Big Five personality traits in Cher from Clueless

Big Five Personality Analysis

Cher from the film Clueless: Big five personality trait analysis

Openness

Openness is an appreciation for new ideas. On one hand, sixteen-year-old Cher is fairly unaware of problems that exist outside of her narrow world of Beverly Hills, and she is very judgmental of so-called 'stoners' at her high school, or people who do not fit in with her in-group. However, she is open enough to embrace a new girl named Tai who comes to the school, even though the girl seems very 'clueless' about how to dress and behave. Cher tries to teach Tai the values of the high school -- Cher's values.

Despite her apparent superficiality, Cher does have a clear sense of personal morality. She is open about the fact that she is a virgin, saying that she is waiting for the right person to enjoy 'first time'. This makes her unusual in her school, and shows that she has a value system that does not merely narrowly conform to the world around her.

Extraversion

Extroversion is perhaps Cher's dominant trait. Even her personal hobbies are extroverted. When she is bored, she tries to fix up two of her teachers, romantically -- or to 'socially improve' and educate her friends in style. Instead of amusing herself with inward-directed pastimes, all of her energies are focused in an outer-directed fashion. She seldom reads and makes fun of her stepbrother for showing an interest in philosophy and not wanting to go to parties and shop. If something is not seen by others -- whether it is clothing, shoes, or a public act of kindness -- it does not exist for Cher.

Agreeableness

However, Cher, unlike some of the other girls at her school, is not mean-spirited. She does not constantly mock other people and make snide jokes, unless she is responding to someone else's comments. She is shocked when Elton, a boy she tries to get interested in Tai, says that he is beneath Tai. Cher's extroversion and focus on people is thus partially based in a need to be liked, but also seems to reflect a genuine interest in others. When she discovers that Christian, a boy she has been 'crushing on' is gay, she does not act homophobic or start rumors about him, but embraces him as a friend.

Cher's agreeableness is also manifest in the fact that she is popular -- although her school is intensely factionalized between different social groups, she seems to get along fairly well with most of the other girls. This is in contrast to Amber, who is snotty and nasty. Cher is pretty and rich, which is obviously a necessary component of success at a Beverley Hills High School, but she also has other attributes that make her particularly well-liked and attractive.

Neuroticism

Cher is the opposite of neurotic -- she is not in 'touch' with her negative feelings. She refuses to admit to herself that she might have a crush on her stepbrother Josh, and instead masks that with teasing. When Tai confesses to having a crush on Josh, Cher doesn't understand why she feels so angry, until she realizes that SHE actually likes Josh and wants him for herself. On one hand, Cher's accentuation of the positive is admirable, and one of the reasons she is so popular and likeable. On the other hand, it means that she can 'tune off' the unpleasant aspects of her environment, even when she shouldn't. Someone who is neurotic is often more highly concisions of negative aspects of their social world than people who are not: Cher even believes that she can 'renegotiate' her disastrous performance on her first driving test, because she assumes only good things will happen in her life.

Cher's lack of neuroticism also means that she sometimes ignores the possibility of bad things happening and does not work hard enough. Not applying herself to learning how to drive is an excellent example of this. She also does not protect herself from being mugged at gunpoint when coming home for a party. Cher is very vulnerable, and lacks a hard sense of protectiveness of herself and her interests, because of her sheltered upbringing in which everyone has always tried to make sure that she has the best of everything.