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The Five Factor Model (FFM) of general personality structure consists of the five broad domains of neuroticism (or emotional instability vs. stability), extraversion (vs. introversion), openness (or unconventionality), agreeableness (vs. antagonism), and conscientiousness (or constraint vs. disinhibition). Each of these domains includes more ...
- Conscientiousness
- Agreeableness
- Extraversion
- Openness to Experience
- Neuroticism
- New Research on Media and Technology
- Critical Evaluation
- History and Background
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Conscientiousness describes a person’s ability to regulate impulse control to engage in goal-directed behaviors (Grohol, 2019). It measures elements such as control, inhibition, and persistence of behavior.
Agreeableness refers to how people tend to treat relationships with others. Unlike extraversion which consists of the pursuit of relationships, agreeableness focuses on people’s orientation and interactions with others (Ackerman, 2017).
Extraversionreflects the tendency and intensity to which someone seeks interaction with their environment, particularly socially. It encompasses the comfort and assertiveness levels of people in social situations. Additionally, it also reflects the sources from which someone draws energy.
Openness to experience refers to one’s willingness to try new things as well as engage in imaginative and intellectual activities. It includes the ability to “think outside of the box.”
Neuroticism describes the overall emotional stability of an individual through how they perceive the world. It takes into account how likely a person is to interpret events as threatening or difficult. It also includes one’s propensity to experience negative emotions.
Openness to experience predicted preferences for complex movies (e.g., documentaries) and unconventional books (e.g., philosophy).Conscientiousness was associated with a preference for informational books.Agreeableness predicted liking for conventional genres such as family movies and romance books.Neuroticism only correlated with a preference for light books, not movies.Cross-Cultural Validity
Although the Big Five has been tested in many countries and its existence is generally supported by findings (McCrae, 2002), there have been some studies that do not support its model. Most previous studies have tested the presence of the Big Five in urbanized, literate populations. More research on illiterate and non-industrialized populations is needed to clarify such discrepancies.
Gender Differences
Differences in the Big Five personality traits between genders have been observed, but these differences are small compared to differences between individuals within the same gender. Another interesting finding was that bigger gender differences were reported in Western, industrialized countries. Researchers proposed that the most plausible reason for this finding was attribution processes. They surmised that the actions of women in individualistic countries would be more likely to be attribu...
Factors that Influence the Big 5
Like with all theories of personality, the Big Five is influenced by both nature and nurture. Twin studies have found that the heritability (the amount of variance that can be attributed to genes) of the Big Five traits is 40-60%. Such twin studies demonstrate that the Big Five personality traits are significantly influenced by genes and that all five traits are equally heritable. Heritability for males and females does not seem to differ significantly (Leohlin et al., 1998). Studies from dif...
The Big Five model resulted from the contributions of many independent researchers. Gordon Allport and Henry Odbert first formed a list of 4,500 terms relating to personality traits in 1936 (Vinney, 2018). Their work provided the foundation for other psychologists to begin determining the basic dimensions of personality. In the 1940s, Raymond Catte...
Ackerman, C. (2017, June 23). Big Five Personality Traits: The OCEAN Model Explained. PositivePsychology.com. https://positivepsychology.com/big-five-personality-theory Buecker, S., Maes, M., Denissen, J. J., & Luhmann, M. (2020). Loneliness and the Big Five personality traits: A meta–analysis. European Journal of Personality, 34(1), 8-28. https://...
McCrae, R. R., & Terracciano, A. (2005). Universal features of personality traits from the observer’s perspective: data from 50 cultures. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 88(3), 547.Cobb-Clark, DA & Schurer, S. The stability of big-five personality traits. Economics Letters. 2012; 115(2): 11–15.Marsh, H. W., Nagengast, B., & Morin, A. J. (2013). Measurement invariance of big-five factors over the life span: ESEM tests of gender, age, plasticity, maturity, and la dolce vita effects. Develo...The finding is surprising given past research led by five factor theorist Robert McCrae, PhD, who found evidence supporting the five factor personality model in more than 50 countries (Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2005).
Jan 1, 2020 · 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,...
- Openness. Openness (also referred to as openness to experience) emphasizes imagination and insight the most out of all five personality traits. People who are high in openness tend to have a broad range of interests.
- Conscientiousness. Among each of the personality traits, conscientiousness is one defined by high levels of thoughtfulness, good impulse control, and goal-directed behaviors.
- Extraversion. Extraversion (or extroversion) is a personality trait characterized by excitability, sociability, talkativeness, assertiveness, and high amounts of emotional expressiveness.
- Agreeableness. This personality trait includes attributes such as trust, altruism, kindness, affection, and other prosocial behaviors. People who are high in agreeableness tend to be more cooperative while those low in this personality trait tend to be more competitive and sometimes even manipulative.
Aug 11, 2021 · The Big Five construct of personality traits is a taxonomy of five higher-order personality traits that are believed to be responsible for people's differences and is considered the...
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There is little doubt that the Five-Factor Model (FFM) of personality traits (the “Big Five”) is currently the dominant paradigm in personality research and one of the most influential models in all of psychology.
