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The Ten-Item Personality Inventory (TIPI) that I took allowed me to understand myself better from my own perspective and from the perspectives of the people who I constantly interact with. Below is an overview of what I have found out:
As seen from the table above, I asked the help of my mother and my childhood best friend, who also happens to be my cousin, so that I would have a better understanding of my own personality. I believe that both of them provided helpful insights because they have known me for a very long time, and they have seen me in many situations.
First, I have noticed that the rating which I gave to myself is not too far from the rating that my mother provided, except for two aspects: the extraversion and agreeableness. In terms of extraversion, I rated myself at medium low while my mother rated me at medium high. According to Gosling, Rentfrow, and Swann Jr, being extraverted is characterized by sociability, activeness, and assertiveness (508). Whenever I am with my family and close friends, I tend to be more active and talkative, perhaps because I am comfortable with them. Maybe this is why my mother gave me a high rating on this domain. However, I am not usually that way when I am with other people that I barely know with, which is why I gave myself a lower rating. On the other hand, my mother gave me a low rating in terms of agreeableness while I gave myself a medium high rating. According to Gosling, Rentfrow, and Swann Jr., being agreeable is characterized by being cooperative and not aggressive. When I was a bit younger, I was not very obedient to my mother, and I tend to get into fights with my siblings. I believe this is why my mother gave me a rating that is lower than what I gave myself in terms of agreeableness (508). As for the rest of the domains, my mother’s ratings for me and the ratings I gave myself are almost the same, which means that our perception of my personality is not too different from each other.
On the other hand, I also asked my cousin to rate my personality. We have been good friends since childhood, and we have been together in many trials of my life. Surprisingly, the ratings that he gave for me are almost similar to how I rated myself. All of these ratings fall within the same level. For instance, I gave myself a rating of 7 in terms of openness while he gave me a rating of 6.5. Although there is a slight difference, both of these numbers are considered high. It seems that because we shared a lot of experiences together inside and outside of home even when we were younger, my cousin somehow knew my personality in the same way I know myself.
Overall, this activity allowed me to have a better understanding of the different domains of my personality. It also made me realize that the people I have been with for most of my life, like my mother and my cousin, can validate what I know about my own level of extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, emotional stability, and conscientiousness. However, the way they perceive me in terms of the different domains of my personality is still dependent on the way they have seen me in different situations. For instance, my mother knows me as a member of our family, but unlike my cousin, she has not been exposed too much to how I deal with the people I interact with outside our home. This is why our ratings have more differences compared to what my cousin and I gave myself.
Works Cited
Gosling, Samuel, Peter Rentfrow, and William Swann Jr. “A Very Brief Measure of the Big-Five Personality Domains.” Journal of Research in Personality 37 (2003): 504-528. Print.
