Types / Personality facets / Even temper

A facet inside Emotional stability

Even temper

How steadily you handle irritation, anger and situations that test your patience.

What this facet measures

A pan rests on a cold stove burner with steam thinning, a wooden spoon across its rim, and the surrounding surface wiped clean.

How quickly irritation and anger rise, including how easily you lose your temper. The lower end means frustration can become intense sooner and show more visibly.

The two ends

This is one scale with two ends, not two camps. Most people land somewhere between them, and neither end is better. The labels describe different ways of answering the statements.

Angers easily

People toward this end react strongly when blocked, criticized, or treated unfairly. Frustration can arrive quickly and show in a sharper voice, a tense exchange, or a decision to leave the conversation.

Keeps an even temper

People toward this end usually give themselves a moment before responding to a provocation or setback. Their measured reactions can keep a disagreement workable and help others feel heard. The same restraint can make strong dissatisfaction harder to notice until it has built up.

See where all 30 land

Answer 120 short statements for a reading across all 30 facets, with each scale explained in plain English.

Questions

Is a low score a bad score?

No. Each end comes with something that helps and something that gets in the way. Some scale names sound like faults in everyday English, but an end label describes what the statements asked about, not a grade.

What if this part disagrees with its trait?

It happens often, and it’s the reason these 30 facets exist. A broad score is an average of six parts, so one part can point the other way. Nothing is wrong when a facet and its broad trait don’t match perfectly.

Who is this score compared with?

A score is compared with 320,128 U.S. adults who answered the original statements online during the roughly 12 years before 2014. Their published average and spread provide a typical range for the facet, showing how the score compares with that group.