- Personality Traits -
Influences on Organized Living

The Big Five Personality Traits - Explained

Personality researchers have proposed the following five characteristics as the dimensions of an individual personality.

Conscientiousness
Neuroticism

Agreeableness
Openess

Extraversion

The theory is that every person has a personality that has each of these dimensions. However, some traits are more dominant, and our personal preference is to operate in the manner that is consistent with our individual dominant dimensions.

Personality tests are an attempt to quantify the dominance of the various personality traits.

Of all the big five personality traits, research has confirmed that people who score high on the conscientiousness variable tend to like organized living and will put forward the effort to keep their lives in order and under control.

Here some ideas about the possible influences on organized living.

Trait	attributes include	Possible influence on organized living
agreeableness	trust altruism kindness affection behaviours that are of help to others.	May have difficulty saying no May be more likely to take on responsibility for Other People's Stuff
openness	imagination insight broad range of interests	May have many projects going on with lots of stuff for each and every hobby. May be more interested in using their stuff than setting up systems for organizing or storing it. The might cause frustration when they are trying to start a new project and can't find what they need although they are sure they have it "somewhere".
neuroticism	emotional instability anxiety moodiness irritability sadness	Difficulty making decisions can predispose to the accumulation of clutter More likely to have emotional or mental health problems such as depression and that can lead to organized living challenges.
extraversion	excitability sociability talkativeness assertiveness highly expressive of emotions	May be more interested in organizing other people's stuff than organizing their own May not like to engage in organizing tasks that are solitary, but would enjoy doing it with other people.
conscientiousness	thoughtfulness impulse control goal-directed attention to detail	Prefers to have an organized life. People who are interested in organizing as a topic or who spend time planning and implementing organizing systems are more likely to score highly for this variable. People who have a strong dominance of the conscientiousness personality traits would be less likely to be clutterers and more likely to have order in their lives. This is the one variable that research has shown is linked to organizing abilities and preferences.

It seems reasonable to conclude that because of the susceptibility to emotional instability, people who score high on the trait of neuroticism would be more likely to be clutterers although there is no research evidence to support this - none that I could find anyway.

However, since we know that indecision, emotionality, and procrastination contribute to clutter and disorganization, it stands to reason that decisiveness, logical thinking, and attention to detail will promote organized living.

Just for fun take this personality traits test to see your own personality influences on organized living.