The Big Five personality traits represent one of psychology's most well-established and researched models for understanding human personality. In this article, we'll cover what these traits are, how they were discovered, and what they mean for understanding ourselves and others.
To discover your own Big Five personality traits, you can take our free Big Five personality test.
The Foundation of Modern Personality Research
In the 1930s, psychologists began systematically studying personality by examining the words people use to describe one another. This lexical approach, pioneered by researchers like Gordon Allport, led to the eventual discovery that most personality descriptions could be grouped into five broad dimensions.
By the 1980s, researchers had reached a remarkable consensus around these five traits, now known as the Big Five or the Five-Factor Model (McCrae & John, 1992).
Understanding the Five Dimensions of Personality
Each trait exists on a spectrum, and most people fall somewhere in the middle rather than at the extremes. Let's explore each one:
Openness to Experience
People high in openness tend to be intellectually curious, creative, and sensitive to beauty. They often enjoy trying new things and have a broad range of interests. Research by DeYoung and colleagues (2007) found that open individuals tend to have more active neural mechanisms for processing cognitive and sensory information.
The wonderful thing about high openness is the capacity for rich experiences and deep appreciation of art, music, and new ideas. However, these individuals might sometimes struggle with focusing on practical, routine tasks.
Conscientiousness
This trait reflects how organized, responsible, and goal-directed a person tends to be. Highly conscientious people are typically thorough, disciplined, and think carefully before acting. A landmark study by Roberts et al. (2007) found conscientiousness to be one of the strongest personality predictors of career success and longevity.
While high conscientiousness is generally beneficial, these individuals might sometimes be seen as inflexible or overly focused on rules and planning.
Extraversion
Extraversion captures a person's tendency toward sociability, assertiveness, and positive emotions. Extraverts typically enjoy being around others and feel energized by social interaction. Costa and McCrae's research (1992) demonstrated that extraversion strongly predicts subjective well-being and happiness.
Though extraversion is often celebrated in Western culture, introverts have their own strengths, including the ability to focus deeply and work independently for long periods.
Agreeableness
This dimension reflects differences in compassion, cooperation, and consideration for others. Highly agreeable people tend to be sympathetic, kind, and considerate. Research by Graziano and Tobin (2009) showed that agreeableness predicts prosocial behavior and better relationship outcomes.
While being agreeable has many social benefits, these individuals might sometimes struggle with asserting themselves or saying "no" when necessary.
Neuroticism (or Emotional Stability)
Neuroticism refers to the tendency to experience negative emotions and psychological distress. Those lower in neuroticism (higher in emotional stability) tend to be more resilient and less easily upset. A comprehensive study by Soldz and Vaillant (1999) tracked individuals for 45 years and found neuroticism to be remarkably stable over time.
While neuroticism is often viewed negatively, some degree of emotional sensitivity can lead to greater empathy and artistic expression. The key is finding healthy ways to manage these emotions.
Why the Big Five Matter
The Big Five traits have shown remarkable consistency across cultures and throughout adult life. They predict important life outcomes ranging from academic achievement to relationship satisfaction to health behaviors (Ozer & Benet-Martinez, 2006).
Understanding your Big Five profile can help you:
- Choose career paths that align with your natural tendencies
- Develop more effective relationships and communication styles
- Identify areas where you might want to develop compensatory strategies
- Better understand and appreciate differences between yourself and others
Remember that no trait profile is inherently "better" than others - each combination brings its own strengths and challenges. The key is understanding yourself and using that knowledge to live more effectively and authentically.
Comparing Personality Models
The Big Five model stands out among personality frameworks for several key reasons, but it's helpful to understand how it compares to other influential models.
The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI): While extremely popular in business settings, the MBTI differs fundamentally from the Big Five in its approach. Rather than measuring traits on continuous dimensions like the Big Five, the MBTI categorizes people into 16 distinct personality "types" based on four binary preferences (e.g., Introvert vs. Extravert). However, research shows that human personality traits actually exist on spectrums rather than as either/or categories. McCrae and Costa (1989) demonstrated that while the MBTI's dimensions correlate with some Big Five traits, the Big Five model captures personality variations more accurately and shows superior predictive validity for life outcomes.
The HEXACO Model: The HEXACO model is perhaps the closest relative to the Big Five, adding a sixth dimension called Honesty-Humility to the basic five traits. As Ashton and Lee (2020) explain, HEXACO emerged from cross-cultural lexical studies that suggested this additional trait dimension might be important. While there's ongoing debate about whether six factors are better than five, both models share the core insight that personality traits exist on continuous dimensions rather than as types.
Cattell's 16 Personality Factors: Raymond Cattell's model proposed 16 primary personality factors, making it more complex than the Big Five. However, when later researchers analyzed Cattell's data using more sophisticated statistical methods, they found that most of the variance could be explained by just five broader factors - helping establish the Big Five framework. The Big Five thus represents a more parsimonious solution that captures the major dimensions of personality without becoming overly complex.
Eysenck's Three-Factor Model: Hans Eysenck proposed just three major personality dimensions: Extraversion, Neuroticism, and Psychoticism. While influential, this model proved too simple to capture the full range of personality differences. The Big Five essentially expanded on Eysenck's work by adding Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, and Openness to Experience as distinct dimensions supported by factor analysis.
Why the Big Five personality trait model prevailed
The Big Five model has become dominant in personality psychology for several compelling reasons:
- Empirical Foundation: Unlike many personality theories that were rationally derived, the Big Five emerged from statistical analysis of how people naturally describe personality differences.
- Cross-Cultural Validity: Studies have found the same five dimensions appear across different languages and cultures, suggesting they reflect fundamental aspects of human personality (John & Srivastava, 1999).
- Temporal Stability: Longitudinal research shows these traits remain relatively stable over time while still allowing for gradual change and development (Soldz & Vaillant, 1999).
- Predictive Power: The Big Five consistently predict important life outcomes better than competing models, from job performance to relationship satisfaction to health behaviors (Roberts et al., 2007).
- Scientific Backing: While debate continues about details, there is broad scientific agreement that these five dimensions capture the main domains of personality variation.
Understanding these comparisons helps explain why the Big Five has become the standard scientific model for personality research, while also acknowledging that other frameworks may offer useful perspectives for specific applications. The key is recognizing that the Big Five's strength lies in its empirical foundation and practical utility rather than in any claim to be the only way to look at personality.
To better understand how your personality traits interact, you can take our free Big Five personality test.
Sources
Costa, P. T., & McCrae, R. R. (1992). NEO PI-R Professional Manual. Odessa, FL: Psychological Assessment Resources.
DeYoung, C. G., Quilty, L. C., & Peterson, J. B. (2007). Between facets and domains: 10 aspects of the Big Five. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 93(5), 880–896.
Graziano, W. G., & Tobin, R. M. (2009). Agreeableness. In M. R. Leary & R. H. Hoyle (Eds.), Handbook of Individual Differences in Social Behavior (pp. 369-381). The Guilford Press.
McCrae, R. R., & John, O. P. (1992). An introduction to the five-factor model and its applications. Journal of Personality, 60(2), 175-215.
Ozer, D. J., & Benet-Martinez, V. (2006). Personality and the prediction of consequential outcomes. Annual Review of Psychology, 57, 401-421.
Roberts, B. W., Kuncel, N. R., Shiner, R., Caspi, A., & Goldberg, L. R. (2007). The Power of Personality: The Comparative Validity of Personality Domains, Socioeconomic Status, and Cognitive Ability for Predicting Important Life Outcomes. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 2(4), 313-345.
Soldz, S., & Vaillant, G. E. (1999). The Big Five Personality Traits and the Life Course: A 45-Year Longitudinal Study. Journal of Research in Personality, 33, 208–232.