Ocean – the Five Basic Personality Traits all People Share

The acronym OCEAN stands for the 5 basic personality traits. After all the years of psychological research and in distilling down all the attributes the most robust of the concepts for understanding people’s personalities are: Openness to experience, Conscientiousness, Extraversion/ Introversion, Agreeableness and Neuroticism.

The Big Five factors and their constituent traits can be summarized as follows:
• Openness - (inventive / curious vs. cautious / conservative) indicates appreciation for art, emotion, adventure, novel ideas and variety of experiences.
• Conscientiousness - (efficient / organized vs. easy-going / careless). A tendency to show self-discipline, act dutifully, and aim for high achievement with a preference for planned rather than spontaneous behaviour.
• Extraversion - (outgoing / energetic vs. shy / withdrawn). Energy, positive emotions, urgency and the tendency to seek stimulation in the company of others.
• Agreeableness - (friendly / compassionate vs. competitive / outspoken). A tendency to be compassionate and cooperative than suspicious and antagonistic toward others.
• Neuroticism - (sensitive / nervous vs. secure /confident). A tendency to experience unpleasant emotions easily, such as anger, anxiety, depression or vulnerability.

When scored for individual feedback, these traits are usually presented as percentile scores. For example, an Extroversion rating in the 5th percentile indicates an exceptional need for solitude and quiet. Although these trait clusters are statistical aggregates, exceptions may exist on individual personality profiles. On average, people who register high in Openness intellectually curious, open to emotion, interested in art, and willing to try new things. A particular individual, however, may have a high overall Openness score and be interested in learning and exploring new cultures but have no great interest in art or poetry. Situational influences also exist, as even extroverts may occasionally need time away from people.

If you are curious about where you stand on these dimensions you can take a test online at: http://www.outofservice.com/bigfive/

There you will get test results of your own like the ones below that will show you were you stand on the dimensions and what that might mean.

I'm a O90-C46-E59-A87-N22 Big Five!!

How to Read Minds

This video is fascinating and teaches us that there is a brain region that helps us to judge what other people are thinking or reasoning. This young neuroscientist is making an amazing contribution to what we understand of people and their thought processes. Have a look.

If you need a bit of help interpreting what I am thinking and why I am sharing this: I am sharing bits and pieces of information to enlighten what ever we discuss and/or to help us understand ourselves.

This Too Shall Pass

Take a look and see if this is cheering. The lyrics send a timeless message: This too shall pass.
Whether joyful or painful, the moment is fleeting.

Why then does the painful seem to last so much longer? Our brains give negative information twice as much attention as pleasant input. Why then would we be made that way? I think the answer is easy to guess. Pleasure and pleasant things are unlikely to harm us while things that cause pain just might!
Knowing that should help us to be a bit more patient in the darker times and anticipate the dawn as this song suggests.

Proximal Development

Lev Vygotsky


I remember telling my children when they were little and an adult had behaved badly, disappointing or astounding the child that we all had to understand that no body grows up all at once. I tried to help them understand that human maturity looked more like a bar graph. I told them some people could have great big bodies but that in kindness they could be very small. One person could be amazing in math but not as good at public speaking. Another could be a great artist but poor at sharing.

The point is that the video above refers to a concept of proximal learning. We all, no matter what stage of life we are at can learn from others and their accomplishments. Someone may find it easy to do what you find hard to do. Observe. Learn. If they are willing buddy up and trade skills and or get instruction from them.

The purpose of this site is to provide resources that might give us an 'ah ha' moment or a glimpse of a door in the wall that is blocking your advancement.