What is openness to experience in psychology

When we talk about openness to experience (openness to experience), we refer to the breadth, depth, and complexity of a person's mental life. People who are highly open to experience are often creative, curious, and imaginative, and are often interested in new experiences.

In most cases, this personality trait remains stable in the long term. However, there is also evidence that people experience temporary fluctuations in terms of mental states and in relation to personality traits. In this Psychology-Online article we will delve into this trait to better understand what is openness to experience in psychology.

Index

1. What is openness to experience
2. In what aspects is openness to experience manifested?
3. Characteristics of people open to experience
4. How to develop openness to experience
5. Examples of openness to experience

Openness to experience in psychology is one of the five fundamental traits used to describe the human personality

• Active imagination (fantasy).
• aesthetic sensitivity.
• Pay attention to inner feelings.
• Preference for variety.
• Intellectual curiosity.

A great deal of psychometric research has shown that these qualities are significantly related, so open-mindedness can be seen as a global personality trait consisting of a set of specific sub-traits, habits, and tendencies that are grouped together.

Openness to experience has positive relationships with traits such as creativity, intelligence, and the desire for knowledge. These aspects are linked to a favorable disposition towards novelties, the ability to consider multiple perspectives and an open mind towards diverse values, styles, lifestyles and cultures.

However, compared to other five-factor model personality traits, openness to experience does not appear to be related to symptoms of mental disorders.

Openness to experience shows to what extent an individual tends to seek new personal experiences. Specifically, the characteristics of people who are open to experience are the following:

• They are creative.
• They are adventurers.
• They are curious and interested in knowing the world.
• They look forward to new challenges.
• They are imaginative.
• They appreciate art and aesthetics.
• They accept their emotions and those of the people around them.
• They prefer to break with the routine.

On the contrary, in the case of little openness to experience, we find individuals who do not like to experience new things and who move away from abstract and theoretical thinking. These people tend to take a more conventional view, prefer familiar routines to new experiences, and generally have a narrower list of interests.

If you want to know how to face the changes in your life you can read the article on how to adapt at the changes.

If you want to develop the personality of openness, do not miss the following recommendations:

• alter your habits: stop being routine in all aspects of your life. Change your way of doing things: Do you take the bus every day to go to work? Starting today, at least once or twice a week, get around by bike. Is it raining and you hate leaving the house in the rain? Get dressed, grab your umbrella and go for a walk in the rain.
• do what you don't know: in general, we always tend to do what we are used to and do not decide to try new activities for fear that we will not like them or they will be boring. Do you love soccer and you practice it regularly, but you have no idea what it is like to paint ceramics? It's time to try it! Have you never eaten sushi? Reservation at the Japanese restaurant tonight. It's all a matter of trying it out.
• Never blindly trust what others tell you: If you have never done something or are not informed about it, it is impossible to know if what others tell you is as they describe it. Investigate, study, inform yourself to make sure that the information they provide you is reliable. An open mind does not delegate experiences to others.
• Do not be afraid: if you put fear before anything new you have to do, you will hardly make new discoveries. Give up fear of anything that doesn't fit into your life patterns. Don't be afraid of someone who dresses differently than you, doesn't speak your language, or tries something new you're interested in just because of what others might say.
• Be critical and skeptical: having an open mind is important to develop openness to experience, as well as cultivating critical thinking (which does not necessarily have to be controversial). There will always be someone who tells you that you are afraid of this or that: are you ready to ask yourself why? There will always be someone or several people who want you to think the same as them. Learn to be critical because the mechanisms of conformism they often tend to be enemies of a mind open to experience.

Openness to experience is characteristic of people with a flexible mindset, curious and creative, as well as motivated to explore the world and take advantage of its possibilities. The difference between open-minded and closed-minded people is the attitude they have to overcome problems and face challenges in life. Let's see some examples of typical characteristics and virtues of people open to experience:

• willing to listen the opinions of others.
• Liberals, capable of accepting points of view different from their own.
• So tolerant accept the beliefs and lifestyles of others without criticizing themeven if they disagree with them.
• Open-minded, willing to develop new ideas and are hardly disturbed by the diversity of others.
• receptive because listen carefully what others have to say and takes suggestions into account without being presumptuous.
• Adaptable in that you can easily change your behavior or ideas to Solve the problems that are presented to them.
• Entrepreneurs because they are always willing to try new things.
• "live and let live" because they find it very annoying to impose beliefs, lifestyles or ideas.

This article is merely informative, in Psychology-Online we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.

If you want to read more articles similar to What is openness to experience in psychology, we recommend that you enter our category of Personality.

• Cuminetti, A. (2016). Come have an open mind and liberate if you pregiudizi. Recovered from: https://www.psicosocial.it/come-avere-una-mente-aperta/