This post and accompanying video give a concise overview of the Big Five personality traits model. The Big Five factor theory of personality is important in personality psychology, but the model is also used in e.g., the psychology of organizational behavior and in criminology to explain crime and criminal behavior.
Table of Contents
Personality Traits
In everyday life, and when we look at other people, we often characterize them in certain ways:
- Some people are extroverted and outgoing
- Other people are introverted and shy
- Some people are seen as “typical leader personalities”
- Whereas others are seen more as supportive team members
- Some people are said to have a “great personality”, without it really being clear what that means.
Often when we say things like “That’s just who I am”, we refer to our personality.
Based on the type of person we think someone is, we expect certain behaviors of them. We might not expect a shy person to speak up in public. And we might not expect an extroverted person to sit at home by themselves.
Personality is thought of as very pervasive, and it is not uncommon for employers for example to have new employees take personality tests before they hire them.
The Big Five Personality Traits
One way to characterize a person is by describing the different characteristics that their personality has. There are different ways to do this, but the best-known way in psychology is the five-factor model, also called the Big Five personality traits model. According to this model, people’s personality can be summarized by how they are positioned on five basic personality traits.
Let’s have a look at what these five factors actually mean.
Let’s start with Openness/Intellect/Imagination: This reflects the extent to which people are open to new ideas and new adventures. People with high openness are thought of as curious, imaginative and creative. On the other hand, people who cling to traditional ideas and habits, and are not into new ideas are thought of as low on openness.
Second, there is Conscientiousness: People who are high on conscientiousness are organized, they prepare well, pay attention to detail and they do not procrastinate. On the opposite end of the spectrum, people who are low on conscientiousness are not so organized but more spontaneous and might be seen as messy, since they’re less likely to finish their tasks.
The third factor is Extraversion (or Extroversion): This is a dimension that is pretty well known. Extroverted people like being around other people and talking to people, they have lots of friends and enjoy making new friends. Introverted people on the other hand are more quiet, feel comfortable when they’re alone and feel energy-drained when they have to socialize a lot.
Fourth, we have Agreeableness: People who are high on agreeableness care about other people, are focused on cooperating with other people, and enjoy helping others. People who are low on agreeableness, on the other hand, are not really interested in other people and are much more focused on competition with other people than on how to help other people
The last factor is Neuroticism/Emotional instability: People who are high in neuroticism are usually less stable emotionally, meaning that they experience things like anxiety and mood swings, worry a lot, and get upset easily. People who are low on emotionality, on the other hand, can handle stress well, don’t often feel depressed and are generally more relaxed than worried.
To remember all five elements of the Big Five, you can take the first letters of each, which spells the acronym “OCEAN” – or “CANOE” if you prefer.
Global Personality Factors and Sub-Dimensions
So these five factors are what are called the global personality factors that together describe people’s personality. As you’ve probably noticed, they’re quite broad. To describe people’s personalities even better, research has shown that each of these five traits have sub-dimensions. Together, these sub-dimensions form a global personality factor, but they can be useful to distinguish, because people may score high on one sub-dimension but low on another. For example, extraversion has several sub-dimensions. One of them is being assertive, but another one is warmth. Some people may score high on warmth but low on assertiveness, whereas other people may find the opposite to be true for them.
All in all, these five personality traits are the broad dimensions that have been found to exist in psychology and that form a useful way to summarize people’s personality. And in turn, personality traits have been linked to many different types of human behavior, from how people do in school to how they behave in social situations, to even their criminal behavior. The breadth of research on which the Big Five is based as well as their practical relevance in everyday life has no doubt contributed to their prominence in personality research and psychology.
Big Five Personality Test
If you’re interested in doing a personality test yourself, you can do so here: https://openpsychometrics.org/tests/IPIP-BFFM/ and click on the Start Button. I’m not affiliated with this website, but it has very useful tests, which is why I chose it.
