The Importance of the Traits of the Big Five Model as they Relate to Grit13

The Importance of the Traits of the Big Five Model as they Relate to Grit

By Erik H. Walther

University of California, Davis

Abstract

This research paper expands and explores the connection between the “Big Five” and grit briefly touched upon in Angela Duckworth’s Grit: Perseverance and passion for long-term goals (et. al, 2007). Included is Duckworth’s definition of grit. Following that is a brief coverage of “Big Five” models and Taxonomy. After explaining the selection of Goldberg’s model, each factor will be interpreted according to its grittiness, with particularly gritty traits noted.  The author will supplement his personal opinion with the opinion of a fellow student to justify the list of gritty traits. The findings presented here indicate that the traits of “Big Five” Conscientiousness and related traits are the most conducive to grit.

The Importance of the Traits of the Big Five Model as they Relate to Grit

Higher education presents its participants with various direct and indirect challenges. In Emily Hanford’s (2012) popular article about traits of successful college students, she states that “college can be a difficult and confusing experience even for people who come from college-educated families.” However, Hanford writes that those students who succeed, regardless of their intelligence, possess “grit” as one of their defining characteristics (2012). This proposal is heavily influenced by Angela Duckworth, who Hanford (2012) cited for the development of the “grit scale” and the use of grit as a predictor of success. Duckworth records the development of the “grit scale” in her co-authored work, “Grit: Perseverance and passion for long-term goals” (Duckworth, Kelly, Matthews, & Peterson, 2007), where the definition of grit is given in the article’s title.

Within her work, Duckworth makes mention of a “descriptive framework” of personality traits that predict success, from which her grit scale drew inspiration, known as the “Big Five model” (Duckworth et. al, 2007). However, this model of personality traits happens to be a contested point of taxonomy amongst personality researchers; the issue is that “everyone has his or her own version of the Big Five” (John, 1990, p. 92). The names for the five main factors, the titular “Big Five,” can vary between researchers. Furthermore, existing within each main factor are traits, personality-descriptive terms (Goldberg, 1990) that further define the “Big Five.” These traits also tend to differ between studies, though the overall meaning they lend to the “Big Five” remains unchanged (McCrae & Costa, 1987). Even Duckworth, who expected that grit would “be associated with Big Five Conscientiousness” (Duckworth et. al, 2007), thought that the list of traits was not worth studying. Given all this, it seems extremely difficult to draw any sort of correlation between the “Big Five” and grit, although I managed to do so.

Using an agreeable model of the “Big Five” factors, I determined which factors and traits are most conducive to grittiness and success. Traits were eliminated or chosen based on their relevance to grit. I validated Duckworth et al.’s (2007) previous expectations about the “Big Five” and grit and showed which other traits may apply to being gritty. My research shows that Big Five Conscientiousness is closely related to grit and that there are traits from other factors that also apply to grittiness.

A Complete Definition of Grit

The following is Duckworth et al.’s (2007) complete definition of grit:

We define grit as perseverance and passion for long-term goals. Grit entails working strenuously toward challenges, maintaining effort and interest over years despite failure, adversity, and plateaus in progress. The gritty individual approaches achievement as a marathon; his or her advantage is stamina. Whereas disappointment or boredom signals to others that it is time to change trajectory and cut losses, the gritty individual stays the course.

I shall use this definition to determine the grittiness of a factor or trait using my interpretation of the given factor. These definitions, originally “selected from unabridged English dictionaries” (Goldberg, 1990), are fairly straightforward to understand; no definitions specific to the field of personality research are employed.

Selecting an Adequate “Big Five” Model

M. R. Barrick and M. K. Mount (1991) offer a thorough explanation of the interpretations of the “Big Five.” They note that “there is some disagreement about their precise meaning” (Barrick & Mount, 1991). Despite this, Barrick and Mount (1991) state that “there is a great deal of commonality in the traits that define each factor, even though the name attached to the factor differs.”

After browsing models referenced in Barrick and Mount’s (1990) work, I decided to use Goldberg’s (1992) model. Goldberg’s model is well organized, consisting of 50 bipolar trait scales which each offer both a trait and an antonymous partner (1992). The 50 scales can be seen in Table 1, made in Goldberg’s (1992) study, where he asked 200 students to associate each trait with a “Big Five” factor. I shall evaluate the grittiness of each factor using this model.

Goldberg’s five factors are (I) Surgency (II) Agreeableness, (III) Conscientiousness (IV) Emotional Stability, and (V) Intelligence (1992). The following section is the personality researcher community’s interpretations of the “Big Five” as recorded by Barrick and Mount (1990), which offers synonymous terms to describe each factor and examples of traits.

Goldberg’s Five Factors Defined by Barrick and Mount

Factor (I) is known as Surgency or Extraversion (Barrick & Mount, 1991). Traits frequently associated with Surgency include being sociable, gregarious, assertive, talkative, and active (Barrick & Mount, 1991). This factor describes an individual’s capacity to be social.

Factor (II) is named Agreeableness or Likability (Barrick & Mount, 1991). However, other monikers for this factor include Friendliness, Social Conformity, Compliance vs. Hostile Non-Compliance, and even Love (Barrick & Mount, 1991). The traits for this factor are “being courteous, flexible, trusting, good-natured, cooperative, forgiving, soft-hearted, and tolerant” (Barrick & Mount, 1991). This factor measures how enjoyable an individual is to be with or how agreeable they are.

Factor (III), the most important to validating Duckworth’s claim, is known as Conscientiousness or Conscience (Barrick & Mount, 1991). Barrick and Mount (1991) offer a gritty interpretation, stating that “because of its relationship to a variety of educational achievement measures and its association with volition, it has also been called Will to Achieve or Will,” or simply Work. Researchers attribute “careful, thorough, responsible, organized, and planful,” in addition to volitional traits such as “hardworking, achievement-oriented, and persevering” (Barrick & Mount, 1991) to factor (III). Factor (III) represents an individual’s ability to achieve.

Factor (IV) is referred to as Emotional Stability, Stability, Emotionality, or Neuroticism (Barrick & Mount, 1991). Barrick and Mount (1991) describe this factor by traits carrying negative connotations, stating that “common traits associated with this factor include being anxious, depressed, angry, embarrassed, emotional, worried, and insecure.” This factor is a measure of the state of one’s emotions.

According to Barrick and Mount (1991), factor (V) can be Intelligence or Intellect, Openness to Experience, culture, or even all three at once (Barrick & Mount, 1991). Traits commonly associated with this factor include “imaginative, cultured, curious, original, broad-minded, intelligent, and artistically sensitive” (Barrick & Mount, 1991). The fifth factor relates to the acquisition and breadth of an individual’s knowledge.

Traits Conducive to Grittiness

The following is my evaluation of the “Big Five,” using the Duckworth et al. (2007) definition in tandem with Goldberg’s (1992) model and an English dictionary, as they apply to achievement through grittiness. Close attention should be paid to factor (III)’s columns in Goldberg’s (1992) Table 1, as the bold-faced numbers, when present in both columns, tend to indicate gritty traits by association with Conscientiousness. For brevity, the bipolar trait-scales are denoted by their positive halves.

Factor (I), Surgency, is completely bereft of gritty traits. As a factor intended solely for the measure of social life, it plays little role in the long-term perseverance associated with grit. Traits found in factor (I), such as talkative and spontaneous, are either unrelated or antonymous regarding grit.

Factor (II), Agreeableness, has little to do with grit. Factor (II) is similar to factor (I) in that its traits are largely focused on social behavior; this can be observed from traits such as kind, polite, and generous. Curiously, student responses favored fair as a possible factor (III) trait. In the context of Goldberg’s (1992) study, though, it means unbiased in the treatment of individuals or ideas (“fair”, 2015). Given the large amount of other possible definitions for the word “fair,” it is likely the students misinterpreted the meaning in this case.

Factor (III), Conscientiousness, is the grittiest factor of the “Big Five.” Factor (III) reflects responsibility for one’s own fate, the ability to work hard and reliably, and generally supporting one’s decisions in the long run. Thrifty is the only trait that seems unsuitable for this factor, a sentiment reflected by the student responses, due to its economical connotations. However, thrifty can also be defined as thriving (“thrifty”, 2015).

Factor (IV), Emotional Stability, is unique for being the only factor besides factor (III) to offer at least one gritty trait. Most of the traits in factor (IV) represent fleeting emotional states, with one exception: stable. Being stable is certainly a valid description of the ability to remain dedicated to a cause, and the student responses suggest that it is a possible gritty trait.

Factor (V), Intelligence, is empty of gritty traits. All traits found here apply to an individual’s intellect.

In total, I found eleven traits conducive to grit: organized, responsible, reliable, conscientious, practical, thorough, hardworking, thrifty, cautious, serious, and stable.

Interview with a Fellow Student

I interviewed Gabriel Freund (March 2, 2015), a math student enrolled with me in MAT021D, in order to get another opinion on the grittiness of my chosen traits. At the start of the interview, I asked him to read the definition of grit provided by Duckworth (2007) and, bearing it in mind, to recall a time when grit helped him succeed in his experience with Calculus. He obliged, stating that he had never once received a grade below an A in a math class before he experienced college calculus. He scored a C on an exam, which made him want to “drop the class.” However, he stuck with it, worked harder than before and eventually got an A in the class. I handed him a list of the eleven gritty traits and asked him whether or not the traits seemed gritty while bearing his experience in mind. If he disagreed with any of the terms regarding grittiness, I asked him to explain why he disagreed. Freund agreed with all the traits being conducive to grittiness except for cautious. He said “if you’re going to be gritty, you can’t be cautious.” Freund said the word cautious carries fearful connotations and that possessing grit requires not being afraid to stick with the plan and finish what you start. I had initially interpreted cautious as being careful about deciding when to abandon a goal or passion, so Freund’s interpretation surprised me. However, I still hold my interpretation of cautious as final.

Conclusion

The implication that grit and achievement are most closely associated with Conscientiousness of the “Big Five” model (Duckworth et. al, 2007) is well-founded. However, using Goldberg’s (1992) model, I discovered that gritty traits are not necessarily limited to factor (III). Currently, Emotional Stability is the second most promising provider of gritty traits. By finding the link between the well-established “Big Five” and Duckworth et. al’s (2007) “grit scale,” further studies into the field of academic achievement now have a means to measure grit in terms of the “Big Five” and to test the importance of grit to success using traits.

References

Barrick, M. R., & Mount, M. K. (1991). The Big Five personality dimensions and job performance: A meta-analysis. Personnel Psychology, 44, 1–26.

Costa, P. T., Jr., & McCrae, R. R. (1987). Validation of the five-factor model of personality across instruments and observers. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 52, 81–90.

Duckworth, A. L., Kelly, D. R., Matthews, M. D., & Peterson, C. (2007). Grit: Perseverance and passion for long-term goals. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 92(6), 1087-1081.

fair. 2015. In Merriam-Webster.com. Retrieved March 1, 2015, from http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fair .

Goldberg, L. R. (1990). An alternative “description of personality”: The Big-Five factor structure. Journal of Personality And Social Psychology, 59, 1216 –1229.

Goldberg, L. R. (1992). The development of markers for the Big-Five factor structure. Psychological Assessment, 4, 26 – 42.

Hanford, E. (2012, October 2). How important is grit in student achievement? Mind/Shift. Retrieved from < http://blogs.kqed.org/mindshift/2012/10/how-important-is-grit-in-student-achievement/>.

John, O. (1990). The “Big Five” factor taxonomy: Dimensions of personality in the natural language and in questionnaires. In L. A. Pervin (Ed.), Handbook of personality: Theory and research (pp. 66–97). New York: Guilford Press.

thrifty. 2015. In Merriam-Webster.com. Retrieved March 1, 2015, from http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/thrifty.

Appendix A

Table 1