What are the Big Five personality traits?
The Big Five is a model that describes personality along five broad dimensions: openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness and neuroticism, often remembered as OCEAN. Rather than sorting people into types, it describes how high or low a person scores on each dimension.
- Meaning
- Personality described on five continuous dimensions
- Five factors
- Openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, neuroticism (OCEAN)
- Key researchers
- Goldberg, McCrae and Costa, among others
- Field
- Personality psychology
How was it developed?
The Big Five grew out of the lexical hypothesis, the idea that important personality characteristics become encoded as words in language. Researchers collected personality-describing adjectives and grouped them with factor analysis, and similar five clusters kept emerging. Goldberg (1990) confirmed a five-factor structure in adjective data, and McCrae and Costa (1987) showed that the five factors appeared consistently across different instruments and across self-reports and ratings by others.
The five factors
| Factor | High scorers | Low scorers |
|---|---|---|
| Openness | Curious, enjoy new experiences and ideas | Prefer the familiar and practical |
| Conscientiousness | Organized, careful, persistent | Spontaneous, flexible |
| Extraversion | Sociable, energetic, seek stimulation | Quiet, comfortable alone |
| Agreeableness | Cooperative, considerate | Competitive, willing to disagree openly |
| Neuroticism | Experience anxiety, worry and mood swings more easily | Emotionally stable |
No pole is simply "good." Lower agreeableness, for example, can help someone stand firm in a negotiation.
What the research shows
Do personality scores relate to real life? Similar five-factor structures have been found across many cultures and languages. Many studies report that conscientiousness is associated with academic and job performance and that neuroticism is associated with emotional problems such as depression and anxiety. These are average tendencies, however, and they do not determine any one person’s future.
Big Five vs. MBTI
| Aspect | Big Five | MBTI |
|---|---|---|
| Results | Scores on five dimensions (continuous) | 16 types (categories) |
| Neuroticism | Included | No equivalent dimension |
| Use | Standard framework in personality research | Widely used in coaching, education and workplaces |
The MBTI is popular as a starting point for self-reflection and conversation, but academic research relies more on the Big Five, which keeps scores continuous. For broader background, see personality theories.
Reading your results
- Scores describe degree: an extraversion score slightly above the midpoint does not make you an "extravert type."
- Situations matter: traits are relatively stable, but behavior is also strongly shaped by situations. See also the fundamental attribution error.
- Traits can change: studies report that, on average, conscientiousness and agreeableness tend to rise and neuroticism to fall across adulthood.
Frequently asked questions
- What are the Big Five personality traits?
- Openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness and neuroticism, often abbreviated as OCEAN.
- How is the Big Five different from the MBTI?
- The Big Five describes personality with continuous scores on five dimensions, while the MBTI sorts people into 16 types. Research relies more on the Big Five.
- Does a high neuroticism score mean I have a mental illness?
- No. Neuroticism is a personality dimension describing a tendency to experience negative emotions; it is not a diagnosis.
References
- Goldberg, L. R. (1990). An alternative "description of personality": The Big-Five factor structure. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 59(6), 1216–1229. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.59.6.1216
- 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. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.52.1.81