A Study on the Impact of Big Five Personality Traits on Consciousness

Abstract

Personality is the set of psychological traits and mechanisms within the individual that are organized and relatively enduring and that influence their interactions with, and adaptations to, the intra psychic, physical, and social environments. Personality is the factor which influences other functioning of the individuals, keeping this view in mind its relation with consciousness was thought to be explored, which is awareness, the ability to experience or to feel, wakefulness, having a sense of selfhood, and the executive control system of the mind. Hence, this study was designed to understand the relationship between big five personality traits and consciousness, for this, the data was collected from 200 working and non-working males and females in the age range of 22 to 30 years. Sample was chosen from Banasthali Vidyapith, Tonk; Rajiv Gandhi Technical Institute, Raibarely; and Wipro Company, Bangalore. Measures used were self-consciousness scale (Fenigstein, Scheier &Buss 1975) which is a 23 item questionnaire and personality questionnaire: NEO Five-Factor Inventory-3 (NEO-FFI-3). This questionnaire was developed by Paul T. Costa, Jr and Robert R. McCrae (1989). The result indicated that openness and conscientiousness are significantly positively related with consciousness and openness emerged out as the significant predictor of consciousness. Also the significant difference was found between males and females in terms of consciousness. This study is unique in its endeavor and creates scope for further exploration in this field.