Which of these four personality types are you?

New research has found most of us fit into one of four key personality types.

It took US researchers countless hours to sift through 1.5 million questionnaires to search for tell-tale signs of different personality traits.

Those insights have now been analysed, with experts identifying four key personality types in a new study.

Most of us fall into one of these four types – and knowing which personality you are can help you navigate life more easily, from building better relationships and choosing the right friends to finding a job that makes the most of your strengths.

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“Knowing about yourself does help you cope with life. If you understand what you can do well, and if you move into occupations where you’ll do a better job, you will enjoy it more,” says William Revelle, Professor of Psychology at Northwestern University in the US.

“And if you discover you are the type of person who takes longer to warm up to events, you can say ‘OK, right now I don’t want to do it but if I keep doing this for a while, I will get better at it because I know that about myself’.”

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Personality types are based on five traits widely identified by psychologists. These are:

• Neuroticism – where you’re more prone to feeling anger, anxiety or stress.
• Extraversion – you like attention, enjoy company and are more dominant in a social setting. People who score low in extraversion are more reserved.
• Openness – you are curious, independent and open to taking risks. If you’re low in openness you’re probably more pragmatic and no-nonsense.
• Agreeableness – you are compassionate, co-operative and less suspicious of the people and world around you.
• Conscientiousness – you are organised, dependable and prefer planning ahead to spontaneity. You’re good to have around when a job needs to be done properly and on time.

So, based on those traits, which personality type are you?

• Average: You’ll score high in neuroticism and extraversion, but aren’t very open. More women than men fall into the Average category.
• Reserved: You are emotionally stable and not very open – so you aren’t curious and avoid risks. You have a little of the agreeableness and conscientiousness traits, too.
• Role models: The role model personality is low in neuroticism – so is even-tempered and scores high in extraversion, openness, agreeableness and conscientiousness. You’re more likely to develop this personality type as you age.
• Self-centred: These people are high in extraversion and low on the more desirable traits of openness, agreeableness and conscientiousness. Prof Revelle describes the self-centred personalities as “people you don’t want to hang out with”.

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Written by Sarah Marinos.