see how their perspective differs from your own. (Be careful, however, of mischevous people who might seek to screw with your results. You know who you are!)

The test is just for fun, and most people won't take it seriously, but I quite like the idea of making this kind of info available to my friends. I'd like to think that, just maybe, it might help them deal with me better. Or that someone out there looking for an conscientious-introvert to converse with might stumble on my profile.

My Personality is a good example of what a facebook app should be, an innovative interpersonal lubricant, a tool for connecting with people over the internet in a meaningful way...more than just a never ending flood of notifications that one has just been bitten by a virtual zombie, scorched by a virtual dragon, or been gifted a picture of a kitten eating a cupcake.

You can find My Personality here.