In Personality Psychology, there are 5 big personality traits, Agreeableness is 1 of the 5, these are considered the basic dimensions of personality.
Typically speaking, people who are Agreeable have much to gain and do well in life. They move up the ladder at work, make many friends and are trusted fairly easily. However, too far on the Agreeable scale opens one up to be taken advantage of and leads to undesirable outcomes. They get bullied, they take on more stress than is necessary and this can lead to self-resentment.
We all know many people of this type, in fact, you might be one. Agreeableness is more apparent in women. Females are hardwired to be Agreeable, this allows them to form bounds with many different people and to keep the peace. For this reason, they excel in social settings. However, this trait also leads to taking on more responsibilities, particularly at work. When a Supervisor or Manager needs someone to do extra work, they know who are the agreeable people in their group. They know that no matter how much work they pile on, that person will just take it, so they don't think twice about giving more. The agreeable person just nods and says "Sure.", even though on the inside, they don't want to take on more. Their stress level goes up as the workload goes up. As more work gets piled on, the more the resentment builds. They want to say no, but they can't bring themselves to, because Agreeable people do not like Conflict. They rather suffer in silence instead of Asserting themselves. Eventually they burn out, they're tired, grumpy/angry and resent themselves for not being able to say no.
So while being Agreeable is extremely helpful objectively, subjectively it can be detrimental.
On the other end, we have disagreeable people. These people can be mean, callous and lack empathy. These are the people who will step on the backs of others to attain their goals, they are driven by their need to get what they want, no matter what! This power to drive forward to reach their goal is about the only good thing they have going for them.
If someone is disagreeable, but is well socialized, they are a force to be reckoned with. Because they will function well in society and they will be a driving force to get things done. We may know some people who exhibit much of this trait, typically it's executives and CEO's.
We hear this term often, "I'm a self-made man!" This is a very dishonest claim. No matter who it is, everyone required help from some one at some point.
We all know many people of this type, in fact, you might be one. Agreeableness is more apparent in women. Females are hardwired to be Agreeable, this allows them to form bounds with many different people and to keep the peace. For this reason, they excel in social settings. However, this trait also leads to taking on more responsibilities, particularly at work. When a Supervisor or Manager needs someone to do extra work, they know who are the agreeable people in their group. They know that no matter how much work they pile on, that person will just take it, so they don't think twice about giving more. The agreeable person just nods and says "Sure.", even though on the inside, they don't want to take on more. Their stress level goes up as the workload goes up. As more work gets piled on, the more the resentment builds. They want to say no, but they can't bring themselves to, because Agreeable people do not like Conflict. They rather suffer in silence instead of Asserting themselves. Eventually they burn out, they're tired, grumpy/angry and resent themselves for not being able to say no.
So while being Agreeable is extremely helpful objectively, subjectively it can be detrimental.
On the other end, we have disagreeable people. These people can be mean, callous and lack empathy. These are the people who will step on the backs of others to attain their goals, they are driven by their need to get what they want, no matter what! This power to drive forward to reach their goal is about the only good thing they have going for them.
If someone is disagreeable, but is well socialized, they are a force to be reckoned with. Because they will function well in society and they will be a driving force to get things done. We may know some people who exhibit much of this trait, typically it's executives and CEO's.
We hear this term often, "I'm a self-made man!" This is a very dishonest claim. No matter who it is, everyone required help from some one at some point.
Even the richest person in the world, in this case, Jeff Bezos, required his employees and other people around him as he was growing Amazon into the powerhouse it is today. He had to learn to have a healthy dose of agreeableness to make sure he could get along with his workers and to gain support from his friends and family. But the disagreeable side of him has led him to grow Amazon from a delivery service to an environment of services. At this point, Amazon is in the grocery business, online shopping, delivery, film making, AI drones and with plans to move into healthcare. Obviously being the richest man isn't enough, he has a bigger goal that only he knows.
Of course everyone is a mix of Agreeableness and Disagreeableness, depending on which side we lean more towards, will say a lot about where we're headed. For people who are too disagreeable, exercising compromises will be a good step towards a better balance. In the case of people who are too agreeable, the need for learning to assert themselves is a must.
Of course everyone is a mix of Agreeableness and Disagreeableness, depending on which side we lean more towards, will say a lot about where we're headed. For people who are too disagreeable, exercising compromises will be a good step towards a better balance. In the case of people who are too agreeable, the need for learning to assert themselves is a must.
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