ABSTRACT

The very short test of Big Five factors describes the person scoring high on openness as: Someone who spends time reflecting on things, has an active imagination and likes to think up new ways of doing things but may lack pragmatism. However, the most ubiquitous commercially available series of Big Five measures, NEO, uses the term openness and its facets encapsulate both the aesthetic and intellectual sub-dimensions and this is the label which has stuck. With the personality measure used in the UK studies, the nearest match to openness was a factor the poles of which are labelled 'emotional sensitivity' versus 'tough poise'. This seems to emphasise the sensitivity aspect of openness over that of intellectual curiosity. On the evidence presented, this is a more difficult question to answer than similar ones posed for the other Big Five factors.