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The Political Orientation And Participation Of Individuals Essay

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The ‘big five’ is a model that has been used to identify personality traits the have a reflection in the political orientation and participation of individuals. In this essay I will be arguing that the personality of individuals has less of an impact on their political behaviour than other factors including age, gender and socioeconomic status. Research in relation to the big five has shown that there are two areas of the ‘big five’ that have more influence than others, I will be discussing why scoring higher on the openness section of the big five may mean that you are more likely to be a supporter who is more liberal or on the left of the political spectrum. Contrasting this if you score higher on the conscientiousness scale you are more likely to be right wing or conservative on the political spectrum. The big five does not necessarily identify if a person is more likely to vote or not, just solely orientation so this essay will discuss factors that can change the probability of participation in politics.

The big five is a theory of 5 domains of personality, which dates back to approximately 1884. The five domains relate to the ideas of openness, conscientiousness, agreeableness, emotional stability and extraversion. Openness, which is mainly in regard to experience, can be defined as breadth, depth, originality, and complexity of an individuals’ mental and experiential life. Conscientiousness is goal-orientated approaches, with impulse control in order to facilitate

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