Subjects who have an open personality to experiences are more exposed to change and novelty and tend to take more risks than the average number of people.
In this article, we will review the concept of openness to experience as a personality trait, and we will see a list of the characteristics of this class of people. So you can recognize your level of openness to the experience, according to the number of characteristics with which you identify.
What is an openness to experience?
When talking about openness to experience, there is a reference to certain personality characteristics that generate a propensity to make decisions related to going outside your comfort zone. People with this trait are subjects who generally have no problem trying new methods of doing things, or exposing themselves to new sensations for them.
In turn, the concept of openness to experience as a psychological construct comes from the Big Five model.
Creative, imaginative, and fond of innovation people tend to have a greater level of openness to experiences than those subjects with rigid personality characteristics, in which ingenuity does not predominate but structured thinking.
What characteristics do these people possess?
Now we will review the most characteristic features of the people who stand out for the trait of openness to experience.
- Originality
Usually, people with a lot of open experience tend to have a high level of creative thinking regarding the actions they take. They are people who do not seek to copy something that is already done but prefer to make their own projects, starting from an innovative idea.
Creative people also have a high level of openness to new experiences, since they usually tend to seek inspiration from sources that are new to them, thus seeing the need to leave their comfort zone to find the answer. to your inspiration
- Imagination
Imaginative people are also often those who leave their comfort zone often since they are able to create in their mind new and original scenarios in which they feel comfortable and usually seeks to bring these experiences into practice in one or other sense. - Intellectual curiosity
Curiosity for empirical knowledge, for obtaining new answers to questions we usually ask ourselves, is also a characteristic of people who show openness to change, since these people tend to look for the various means that lead them to test their perception. of reality - Varied interests
People who have a wide range of interests tend to have a greater tendency to experience new experiences, considering that the interests that a person presents lead them to acquire a series of knowledge related to these interests. - Unconventional beliefs
An essential characteristic of people who are open to new experiences is that they are not always in favor of the current, but usually have different thoughts in relation to those of most people. They resist social pressure more. - Tolerance
The subjects who score high in terms of the characteristics related to openness to experience are those who also accept the differences of thought of others better.
The more tolerant a person is in relation to the diverse opinions of others, the greater their level of openness towards new experiences will tend to be. In other words; The greater the tolerance, the greater the level of openness to change.
- Self-assessment
Those who are able to do a self-assessment exercise, and call into question their own beliefs, manage to open up to new ways of thinking that allow them to experience new things.
It is not about being insecure, but about not believing you own absolute reason and being willing to reconsider some things in our life that may be limiting us in reaching our full potential.
- Internal control locus
The internal control locus refers to the perception of the subjects that the events that occur to them depend mainly on themselves, and not on their environment. People who have developed this characteristic tend to present greater possibilities of opening up to changes.
When we think that the things that happen to us respond to the decisions we have made, then we are able to make new decisions to promote significant changes in our lives.