The Conscientiousness dimension refers to how controlled and self-
disciplined we are. People on the high end of this dimension are organized,
plan oriented, and determined. Those on the low end are apt to be careless,
easily distracted from tasks, and undependable. Little wonder that those low
in Conscientiousness tend to have more automobile accidents (Arthur &
Graziano, 1996). In fact, researchers find that people high in Conscientious-
ness typically live longer than those low on this dimension (Kern & Friedman,
2008). Because the characteristics that define Conscientiousness often show upin achievement or work situations, some researchers have referred to this
dimension as Will to Achieve or simply Work.
Many researchers have been impressed with the pervasiveness of the Big
Five regardless of how personality is measured. Of course, the five factorsshow up when researchers look at responses to self-report trait inventories.
But researchers also find evidence for five basic factors when looking at otherindicators of personality, such as the terms people use to describe their friends
and acquaintances (Watson, Hubbard, & Wiese, 2000) and the way teachers
ASSESSING YOUR OWN PERSONALITY
Conscientiousness
Indicate the extent to which each of the following terms describes you. Use
a 9-point scale to indicate your response, with 1 ¼Extremely Inaccurate
and 9¼Extremely Accurate.
Careful Negligent*
Careless* Organized
Conscientious Practical
Disorganized* Prompt
Efficient Sloppy*
Haphazard* Steady
Inconsistent* Systematic
Inefficient* Thorough
Impractical* Undependable*
Neat Unsystematic*
This scale was developed by Goldberg (1992) to measure Conscien-
tiousness, one of the Big Five personality dimensions. Although differentscoring procedures are possible, the most straightforward procedure is as
follows (Arthur & Graziano, 1996): Reverse the answer values for the
10 items with an asterisk (that is, for these items only, 1 ¼9, 2¼8, 3¼7,
4¼6, 5¼5, 6¼4, 7¼3, 8¼2, 9¼1). Then add all 20 answer values.
Arthur and Graziano (1996) report a mean score of 123.11 for a sample ofcollege students, with a standard deviation of 23.99.
Scale: Big Five Factor Markers for Conscientiousness
Source: Copyright © 1998 by the American Psychological Association. Reproduced with permis-
sion. Goldberg, L. R. (1992). The development of markers for the Big-Five factor structure.
Psychological Assessment ,4 ,2 6 –42. doi: 10.1037/1040-3590.4.1.26. No further reproduction or
distribution is permitted without written permission from the American Psychological Association.162 CHAPTER 7 The Trait Approach