There is no question that you will need to work with others in order to be successful in grad school. If you know a little bit about personality theory, you will not only be able to predict how people will react in various situations, but you will also be able to use your own personality tendencies to increase productivity.

Openness to Experience. People who score high on openness tend to be free-thinkers. They are broad-minded, highly imaginative, and have an interest in art and culture. People who score low on openness tend to be more narrow-minded, pragmatic, and traditional/conservative in their thinking. For grad students who score high on openness, the more variety they have in their work, the more likely they are to be satisfied with their jobs (de Jong, van der Velde, & Jansen, 2001). So if you’re high on openness, switch it up a bit. Take a class outside your area of study, or collaborate with someone whom you wouldn’t normally cross research paths.

Conscientiousness is a trait that is probably shared by most people in academia, but you may have the occasional committee member who can’t seem to keep an appointment to save their life. People who score high on conscientiousness are organized, prepared, and punctual. Unsurprisingly, conscientiousness is a strong predictor of graduate school performance (Grehan, Flanagan, & Malgady, 2011). If your advisor is more conscientious than you, you will need to work on some behavioral adjustments to meet your advisor’s expectations. Don’t make any promises that you can’t keep, and buddy up with conscientious friends in exchange for your other qualities that they need (e.g., genius ideas).

Extraversion is the social component to personality. People who score low on extraversion (i.e., introverts) prefer to recharge by spending time alone or with one or two close others. When extraverts work with introverts, their task performance is higher than when they work with like-minded extraverts (Sung, Choi, & Kim-Jo, 2014). So when you are initiating collaborations or delegating tasks, keep in mind that putting two extraverts together may actually decrease their productivity.

Agreeableness doesn’t necessarily mean that you’ll agree with everyone. Rather, a highly agreeable person is forgiving, willing to cooperate, and avoids confrontation. Disagreeable people aren’t afraid to speak their minds and tend to be highly critical of things (they’d make great scientists). When your advisor returns your draft dripping in red ink, remember not to take it personally—it’s just their nature to be critical of things. When interacting with others, remember that people are more likely to seek out situations that are congruent with their personality (Ickes, Snyder, & Garcia, 1997). For example, highly agreeable people are more likely to initiate conversations when those conversations contain positive interpersonal characteristics (Frederickx & Hofmans, 2014). If a colleague is high on agreeableness, try to keep the conversation positive so they will be more communicative in the future.

Neuroticism is the anxiety part of personality and involves the constant experience of negative emotions. Neurotic people ruminate about things and have trouble coping with stress (Scheier & Carver, 1993). Understandably, grad school pressures can increase anxiety and nervousness, but these experiences are exacerbated for neurotic people. One study found that highly neurotic people tend to experience more fluctuations of their individual behavior than do people who are more emotionally stable (Judge, Simon, Hurst, & Kelley, 2014). If your advisor tends to be a bit neurotic, try to put them at ease by meeting their deadlines and give them advanced warning if you’re struggling. A highly neurotic advisor will not appreciate surprises!

References

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