personality of high achievers
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The two personality traits shared by high achievers

Everybody wants to be a success, but what exactly does it take to be high achieving? Are some people more pre-wired to be successful than others? According to new research in the journal Personality and Individual Differences by a team at the University of Applied Sciences Northwestern Switzerland (FHNW), it may be necessary to dig deeper into an existing understanding of achievement based on the big five personality traits to find the answer.

Personality researchers have broken down the study to five traits: openness (the tendency to be open to new ideas), conscientiousness (having a good work ethic), extraversion (the tendency to be social), agreeableness (relations with other people) and neuroticism (how likely you are to feel negative emotions)

Before we dig into the big five traits, we should take a moment to explore what they actually are. Personality researchers have broken down the study to five traits: openness (the tendency to be open to new ideas), conscientiousness (having a good work ethic), extraversion (the tendency to be social), agreeableness (relations with other people), and neuroticism (how likely you are to feel negative emotions). According to Nick Haslamprofessor of psychology at the University of Melbourne: “You need five dimensions to map the personality universe, just like you need three dimensions to measure space.”

These five traits have been based on decades of empirical work into personality structure, and we all have different aspects of each. They’re independent and unrelated and, according to some research, it’s possible to intentionally increase these traits, thus altering your personality. Important, personality traits are different from the question of personality types, measured by things like the Myers-Briggs test.

How does this feed into the question of achievement? According to the authors of the research: “The two factors within the five-factor model of personality most frequently associated with achievement are conscientiousness and openness. Whereas conscientiousness encompasses numerous traits with relevance for learning success, such as achievement striving, diligence, and self-discipline, openness has been linked to academically advantageous qualities such as curiosity, independent-mindedness, and educational attitude.”

Further research suggests that both conscientiousness and openness are each comprised of two sub-dimensions. In the case of the latter, we have senso-aesthetic openness (the preference for sensory and perceptual exploration, and immersion in creative things like art), and then intellectual openness (the preference for intellectual and cognitive stimulation). Conscientiousness, meanwhile, is broken down into orderliness (the preference for routines and deliberation) and industriousness (the tendency to stay focused and pursue goals in a determined way).

It is intellectual openness and industriousness that indicate high achievement

Earlier research suggested that being high in openness and conscientiousness led to high achievement, but the FHNW complicates this understanding – it finds that it is intellectual openness and industriousness that indicate high achievement. Indeed, those with higher levels of senso-aesthetic openness and orderliness were associated with slightly lower levels of achievement.

This was a result derived by administering a series of personality tests to 424 Swiss undergraduate students. They were asked to list their current grade averages, and then to complete the Subjective Academic Achievement Scale, rating their agreement with statements like ‘my grades are appropriate for my effort’ and ‘I progress adequately fast in my studies’. According to the research paper: “There were noticeable differences between the two openness aspects. While intellectual openness correlated with GPA and subjective achievement, senso-aesthetic openness did not.” The same pattern was observable in the industriousness sub-traits.

As the authors write: “Although openness has been associated with academic achievement since the very emergence of the five-factor model of personality, most studies have yielded rather disappointing results so far. The present study corroborated the notion that the low association between overall openness and academic achievement stems from the opposing effects of the two aspects, namely intellectual and senso-aesthetic openness.”

The FHNW research is important because it indicates how we may approach improving our academic and career performance to achieve more. If you behave in ways that increase your intellectual curiosity and industriousness, you’re likely to see more success down the line. Achievement is within all of our grasps, and this research indicates how to get your hands firmly around it.

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