What are the big five traits?

Definition of Big Five Personality Traits:

Personality research has generated a variety of different theories that attempt to define and measure personality. The most widely accepted taxonomy of personality among industrial-organizational psychologists is the Big Five Personality Traits model, or the Five Factor Model of personality. The Five Factor Model breaks personality down into five components: Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Openness, and Stress Tolerance. Personality tests that are based on this model measure where an individual lies on the spectrum of each of the five traits.

Each trait measures a unique aspect of human personality:

  • Agreeableness is a measure of an individual’s tendencies with respect to social harmony. This trait reflects how well the individual gets along with others, how cooperative or skeptical they are, and how they might interact within a team.
  • Conscientiousness is a measure of how careful, deliberate, self-disciplined, and organized an individual is. Conscientiousness is often predictive of employee productivity, particularly in lower-level positions.
  • Extraversion is a measure of how sociable, outgoing, and energetic an individual is. Individuals who score lower on the extraversion scale are considered to be more introverted, or more deliberate, quiet, low key, and independent. Some types of positions are better suited for individuals who fall on one side of the spectrum or the other.
  • Openness measures the extent to which an individual is imaginative and creative, as opposed to down-to-earth and conventional.
  • Stress Tolerance measures the ways in which individuals react to stress.

By Dr. Edwin van Thiel, updated April 7, 2022

Why do people respond differently to the same situations? In contemporary psychology, the Big Five personality traits are five broad domains which define human personality and account for individual differences. This article tells you more about the Big Five personality theory and the personality traits it distinguishes. After reading it, take our free personality test to determine your own Big Five personality type.

History of Big Five personality theory

Several independent sets of researchers discovered and defined the five broad personality traits based on empirical, data-driven research. Ernest Tupes and Raymond Christal advanced the initial model, based on work done at the U.S. Air Force Personnel Laboratory in the late 1950s.1 J.M. Digman proposed his five factor model of personality in 19902, and Goldberg extended it to the highest level of organizations in 1993.3 In a personality test, the Five Factor Model or FFM4 and the Global Factors of personality5 may also be used to reference the Big Five traits.

Big Five personality traits

Human resources professionals often use the Big Five personality traits dimensions to help place employees. That is because these dimensions are considered to be the underlying traits that make up an individual’s overall personality.

The Big Five personality traits are:

  • Openness
  • Conscientiousness
  • Extraversion
  • Agreeableness
  • Neuroticism

or OCEAN:

  • Openness - People who like to learn new things and enjoy new experiences usually score high in openness. Openness includes personality traits like being insightful and imaginative and having a wide variety of interests.
  • Conscientiousness - People that have a high degree of conscientiousness are reliable and prompt. Personality traits include being organized, methodic, and thorough.
  • Extraversion - Extraverts get their energy from interacting with others, while introverts get their energy from within themselves. Extraversion includes the personality traits of energetic, talkative, and assertive.
  • Agreeableness - These individuals are friendly, cooperative, and compassionate. People with low agreeableness may be more distant. Personality traits include being kind, affectionate, and sympathetic.
  • Neuroticism - Neuroticism is also sometimes called Emotional Stability. This dimension relates to one’s emotional stability and degree of negative emotions. People that score high on neuroticism often experience emotional instability and negative emotions. Personality traits include being moody and tense for example.

Big Five personality traits visually explained

What are the big five traits?

How to use results from the Big Five personality test

The Big Five personality test gives you more insight into how you react in different situations, which can help you choose an occupation. Career professionals and psychologists use this information in a personality career test for recruitment and candidate assessment.

Test personality free

To determine your Big Five personality traits, take our free online personality test. It tells you more about yourself and what your strengths and weaknesses are. This personality test measures the Big Five personality factors developed over several decades by independent groups of researchers. It is the most scientifically validated and reliable psychological model to test personality. You can also take our career test to test personality.

  • Big Five Assessment: For students, researchers, and practitioners of psychology and related fields, a detailed guide to the various instruments that are used to evaluate the conventional Big Five personality factors. Authors: Boele De Raad & Marco Perugini
  • Personality in Adulthood, Second Edition: A Five-Factor Theory Perspective: This influential work examines how enduring dispositions or traits affect the process of aging and shape each individual’s life course. Authors: Robert R. McCrae & Paul T. Costa Jr.
  • The Five-Factor Model of Personality Across Cultures: The Five-Factor Model Across Cultures was designed to further an understanding of the interrelations between personality and culture by examining the dominant paradigm for personality assessment - the Five-Factor Model or FFM - in a wide variety of cultural contexts. Authors: Robert R. McCrae &‎ Juri Allik

1 Tupes, E.C., Christal, R.E.; "Recurrent Personality Factors Based on Trait Ratings," Technical Report ASD-TR-61-97, Lackland Air Force Base, TX: Personnel Laboratory, Air Force Systems Command, 1961.
2 Digman, J.M., "Personality structure: Emergence of the five-factormodel," Annual Review of Psychology, 41, 417-440, 1990.
3 Goldberg, L.R., "The structure of phenotypic personality traits," American Psychologist, 48, 26-34, 1993.
4 Costa, P.T., Jr., McCrae, R.R.; Revised NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-PI-R) and NEO Five-Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI) manual. Odessa, FL: Psychological Assessment Resources, 1992.
5 Russell, M.T., Karol, D.; 16PF Fifth Edition administrator's manual." Champaign, IL: Institute for Personality & Ability Testing, 1994.

What do the Big Five personality traits mean?

Many contemporary personality psychologists believe that there are five basic dimensions of personality, often referred to as the "Big 5" personality traits. These five primary personality traits are extraversion (also often spelled extroversion), agreeableness, openness, conscientiousness, and neuroticism.

What is an example of a big 5 personality trait?

The Big Five personality traits are broad domains/dimensions of personality and include the following traits: openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism (under the acronym, OCEAN).

What are the 5 factors in the Big Five model of personality?

The five-factor model of personality (FFM) is a set of five broad trait dimensions or domains, often referred to as the “Big Five”: Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Neuroticism (sometimes named by its polar opposite, Emotional Stability), and Openness to Experience (sometimes named Intellect).

What are the Big 5 personality traits quizlet?

The five factors have been defined as openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism, often listed under the acronyms OCEAN or CANOE.