The Five Factor Model of

Personality
Timothy C. Thomason
Northern Arizona University
 The Lexical Hypothesis
How do we talk about personality
and individual differences?
We need a taxonomy of descriptors
(traits).
The lexical hypothesis says that most
of the important personality
characteristics have been encoded in
the natural language.
So the dictionary can be used as a
starting point to identify how we talk
 A Limitation of the Lexical
Hypothesis
Not all personality traits are encoded
in language as adjectives.
For example, the English language
contains no single trait adjective for
the traits need for variety or
tolerance of ambiguity.
So lexical studies confound
differences in personality structure
with differences with personality
language.
 The Search for Personality
Factors
In 1936 Allport conducted a lexical study of
terms related to personality in an
unabridged dictionary. He identified 18,000
terms.
In 1943 Cattell selected 4,500 terms from
Allports list and used statistical methods to
reduce them to 35 variables. Factor
analysis identified 12 factors.
The 12 factors became part of Cattells 16
Personality Factors questionnaire (16PF).
 The Discovery of the Big
Five
Researchers studied Cattells data
and found five strong and recurrent
factors.
This five factor structure has been
replicated many times.
These factors became known as the
Big Five.
They are big in the sense that they
are broad factors at a high level of
abstraction.
 The NEO Personality
Inventory
In the 1980s Costa and McCrae developed
the NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-PI) to
measure Neuroticism, Extraversion, and
Openness to Experience.
They added scales to measure
Agreeableness and Conscientiousness and
published the NEO Personality Inventory
Revised (NEO-PI-R) which had 240 items.
Each of the five factors had six specific
facets (subscales).
 The Five Factors
Openness to experience
Conscientiousness
Extraversion
Agreeableness
Neuroticism
 Original Names for the
Factors
Openness to experience or Intellect,
Imagination, or Culture
Consciousness or Will to Achieve
Extraversion or Surgency
Agreeableness vs. Antagonism
Neuroticism vs. Emotional Stability
Examples of Adjectives Defining the
Five Factors
Openness
Artistic, curious, imaginative, wide interests
Consciousness
Efficient, organized, reliable, responsible
Extraversion
Active, assertive, energetic, outgoing, talkative
Agreeableness
Generous, sympathetic, kind, trusting, forgiving
Neuroticism
Anxious, tense, touchy, unstable, worrying
 High vs. Low Scorers
Openness
High: creative, imaginative, eccentric
Low: practical, conventional
Conscientiousness
High: organized, self-directed
Low: spontaneous, careless
Extraversion
High: outgoing, enthusiastic
Low: aloof, quiet
 High vs. Low, cont.
Agreeableness
High: trusting, empathetic
Low: uncooperative, hostile
Neuroticism
High: prone to stress and worry
Low: emotionally stable
 Pros and Cons
Openness
Pro: artistic sensibility; divergent thought
Con: unusual beliefs
Conscientiousness
Pro: planning and self-control
Con: rigidity, lack of spontaneity
Extraversion
Pro: active pursuit of benefits; risk-taking
Con: physical dangers; family instability
 Pros and Cons, cont.
Agreeableness
Pro: harmonious social relationships
Con: not putting self first; lost status
Neuroticism
Pro: vigilance; striving
Con: anxiety, depression
 Assessment of the FFM
The NEO Personality Inventory
Revised (NEO-PI-R) has 240 items and
is the standard instrument for
assessing the five factors.
Briefer Tests to Measure the Big Five

A briefer version of the NEO-PI-R

called the NEO-Five Factor Inventory
(the NEO-FFI) was developed for
research purposes.
The NEO-FFI has 60 items and has
good reliability (.78) and good
correlations with the NEO-PI-R, but
provides less data on the facets.
Another brief inventory was
developed called the Big Five
 The SIMP
The Single-Item Measures of
Personality (SIMP) is the shortest
instrument to measure the five
factors that has acceptable reliability
and validity.
It has five items, one for each of the
5 factors.
 Why Five?
There is nothing magic about the number
5; it is simply what the data seem to show.
We believe it is an empirical fact, like the
fact that there are seven continents.
The speed of light is 300,000 kilometers
per second, but we have no clue why. We
dont know why there are five factors
instead of 3 or 6 or 7.

McCrae & Costa

 Are the Five Factors Too
Broad?
A common objection is that five dimensions
cannot possibly capture all of the variation in
human personality.
But personality can be conceptualized at
different levels of abstraction or breadth.
Similar to how creatures can be categorized at
different levels of abstraction: Eg. Vertebrate -- fish --
guppy
The five factors are useful for some initial
rough distinctions but of less value for
predicting the behavior of a specific person.
 Is the FFM True?
The Five Factor Model is the most
widely accepted model currently, but
it is not the last word in the
description of personality.
It is well supported, but as more
research is done the model may
need to change.
In the future it may turn out that
evidence will be found to show that
there are fewer factors than five or
 Are the Factors Universal?
Cross-cultural studies using translations of
the NEO-PI-R have found that the factors
exist in all of the cultures studied. This
covers most of the earths inhabitants.
Studies have not been done in preliterate
societies, and Native Americans have not
been studied.
The existing evidence suggests that there is
a common human structure of personality.
 Are the Factors Universal?,
cont.
If the five factors are universal, it may be
due to a common genetic basis for
personality.
Parent-child relations have little lasting
effect on personality traits.
Traits are generally stable across the adult
lifespan.
Personality traits are endogenous basic
tendencies but interact with the
environment.
Evolution and the Five Factor Model

Personality traits relate to social

adaptation.
Eg., To retain their mates, extraverts
show off; agreeable men express
affection; men low in conscientiousness
try to make their mates jealous.
The five factors relate to the tasks
people have evolved to solve.
People notice individual differences in
personality and base their choices of
friends and mates partly on inferred
 Hypotheses Re. the Evolution of
Traits
Some traits may be adaptively
neutral.
Eg. Openness may have dubious
adaptive value.
Traits may be the result of stabilizing
selection; extreme values were
selected out.
Eg. People who were too introverted to
find a mate did not reproduce.
Traits may have evolved to solve
 H: The Five Factors are Evolved
Mechanisms to Solve Problems
Extraversion motivates people to approach
sources of reward.
Introversion is an advantage when tasks
require being alone.
Agreeableness makes it easier to get
friends.
Openness and exploration leads to finding
new resources.
Low conscientiousness is good if risk-taking
leads to new resources.
Evolution and the FFM, cont.
Evolutionary theories about the FFM
refer to adaptive problems
confronted by ancestral human
populations but the FFM has also
been found in chimpanzees to some
extent.
So precursors of the five factors may
have evolved in ancestors common
to all primates.
Eg. Maybe Extraversion evolved when
 Trait Terms are Evaluative
97% of trait terms are evaluative; 3%
neutral
Trait terms reflect evaluations of
others as potential contributors to, or
exploiters of, the groups resources.
Consciousness: who can you trust with
tasks?
Agreeableness: who will suspend their
own needs to contribute to the group?
 The Five Factors Have 30
Facets
Costa and McCraes 30 facets represent
the most widely used and empirically
validated model of a trait taxonomy.
Example: Facets within Extraversion:
Gregariousness
Assertiveness
Activity
Excitement seeking
Positive emotions
Warmth
 Do Traits Predict Life
Outcomes?
The assumption is that personal
factors (such as the individuals
traits) and environmental factors
(such as aspects of a job or a
relationship partner) interact to
jointly produce behavioral outcomes.
Personality traits are important
because they influence the way
individuals interact with particular
environments.
 Health and Longevity
Conscientiousness predicts good
health habits, health outcomes, and
longevity.
Low Conscientiousness predicts the
likelihood of engaging in risky
behaviors.
Eg. smoking, substance abuse, poor
diet.
When diagnosed with an illness,
highly Conscientious people are more
 Health, cont.
Low Agreeableness predicts heart
disease.
High Neuroticism predicts less
successful coping with illness.
People high in Extraversion have
more social support available to help
them cope with illness.
 FFM and Adjustment
Problems
Low Agreeableness and low
Conscientousness in adolescents
predicts delinquency.
High neuroticism and low
Conscientousness predicts
depression and anxiety.
Low Conscientousness predicts ADHD
in adults.
 FFM and Coping Strategies
Extraversion
Positive thinking; direct action;
substitution
Neuroticism
Escapist fantasy; hostility; passivity;
withdrawal
Openness
High openness: humor (see the humor in
it)
Low openness: faith (put your faith in
FFM & Academic & Work Outcomes

Conscientiousness predicts higher

GPAs.
Conscientiousness predicts good job
performance across a wide range of
jobs.
Highly Neurotic people are more
likely to experience burnout and to
change jobs.
 FFM and Work Outcomes
Extraversion predicts success in
sales and management jobs.
Openness predicts success in artistic
jobs.
Conscientiousness predicts success
in conventional jobs.
Agreeableness and low Neuroticism
predicts success in jobs where people
work in groups.
 FFM and Well-Being
Personality is the strongest predictor
of high subjective well-being.
Personality relates to life satisfaction
more than economic factors.
Personality is responsible for 35% of
life satisfaction differences; 4% is
due to employment status; 4% is due
to income; and 1% to 4% is due to
marital status.
 FFM and Well-Being
Extraversion has a direct, positive
effect on well-being.
Neuroticism has a negative effect on
well-being.
 FFM and Infidelity
Who is most likely to be unfaithful to
their relationship partner? Someone
who has
High Extraversion
High Neuroticism
High Openness
Low Agreeableness
Low Conscientiousness
 Traits are Not the Whole
Story
People have the ability to change
their patterns of behavior, thoughts,
and feelings (eg., as a result of
psychotherapy).
Links between the Big Five and life
outcomes are neither fixed nor
inevitable for the individual.
The Big Five may point to areas
people can focus on for change (eg.
conscientiousness).
Personality is Stable for Most People

Personality traits have long-term

stability.
Four-fifths of the variance is stable
across the adult lifespan.
There are some changes after age 30
in all five factors, but they are very
gradual.
The 30 year old extravert is still likely
to be an extravert at age 70, though
not quite as active or keen on
 Changes in Traits in
Adulthood
The traits described by the five
factors change more during young
adulthood than any other period of
life.
Openness typically increases in the
20s and goes into a gradual decline
after that.
People tend to become more reliable
and agreeable with age.
These patterns seem to hold across
 Summary: The Five Factor
Model
Currently, the Five Factor Model, with
the 30 facets, represents the most
widely used and empirically validated
model of personality structure.
 Limitations of the FFM
The FFM is not (and was never
intended to be) a comprehensive
theory of personality.
It was developed to account for the
structural relations among
personality traits.
It is more descriptive than
explanatory.
 Resources
Handbook of Personality, 2008, by
John, Robins, & Pervin, NY: Guilford
Press.
Articles by R. McCrae & P. Costa
Buss, D. M. (1995). Evolutionary
psychology. Psychological Inquiry,
6(1), 1-30.