This research paper examines gender differences in the Big Five personality dimensions of Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism. A sample of 28 university students completed the Big Five Inventory. Results found no significant gender differences in Openness and Neuroticism, but found women scored higher than men in Conscientiousness, Extraversion, and Agreeableness. The paper concludes there are small but significant gender-based differences in some personality traits.

1. A research paper REFLECTING ON GENDER DIFFERENCES IN
PERSONALITY
RUMBIDZAI FAITH MATANGA
ROLL NUMBER 28
OCTOBER 2017

2. CONTENTS
 Introduction
 Rationale/ significance of the study
 Literature review
 Methodology
 Procedure
 Statistical analysis
 Results, interpretation and discussion
 Limitations and suggestions
 References

3. INTRODUCTION
• Gender has always been one distinct factor that
differentiates one person from the other
• An interest in exploring gender differences was
instigated by scientists who believed that individual
differences in traits were biologically determined
(Feingold, 1992; Shields, 1975).
• Contemporary research on gender differences has
focused on cognitive abilities and social behavior (Linn,
1992; Wilder & Powell, 1989).

4. Introduction cont’d
• Personality is also one of the most
psychological dimensions that contribute to
what makes an individual unique as well as
classify him or her under a certain class.
• Belief in sex related differences has created
a status for women in the society that sets
them apart from their counterpart, not just
biologically but also psychologically
especially in personality
• This research focused on 5 specific
dimensions of personality known in short as
OCEAN

5. Introduction cont’d
(definition of terms)
Gender differences
 can be defined as variances between males and females that are based on
biological adaptations that are same for both sexes
Personality.
 as defined by Allport (1961), it is the dynamic organization within the individual of
those psychological systems that determine characteristic behavior and thought.
 Openness- also known as intellect reflects imagination, creativity, intellectual
curiosity and appreciation of esthetic experiences
 Conscientiousness- describes traits related to self discipline, organization and the
control of impulses and appears to reflect the ability to exert self control in order
to follow rules or maintain goal pursuit
 Extraversion- reflects sociability, assertiveness and positive emotionality
 Agreeableness- comprises traits relating to altruism, such as empathy and
kindness, the tendency toward cooperation, maintenance of social harmony and
consideration of the concerns of others.
 Neuroticism- describes the tendency to experience negative emotion and related
processes in response to perceived threat and punishment.

6. Rationale or significance of the study
• The research intends to contribute to the elimination
of a gap in the literature where there is scarcity of
information focusing on gender differences and
personality with special emphasis to OCEAN
• While a lump sum of studies have been previously
conducted to study various aspects of personality, this
present area of concern is far from being exhausted as
a research area.
• To understand whether there is any effects of gender
differences on one’s personality that is, does being
male or female have an effect on how one expresses
themselves as an individual.

7. Review of literature
• The five factor model (FFM) of personality has elicited a
great deal of attention over the past decade (Digman,
1989; John, 1990; McCrae and John, 1992). This model
which emphasizes the dimensions of openness to
experience, conscientiousness, extraversion,
agreeableness and neuroticism, has guided research
on personality
• Conceptions of the five factors have thus served a
valuable heuristic role in the formulation and
interpretation of research on personality.

8. LITERATURE REVIEW CONT’D
GENDER DIFFERENCES AND PSYCHOLOGICAL ISSUES
• It can be noted that a number of sex differences are
rather consistently found in the investigations, were
women are found to have higher test scores in verbal
fluency (an ability of crystallized intelligence) than men
while having lower scores in spatial reasoning and
thinking (an ability of fluid intelligence) than men.
• Another lower score was found in aggressiveness which
is said to be higher in men. Women also showed higher
scores in neuroticism and subjective psychosomatic
complains than men (Deaux, 1977; Merz, 1979;
Maccoby & Jacklin, 1974).

9. LITERATURE REVIEW CONT’D
PERSONALITY AND AGE
• In a longitudinal study done by Lamb et al (2002) on
15.2 year old children their findings were that
personality dimensions (OCEAN) do not become
apparent until children have had an opportunity to
experience a variety of social situations that allow their
tendencies to be expressed or consolidated
• some dimensions of personality may not be at all ages
or in all contexts

10. LITERATURE REVIEW CONT’D
ADJUSTMENT AND THE FIVE PERSONALITY DIMENSIONS
• In yet another 13 year old longitudinal study John et al (2004) aimed to
understand whether personality of an individual had an effect on
children’s adaptation to the environment and new situations and they
found out that:
 more extraverted children adjusted to their peers more quickly
 more agreeable and conscientious children need less time to learn
instructions and adjust to rules
 more neurotic children however, cried more often and were more
anxious, needed more time to adjust to their peers and had more
overall adjustment problems in school.
The overall pattern for gender differences in personality measured by the
Big Five is that existing differences are small to medium in size. For some
domains, the gender differences are in the same direction across all
measured facets; for others, however, the patterns are more divergent.

11. METHODOLOGY
OBJECTIVE
• To explore gender differences in personality (OCEAN) using the Big 5 Inventory
HYPOTHESIS
• There is no significant difference in personality across gender
VARIABLES
1. INDEPENDENT VARIABLE - Gender differences which can be defined as
variances between males and females that are based on biological adaptations
that are same for both sexes.
2. DEPENDENT VARIABLE- Personality as defined by Allport (1961), it is the
dynamic organization within the individual of those psychological systems that
determine characteristics behavior and thought.
SAMPLE
• Was drawn from a population of Dibrugarh University students using simple
random sampling method.
• A sample of 28 students (15 males & 13 females) was obtained
• Age range was 18-25 years

12. METHODOLOGY CONT’D
DATA COLLECTION METHOD
• The instrument that was used for collecting data is
called the Big Five Inventory (BFI) which is a measure
created by Oliver P. John in 1998 and is used to assess
the five dimensions of personality (OCEAN).
• This inventory consists of 44 items and allows for
efficient and flexible assessment of the five dimensions.
• The inventory comprises of a 5 point likert scale for
each question which fall on a continuum from strongly
disagree (1) to strongly agree (5).

13. procedure
• Prior to collecting the required data, the researcher would
first engage in a casual conversation with the potential
subjects so as to create rapport and familiarise with them.
• Thereafter, the researcher would ask for the subjects’
permission to participate in the study and if they agreed,
instructions and the purpose of the study would be
explained to them along with the assurance that all the
information they would provide would be used only for
research purposes and their data would be kept private and
confidential
• The subjects were given the liberty to ask further questions
even during their responding to the inventory and once they
were done the researcher would thank them and leave.

14. Statistical analysis
• Once all data had been gathered, the researcher calculated the
raw scores for both males and females for each dimension
through reversing negatively keyed items by subtracting the score
from 6.
• Next a scale was created of scores by averaging the following
items for each B5 domain (where R indicates using the reverse
scored item) Extraversion 1, 6R, 11, 16, 21R, 26, 31R, 36
Agreeableness 2R, 7, 12R,17,22, 27R, 32, 37R,
42
Conscientiousness 3, 8R, 13, 18R, 23R, 28, 33,38,
43R
Neuroticism 4, 9R,14,19, 24R, 29, 34R, 39
Openness 5,10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35R, 40,
41R,44

15. Statistical analysis cont’d
• Once the raw scores were obtained a manual calculation
of t. scores was done for each dimension so as to
measure the level of significance each dimension had in
relation to gender. The following scores were obtained:
GENDER DIFFERENCES IN PERSONALITY
DIMENSION Means t
Females Males
Openness 34.92 34.4 0.63
Conscientiousness 31.31 28.07 2.53
Extraversion 28.69 24.47 6.21
Agreeableness 34.15 31.67 3.22
Neuroticism 24.08 23.27 1.42

16. Pictorial presentation of means obtained for each dimension
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
Gender Differences In Personality
Means Females
Means Males

17. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
• As shown in the table and graph there are differences in means between males
and females in all the 5 dimensions though :
 Openness (34.92 females; 34.4 males) and Neuroticism (24.08 females; 23.7
males) traits have not much difference and in these dimensions is were the
null hypothesis is being accepted (due to the obtained t-score of 0.63, which is
lower than critical value of t @ 0.05, 2.056) meaning that there is no significant
difference in personality (O & N) and gender.
 This therefore means that in Openness males and females tend to share
characteristics like interest in new ideas and experiences, change and
imagination almost equally since their means are above half though women
are a bit higher than males in these traits.
 In Neuroticism also, both the genders tend to level around the same range
thus they both show the same level of emotional tolerance and can be
neurotic the same way despite being male or female.
 However, within the obtained scores for each individual there are outliers, i.e.
those who score extremely higher than others despite them sharing the same
gender and this affected the overall score of each trait.

18. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION cont’d
• Of the remaining 3 dimensions (C, E, A) there are significant differences
between means of males and females where women score higher than men
• Based on the obtained mean scores this indicates that :
 In Conscientiousness women tend to be more organised, dutiful, and goal
directed compared to men. (Females 31.31 vs. Males 28.07)
 In Extraversion, women are more sociable, energetic, outgoing, talkative and
comfortable in engaging in random conversations compared to their male
counterparts. (Females 28.69 vs. Males 24.47)
 For Agreeableness women find it more easy to express empathy, are helpful
and promote peace than men. Women are also more nurturing, tender
minded and altruistic to a greater extent than men. (Females 34.15 vs. Males
31.67)
• As shown by the t-scores the null hypothesis is rejected (due to the obtained
t-scores i.e. C…2.53, E…6.21, A…3.22 which are greater than critical value of t
@0.05, 2.056) meaning that there is a significant difference between gender
and personality in these 3 dimensions .

19. LIMITATIONS AND SUGGESTIONS
• Conducting the research in a single area, that is Dibrugarh University has its own
implications which include the small sample and the lack of flexibility regarding the
choice of participants.
• Despite the fact that in other Universities in and around Assam there are students as well
of different genders, generalizing the findings across India may not be feasible
considering that each district may share a different culture thus the personality may also
differ.
• Also use of one quantitative method to gather information may be objective but will lack
a detailed explanation of why the students’ personalities are affected by their different
genders.
• The Big Five do not exhaust all of the important distinctions among personality traits.
• In future studies there is need to also investigate the naturalistic and sensitive issues of
how students from diverse cultural-educational backgrounds come to understand and
appreciate each other’s expectations, beliefs and emotions so as to appreciate each
other’s differences and maybe similarities in personalities across gender.
• In order to get the most accurate picture of sex differences researchers need to:
a. Measure personality with a higher resolution than that afforded by the Big 5
b. Assess global differences between males and females by computing a multivariate effect

20. references• Allport, G.W. (1961). Pattern and growth in personality. New York: Holt, Rinehart &
Winston.
• Deaux, K. (1977). ‘Sex differences’. In: Blass, T. (Ed), Personality Variables in Social
Behavior, pp. 357-377, Erlbaum, Hillsdale, NJ.
• Digman, J. M. (1989). Five robust trait dimensions: Development, stability, and utility.
Journal of Personality, 57, 195.
• Feingold, A. (1994). Gender differences in personality: A meta-analysis. Psychological
bulletin, 3, 429-456.
• John, O. P. (1990). The "Big Five" factor taxonomy: Dimensions of personality in the
natural language and in questionnaires. In L. A. Pervin (Ed.), Handbook of personality:
Theory and research (pp. 66-100). New York: Guilford Press.
• Lamb, M. E; Chuang, S. S; Wessels, H.; Broberg, A. G; & Hwang, C. Emergence and
Construct Validation of the Big Five Factors in Early Childhood: A longitudinal Analysis
of Their Ontogeny in Sweden. Child Development. pp. 1517-1524
• Linn, M. C. (1992). Gender differences in educational achievement. In J. Plfeiderer
(Ed.), Sex equity in educational opportunity, achievement, and testing. Princeton, NJ:
Educational Testing Service.
• Maccoby, E. E. (1998). The two sexes. Growing up apart, coming together. Cambridge,
MA: Harvard University Press.
• McCrae, R. R., & John, O. P. (1992). An introduction to the five-factor model and its
applications. Journal of Personality, 60, 175-215.
• Merz, F. (1979). Geschlechtsunterschiede und ihre Entwicklung [Sex Differences and
Their Development], Hogrefe, Gottingen, FRG.
• Shields S. A. (1975) Functionalism, Darwinism, and the psychology of women: A study
in social myth. American Psychologist 30: 739–754.