The concept of openness to experience refers to a personality dimension identified as one of the most notable personality dimensions in the leading model of personality development, the Big Five model. Other broad dimensions include agreeableness, conscientiousness, extraversion, and neuroticism (see McCrae and Costa 1987, 1997). Openness to experience refers to a disposition that is imaginative, sensitive, flexible, creative, thoughtful, independent, and curious (see McCrae 2000). Much of the research relating to openness has involved either adults or young children (see Gjerde and Cardilla 2009). That research reveals that openness may mean different things depending on an individual’s period of development, such that, for example, it could refer to curiosity, creativity, and intelligence during childhood but more to access to inner experiences during adulthood (see Caspi et al. 2005). Although the manifestation of openness to experience may be different for adolescents and that...
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Levesque, R.J.R. (2011). Openness to Experience. In: Levesque, R.J.R. (eds) Encyclopedia of Adolescence. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-1695-2_573
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