The Big Five: the most studied model of personality

Where the model comes from

The model grew out of a simple idea called the lexical hypothesis: if a difference between people matters, everyday language invents words for it. Researchers collected thousands of adjectives from the dictionary, asked people to describe themselves with them, and used factor analysis to see which words cluster together.

Over decades, independent studies kept arriving at five broad clusters. Lewis Goldberg (1990) showed the structure reappears with different word lists and methods. In parallel, Robert McCrae and Paul Costa reached the same five factors through questionnaires and showed that they converge across self-reports and ratings by people who know you (McCrae & Costa, 1987).

What the research says

The five factors show up, with some variation, across dozens of cultures and languages (Schmitt et al., 2007). In adults the traits are fairly stable over years, though they shift a little with age: on average we become more conscientious and agreeable and less neurotic.

The traits also predict real outcomes. Conscientiousness is among the best personality predictors of job performance (Barrick & Mount, 1991). A broad review found that the five traits relate to longevity, divorce and occupational success with effect sizes comparable to socioeconomic status and cognitive ability (Roberts et al., 2007). The effects are modest for any one person but consistent across large groups.

Criticisms and debates

The model describes rather than explains: it says traits exist and cluster, not why. Some researchers argue for a sixth factor, Honesty-Humility, in the HEXACO model (Ashton & Lee, 2007). Others point out that five broad factors hide important differences at the level of narrower facets. Even so, among personality models it has the broadest empirical support.

Limitations

Research instruments such as the BFI-2 (Soto & John, 2017) use agreement scales and population norms, which lets you say whether someone is above or below average. Ethea's test uses forced choice between pairs of statements, so scores are relative: they show which trait weighs most within you, not whether you're more extraverted than someone else. A person who is high on all five traits in absolute terms will still see peaks and valleys here. Ethea's test has not been validated in independent samples, has no norms, and should not be used for hiring.

How Ethea adapts the model

Ethea's test compares each trait with each of the other four across 40 pairs of statements (10 combinations, four rounds with different wording), alternating left/right position to reduce order effects. We call the Neuroticism pole "Sensitivity" to describe emotional reactivity without a pejorative tone. The result shows the trait you prioritized most and the relative spread across all five.

Test created by Giovanni Oliveira.

References

Links with a DOI go to the original article. Where no DOI is given, the link opens a Google Scholar search.

1. Goldberg, L. R. (1990). An alternative "description of personality": The Big-Five factor structure. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 59(6), 1216–1229. DOI: 10.1037/0022-3514.59.6.1216(opens in a new tab)
2. McCrae, R. R., & Costa, P. T., Jr. (1987). Validation of the five-factor model of personality across instruments and observers. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 52(1), 81–90. DOI: 10.1037/0022-3514.52.1.81(opens in a new tab)
3. Barrick, M. R., & Mount, M. K. (1991). The Big Five personality dimensions and job performance: A meta-analysis. Personnel Psychology, 44(1), 1–26. DOI: 10.1111/j.1744-6570.1991.tb00688.x(opens in a new tab)
4. Roberts, B. W., Kuncel, N. R., Shiner, R., Caspi, A., & Goldberg, L. R. (2007). The power of personality: The comparative validity of personality traits, socioeconomic status, and cognitive ability for predicting important life outcomes. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 2(4), 313–345. DOI: 10.1111/j.1745-6916.2007.00047.x(opens in a new tab)
5. Schmitt, D. P., Allik, J., McCrae, R. R., & Benet-Martínez, V. (2007). The geographic distribution of Big Five personality traits: Patterns and profiles of human self-description across 56 nations. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 38(2), 173–212. Search Google Scholar(opens in a new tab)
6. Soto, C. J., & John, O. P. (2017). The next Big Five Inventory (BFI-2): Developing and assessing a hierarchical model with 15 facets to enhance bandwidth, fidelity, and predictive power. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 113(1), 117–143. Search Google Scholar(opens in a new tab)
7. Ashton, M. C., & Lee, K. (2007). Empirical, theoretical, and practical advantages of the HEXACO model of personality structure. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 11(2), 150–166. Search Google Scholar(opens in a new tab)
8. Hicks, L. E. (1970). Some properties of ipsative, normative, and forced-choice normative measures. Psychological Bulletin, 74(3), 167–184. DOI: 10.1037/h0029780(opens in a new tab)
9. Brown, A., & Maydeu-Olivares, A. (2011). Item response modeling of forced-choice questionnaires. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 71(3), 460–502. DOI: 10.1177/0013164410375112(opens in a new tab)
10. Brown, A., & Maydeu-Olivares, A. (2013). How IRT can solve problems of ipsative data in forced-choice questionnaires. Psychological Methods, 18(1), 36–52. DOI: 10.1037/a0030641(opens in a new tab)