In the world of psychology, conscientiousness is a term of particular importance. As a major personality trait, experts are interested in how people with differing levels of conscientiousness interact with others and the world around them. High levels of conscientiousness are linked to increased awareness of their actions and the impacts they have on others.
What Is Conscientiousness?
The definitions of conscientiousness will depend on the source of information. Looking at a standard dictionary will yield a result that describes conscientiousness as a trait in people who do their work thoroughly and completely.
Psychology offers at least two views on the word as well. There are five broad domains of personality traits that represent continuums of personality types and include:1
- Negative affectivity and emotional stability: How much someone’s mood is impacted by positive and negative events
- Detachment and extraversion: How involved or disinterested a person is in social relationships
- Antagonism and agreeableness: How well one can interact and get along with others
- Psychoticism and lucidity: How grounded or not grounded in reality a person is
- Disinhibition and conscientiousness: How thoughtful or reckless a person is with their decision making and actions
In this case, people with strong levels of conscientiousness will be more thoughtful, caring, and considerate of those around them. These people will display behaviors that are the opposite of disinhibited people.
Conscientious people will:1
- Delay gratification by focusing on long-term goals, rather than immediate wants
- Carefully consider their actions and decisions while taking the full impact into account
- Learn from their past mistakes to avoid repeating the same issues
- Work hard to produce high quality content at home, work, and school
People who display desirable levels of emotional stability, extraversion, agreeableness, lucidity, and conscientiousness are happier, healthier, more adaptive, and resilient than those with higher levels of negative affectivity, detachment, antagonism, disinhibition, and psychoticism. With the presence of these qualities, a person will have better coping skills and be able to quickly recover from the damaging influence of trauma and medical illness.1
Other branches of psychology view conscientiousness a bit differently.
Conscientiousness is listed as a “Big Five” personality trait along with:2
- Agreeableness
- Extraversion
- Neuroticism
- Openness
In this view of traits, neuroticism is a term used to describe how a person sees the world. If they view the world as distressing and unsafe, they will have higher rates of neuroticism and more mental health symptoms (like neurotic anxiety). It can be helpful to work with a therapist to learn how to reduce neurotic tendencies and better manage stress.
Openness relates to how open-minded and open to new ideas a person is. As in the APA model, these five personality characteristics all occur along a continuum. When the traits are operating in balance, a person will note improved higher resilience and fewer unwanted symptoms.
What Are the Benefits of High Levels of Conscientiousness?
High levels of conscientiousness offer a range of benefits that will help the individual at phases of life including home, relationships, work, school, community activities, and others. A person with high conscientiousness levels will likely thrive in many facets of life.
Some of the commonly expected benefits of conscientiousness include being:3
- Organized
- Mindful and thoughtful
- Empathetic
- Careful
- Reliable
- Hard-working
- Goal oriented
If a person is looking for an individual to show up on time, perform at high levels, and achieve their goals, a conscientious person will be a fine choice. Conscientious people will plan out the future and pace themselves in steady and methodical ways.
Studies show additional benefits of being conscientious including:3
- Safer drivers: People with high conscientiousness levels are found to be safer drivers than others and involved in fewer accidents.
- Better salespeople: In a study of sales performance, those with higher consciousness levels regularly achieved a higher volume of sales when compared to lower conscientious counterparts.
- Longer lives: A study found that children who were labeled as more conscientious when young tended to live longer lives. This link may have been due to their safe driving, their careful consideration, focus on their physical health, and other factors.
Even better, the people around the individual with high levels of conscientiousness will benefit from their actions. A conscientious person is mindful and aware of how their behaviors affect other people, so instead of being careless or reckless, they will make choices that create success for all people.
Can Someone Be Too Conscientious?
No matter the personality trait, balance is always a goal to aim for because any extreme is dangerous. A person who is polarized too far towards conscientiousness will suffer from some unwanted effects of the condition. When a person is too conscientious, they risk experiencing what the APA refers to as rigid perfectionism.
Rigid perfectionism is marked by:1
- Insisting that everything is flawless
- A strong need for perfection
- Intolerance for errors or mistakes
- Being unable to complete even simple tasks because they are never perfect enough
- Complete entrenchment in a view or belief
- Lack of flexibility
- Believing their way is the only acceptable method
These symptoms are linked to a mental health condition called obsessive-compulsive personality disorder (OCPD). Regardless of the presence of the diagnosis, people with too much conscientiousness will feel intense stress, anxiety, anger, and frustration. Their relationships will suffer, and they will push away friends, coworkers, and romantic partners.
Can Someone Be Conscientious About Certain Things & Not Others?
In terms of personality, anything is possible, but true conscientiousness is a global influence on the overall person. Because of this, it is unlikely a person is very conscientious at work but not at home.
In this situation, it could be that a factor other than conscientiousness is influencing the person’s attitudes and actions. Typically, a person will display similar levels of conscientiousness no matter the setting.
What Does It Look Like to Have Low Levels of Conscientiousness?
Since conscientiousness and other personality traits fall on a continuum, some people will have low levels of conscientiousness. Low conscientiousness and disinhibition tend to have a negative influence on a person’s life and produce damaging effects on their friends and family.
Low levels of conscientiousness is correlated with impulsivity, poor decision-making skills, and selfishness. Rather than thinking things through and being concerned with others, the person will only seek instant gratification in the moment.3
A person with low levels of conscientiousness could make a major purchase like a new car or a new home on a total whim. They could change careers or move across the country spontaneously, and though these choices could work out, they often lead to debt and disappointment.
Since they are not concerned with others, they could be late and unprepared frequently. These issues could hinder relationships or their performance at work or school.
What Causes Conscientiousness?
No one influence completely controls the presentation of conscientiousness. Conscientiousness arises from the combined effect of biological and environmental differences in the individual.
The biological connection is shown in studies that inspect the levels of conscientiousness of both identical and fraternal twins. Additionally, MRI scans show visible brain differences exist in people with high and low levels of conscientiousness with notable variations in the cortex and prefrontal regions.3
Research has placed particular importance on the connection between parental nurturance and conscientiousness. When parents were more involved with their children and provided affection during the early years, the children grew up to have higher levels of conscientiousness.
These biological and early childhood experiences go a long way to shape and dictate a person’s conscientiousness, but the personality trait is not static. Due to the effect of the “maturity principle,” people tend to increase their levels of conscientiousness throughout life, after a slight dip during adolescence. Based on this notion, most people grow more conscientious as they age.3
Are Levels of Conscientiousness Higher in Certain Populations?
In addition to the biological and environmental impacts, other facets can influence the degree of conscientiousness a person experiences. These factors can include where a person lives, their nationality, employment, and relationship status.
In terms of global region, people in Africa scored higher levels of conscientiousness than people from any other region.4 In this study, people from East Asia noted lower scores on measures of the trait.
People who live in cities and other more densely-populated areas seem to have higher scores on conscientiousness measures as well. Although it can be challenging to know why this connection presents, it could have to do with the increased competition for relationships, housing, and work that encourages increased mindfulness, awareness, and future orientation.4
Some other populations that tend to experience noteworthy levels of conscientiousness include people:
- With recent job loss: Losing a job or being unemployed is strongly linked with lower levels of conscientiousness.
- Experiencing new medical issues: When people become sick medically, their conscientiousness rises to carefully navigate their new situations..
- Starting a demanding role: Getting a new job, getting married, or having a child can increase conscientiousness as the person adapts to their new role.
- Leaving a negative relationship: As people emerge from a dysfunctional relationship, their conscientiousness seems to increase as a way to manage new challenges away from their partner.
Potential Risks of Conscientiousness
Some may believe that a person can never be too conscientious, but they would be incorrect. Many risks emerge when this personality trait is taken to an extreme that impact all phases of a person’s life.
Too much conscientiousness is linked to:1,3
Failure to Act
When people are conscientious, they will take their time to make important decisions. When people are too conscientious, they may struggle to make any decision because they are constantly weighing their options. Because of this, they may miss the opportunity to experience positive life events.
Demanding Relationships
Conscientious people will expect a lot from themselves, but they will have high expectations for others as well. Whether coworkers, family members, friends, or romantic partners, these people will be judged harshly by those who are overly conscientious, which can drive a wedge in the relationship.
High Stress
Focusing on perfection, living up to unrealistic expectations, and being frustrated by failure equates to high levels of stress for the conscientious individual. High stress culminated over time will result in numerous negative impacts on the person’s mental and physical health.
Burnout
Being demanding, rigid, stressed, and preoccupied with every detail will eventually wear down a person’s resources. This high level of energy and investment is too challenging to maintain long-term. Without healthy coping skills and alternative reserves, the people will experience burnout, a state that makes functioning well in any area of life nearly impossible.
On the outside, a person with overly high levels of conscientiousness will appear successful and happy. In reality, they will be wildly unhappy, constantly frustrated, and lonely as no one can ever live up to their impractical expectations.
6 Ways to Become More Conscientious
Usually personality traits seem to be more static, rigid, and unchanging, but conscientiousness is an exception. When a person sets a goal and follows through with practical measures to increase their levels of conscientiousness, they can succeed to boost the quality to a more desirable level.
Some effective ways to become more conscientious include:2
1. Finding Your Baseline Level of Conscientiousness
In the quest of self-improvement, too many people launch into a new goal without having any idea of where they are beginning. Without knowing where you are, there is no way to get directions to where you want to be.
Gather information about your baseline by taking an honest look at your life to study your trends. Do you seem to lean more towards impulsivity or planned, recklessness or perfectionism, thoughtless or thoughtfulness?
During the process, consult loved ones and trusted supports to understand their perceptions of your personality. You may find you have a long way to go, or you could be closer to your goal than you expect.
2. Turning Big Plans into Small Goals
Of course people would like to achieve an ideal level of conscientiousness, but getting there is challenging.
Rather than focusing on the larger, abstract concept of conscientiousness, define a few areas to target like:
- Being on time
- Stopping to think before making decisions
- Improving quality of work
- Considering other points of view
Start by tackling just one of these areas before moving on to the next goal. Slowly, a person can grow their conscientious skills and improve the trait.
3. Staying Engaged in Your Relationships
A significant part of conscientiousness is socialization, so people should always strive for maintaining or increasing their relationships. When people build strong relationships based on mutual trust, consideration, and respect, conscientiousness will grow.
To check on the quality of your relationships, practice open communication with your loved ones to understand how they are viewing your role in the relationship. If they feel that you are being kind, fair, and considerate, you are on the right track.
4. Utilizing Alarms & Reminders
Some conscientious people seem to have built-in clocks and alarms that remind them of what they need to do and when they need to do it. Others need to work really hard to develop this as a skill.
New technology is a wonderful way to increase conscientiousness. With alarms, reminders, timers, and various apps, a person can use their computer, phone, or digital voice assistant in ways that builds their conscientiousness.
5. Treating Underlying Mental Health Conditions
Conscientiousness could be an ingrained personality trait, but some people experience mental health conditions that influence their levels. By adding levels of impulsivity, recklessness, and selfishness, these conditions can overwhelm and hide someone’s true levels of conscientiousness.
Some mental health disorders that interfere with conscientiousness include:1
- Bipolar disorder
- Attention-deficit/ hyperactivity disorder
- Personality disorders like narcissistic, borderline, and antisocial personality disorder
- Obsessive-compulsive personality disorder
- Autism spectrum disorder
- Obsessive-compulsive disorder
Seeking professional mental health treatment can address these underlying conditions to reveal a person’s true level of conscientiousness.
6. Being Patient With Yourself
Depending on your conscientiousness, the easiest way to increase your level could be to do nothing at all. Remember, more than other personality characteristics, conscientiousness will naturally increase over time. Whatever your level today, you can rest assured it will be higher tomorrow.
The History of Conscientiousness
Conscience and conscientiousness are words that have been part of the lexicon for hundreds of years, but their relation to the world of mental health really emerged in the first part of the 20th century. As teams of psychologists researched and scoured dictionaries to identify terms that were linked to mental health conditions and personality traits, conscientiousness became a preferred way to describe a certain set of characteristics and qualities.
Some other terms that were combined into the domain of conscientiousness include:5
- Tidy
- Responsible
- Scrupulous
- Persevering
Through the second half of the 20th century, the focus on conscientiousness shifted to its inclusion in the Big Five Factors of personality traits. It continues to be researched and studied into the present.5
For Further Reading
For more information about conscientiousness, ways to increase levels of conscientiousness, and the conditions it is connected to, please consider viewing reliable resources like:
