Personality 5 Factor Model

Personality – 5 Factor Structure

Personality traits can be defined as habitual patterns of behavior, thought, and emotion. Traits are relatively stable over time, differ among individuals (e.g. some people are outgoing whereas others are shy), and influence behaviour. Some researchers believe that traits are a function of behavioural density ie what we do most of the time. Someone is called an extravert because this is their most common mode of behaving.

The traits of the 5 factor structure are listed below.

Openness to Experience

Conscientiousness

Extraversion

Agreeableness

Neuroticism

The five Factors can also be referred to by the acronym OCEAN. When you score the items the median is usually set at at 50%. For example, a Conscientiousness rating of  8 out of 10 indicates a relatively strong sense of responsibility and orderliness, whereas an Extraversion rating of 1 indicates an exceptional need for solitude and quiet.

It is important to note that these trait clusters are statistical aggregates, and that exceptions may exist for any given individual. On average, people high in Openness are intellectually curious, open to emotion, interested in art, and willing to try new things. A particular individual, however, may have a high overall Openness score and be interested in learning and exploring new cultures, yet have no great interest in art or poetry. Situational influences also exist, and even extraverts may occasionally need time away from people.

History

A number of research studies confirm the predictive value of the Big Five traits across a wide range of behaviors. There is a relationship between the Big Five personality dimensions and each of the 10 Personality Disorders listed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV). The researchers found that each disorder displayed a unique and predictable five-factor profile. The most prominent and consistent personality predictors underlying the disorders were positive associations with Neuroticism and negative associations with Agreeableness.

In the area of job performance it has been found that conscientiousness showed consistent relations with all performance criteria for all occupational groups. Extraversion was a valid predictor for occupations involving social interaction (e.g. management and sales). Furthermore, extraversion and openness to experience were valid predictors of training proficiency criteria.

Heritability studies

All five factors show an influence from both heredity and environment in roughly equal proportions.

Change and development

In young adulthood, a person’s ratings on the five factors may change, with average levels of Agreeableness and Conscientiousness typically increasing, and with Extraversion, Neuroticism, and Openness generally decreasing.

After age 30, stability of the traits, not change is the general rule. There is a remarkable stability in adulthood across age groups and across time. This is not to say that personality as measured by the Big Five cannot change, given life altering circumstances or efforts to do so. It would seem that after age 30, people generally do not change their personalities very much. Of course there are other aspect of personality to consider here such as ones characteristic adaptations, narrative identity and the role of culture.

Gender differences

There may be innate differences between men and women across cultures, with women scoring higher in both the Agreeableness and Neuroticism domains. These findings are not conclusive.

Cultural differences

There is a relationship between cultural factors such as , Individualism, Power Distance, Masculinity, and Uncertainty Avoidance and the average Big Five scores within a country. For example the degree a country values individualism correlates with its average Extraversion, while people living in cultures which are accepting of large inequalities in their power structures tend to score somewhat higher on Conscientiousness. The reasons for these differences are unknown.

Criticisms

A common criticism of the Big Five is that it does not explain all of human personality. Some psychologists believe the model neglects other domains of personality, such as religiosity, manipulativeness/machiavellianism,  honesty, thriftiness,  conservativeness, masculinity/femininity, snobbishness, sense of humour, identity, self concept and motivation. Correlations have been found between some of these variables and the Big Five, such as the inverse relationship between political conservatism and Openness.

Methodological issues

Another frequent criticism is that the Big Five is not based on any underlying theory. ; it is merely a finding that certain descriptors cluster together under a statistical method called factor analysis. This does not mean that these five factors don’t exist, just that the underlying causes of them are unknown. Several overarching theoretical models have been proposed to cover all of the Big Five, such as Five-Factor Theory and Social Investment Theory.