Agreeableness

Agreeableness is one of the key personality traits within the five-factor approach to personality known as the Big Five. People who are agreeable are likely to exhibit pro-social behavior. Specifically, they are more sociable than others and often strive to help others, especially those in need. Agreeable people are usually described by others as cooperative, kind, or friendly. Among the Big Five personality factors, agreeableness is the trait that has the greatest impact on how individuals differ in their approach to interpersonal relationships. As a result, agreeableness has a significant influence on an individual’s thoughts, feelings, and social behaviors. Much like other personality factors, agreeableness is fluid throughout an individual’s life. To that point, research has revealed that people generally become more agreeable as they age. In short, agreeableness is a crucial trait that plays a major role in determining an individual’s personality and their ability to interact with others in a social context.

Background

Psychologists have long tried to determine exactly how many distinct personality factors exist. These efforts resulted in theories of personality that list anywhere from thousands of individual personality traits to just a few. Two of the most well-known of these theories were respectively developed by twentieth-century psychologists Raymond Cattell and Hans Eysenck. While Cattell’s theory included sixteen distinct personality factors, Eysenck’s included only three. In reviewing the two theories, most researchers felt that Cattell’s was too complicated and Eysenck’s was too simplistic. This eventually led to the development of a five-factor theory, later known as the Big Five. With a research history that dates back to the 1940s, modern psychologists generally agree that the Big Five theory provides the most accurate insight into the key personality factors that serve as the fundamental building blocks of individual personality.

The Big Five personality factors include openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism. Together, they are often referred to by the acronyms OCEAN or CANOE. Each of the five factors represents a range between the two extremes of a given trait. For example, an individual’s specific level of agreeableness falls somewhere on a scale that ranges from extremely agreeable to extremely unagreeable. In reality, most people can be said to lie somewhere in the middle of each trait’s extremes.

To fully understand the concept of agreeableness, it is helpful to also have a basic understanding of the other Big Five personality factors. Openness is a trait tied closely to characteristics like imagination, insight, and willingness to embrace change. Conscientiousness means being thoughtful and detail- and goal-oriented, as well as possessing strong impulse control. Extraversion relates to such characteristics as sociability, excitability, talkativeness, and emotional expressiveness. Neuroticism, meanwhile, is a trait that involves sadness, mood swings, and overall emotional instability. While these traits are present in all people, each trait is expressed to different degrees in different individuals. In other words, while one person might be highly extroverted, another may be equally introverted. This all means that each individual’s personality is ultimately determined by where they fall on the continuum of each of the Big Five personality factors.

Overview

Agreeableness is one of the major traits in the five-factor approach to personality. Within that context, agreeableness is a broad term covering several lower-level traits that contribute to pro-social behavior. Some of these characteristics include kindness, altruism, trust, and affection. In general, agreeable people are friendly, patient, and tolerant of others. Agreeable people are also likely to be trusting of others and willing to be generous to those in need. In addition, most agreeable people prefer to avoid conflict and will try to resolve disputes through peacemaking.

The degree to which agreeableness contributes to pro-social behavior depends on how agreeable an individual is. People with high levels of agreeableness care about and take an interest in others. They also feel empathy and concern for others. Most highly agreeable people also enjoy helping and contributing to others' well-being. People with low levels of agreeableness typically exhibit less pro-social behavior. They tend to be selfish and typically focus more on their own needs than on the needs of others. They may also be suspicious and distrusting of others. People with low levels of agreeableness may also be likely to insult, belittle, or manipulate others. They are also more likely to be confrontational and may become angry or combative in tense situations.

In general principle, it is good to be agreeable. Agreeableness helps people to work with others, socialize, and build meaningful relationships. Agreeableness is also a useful quality for people who work in fields like sales, teaching, or politics that involve interacting with others. Highly agreeable individuals are also likely to support their colleagues, perform well, and improve team dynamics in the workplace. At the same time, agreeableness can be a disadvantage in some circumstances. Many agreeable people struggle with things like working alone or giving others bad news. For this reason, agreeable people may be less likely to thrive in specific professional fields, such as management.

Like other personality traits, agreeableness can be fluid. People may become more or less agreeable depending on the surrounding circumstances. For example, a normally agreeable person may become less agreeable in a competitive situation wherein they are vying against others for resources or a valuable opportunity. People may also become more agreeable when they are exposed to positive role models or when they have an opportunity to be altruistic in some way. A person’s level of agreeableness may change with age as well. Children are typically less agreeable and more self-centered than adults. Older people, on the other hand, are more likely to be agreeable than their younger counterparts. Some psychologists believe that this shift towards agreeableness occurs as people experience the highs and lows of life and become more empathetic to others. It may also arise as people come to realize the potential advantages of building trusting relationships. Ethical or religious education may also help a person become more agreeable. However, in some cases, it may also be necessary to learn to be less agreeable. For example, those responsible for making difficult business decisions that might cost others their jobs may need to learn to be less concerned with others' feelings, become more assertive, and set healthy boundaries.

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