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Personality Theories, Five-Factor Model

The five-factor model of personality (FFM; often referred to as the Big Five model) is an empirically derived approach that organizes the structure of personality into five broad factors: Neuroticism, Extraversion, Openness to Experience, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness. Numerous studies have been conducted on the model and many of these lend support for the existence of the five factors across a wide range of cultures. The five factors have been linked to numerous life outcomes, such as career and relationship trajectories, coping, health-related behaviors, well-being, and maladjustment.

History

The origins of the FFM can be traced to William McDougall's proposal in 1932 that personality could be broadly conceptualized as being composed of five factors. Not long after, in 1934, Louis Leon Thurstone used factor analysis to reduce 60 trait adjectives down to five factors. In 1936 Gordon Allport and H. S. Odbert identified 18,000 terms in an English dictionary that could be used to describe an individual, later reducing this list to 4,000 words. Approximately 10 years later, Raymond Cattell condensed this list to 35 clusters, with 12 underlying dimensions. Cattell and his colleagues added 4 more dimensions to these 12 and developed the Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire (16 PF).

In the 1960s, two psychologists, Ernest C. Tupes and Raymond E. Christal, used Cattell's scales in a study of Air Force trainees. Their analysis of the data suggested the presence of five broad factors. Warren Norman replicated these five factors in 1963 and they became known as the “Norman Five.”

Despite their convergence on five factors, these works remained relatively unnoticed until the late 1970s and early 1980s when several lines of independent research sparked renewed interest. Among these were studies conducted by Robert R. McCrae and Paul T. Costa, Jr., whose names have since become synonymous with the FFM or Big Five model of personality structure. Building upon the work of their predecessors, Costa and McCrae developed the NEO Personality Inventory (NEO PI) to measure the five traits. Although many different measures of the FFM have been developed, Costa and McCrae's NEO Personality Inventory-Revised (NEO PI-R) remains the most widely used and researched.

Description and Measurement

The results ofrepeated independent studies have yielded interpretations consistent with the five factors named by Costa and McCrae. Neuroticism (N, sometimes referred to by its polar opposite as Emotional Stability) represents the tendency to experience psychological distress (e.g., anxiety, irritability) and to display maladaptive responses. Extraversion (E, sometimes called Surgency) refers to a predisposition to experience positive affect (e.g., joy, passion) and to an interpersonal style that is energetic, enthusiastic, and assertive. Openness to Experience (O, sometimes called Openness to Intellect, and sometimes abbreviated as Openness) reflects a tendency to be curious and imaginative, and to seek novel experiences and ideas. Agreeableness (A, sometimes called Friendly Compliance) involves a trusting, caring, and forgiving interpersonal style. Conscientiousness (C, sometimes referred to as Dependability) pertains to an individual's level of organization, dependability, and persistence in pursuing goals.

Using measures such as the NEO PI-R, psychologists can describe an individual's personality according to these five dimensions, often referring to people as “high” or “low” on a given trait. For instance, others would most likely characterize a person who is high in Conscientiousness as dependable, reliable, hardworking, and highly motivated. Some measures of the FFM also include facet subscales that further subdivide each of the traits into more specific components.

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