What Are the Big Five Dimensions of Personality?

Today, many researchers believe that they are five core personality traits. Evidence of this theory has been growing over the past 50 years, beginning with the research of D. W. Fiske (1949) and later expanded upon by other researchers including Norman (1967), Smith (1967), Goldberg (1981), and McCrae & Costa (1987).

 

The "big five" are broad categories of personality traits. While there is a significant body of literature supporting this five-factor model of personality, researchers don't always agree on the exact labels for each dimension. However, these five categories are usually described as follows:

 

• Extraversion:  Someone high in this trait has lots of characteristics such as excitability, sociability, talkativeness, assertiveness and high amounts of emotional expressiveness.

 

• Agreeableness: People high in this personality trait have attributes such as trust, altruism, kindness, affection, and other prosocial behaviors.

 

• Conscientiousness:  People high in this personality trait have  high levels of thoughtfulness, with good impulse control and goal-directed behaviors. Those high in conscientiousness tend to be organized and mindful of details.

 

• Neuroticism: People high in this trait tend to experience emotional instability, anxiety, moodiness, irritability, and sadness.

 

• Openness: People high in this personality trait have  characteristics such as imagination and insight, and those high in this trait also tend to have a broad range of interests.

 

It is important to note that each of the five personality factors represents a range between two extremes. For example, extraversion represents a continuum between extreme extraversion and extreme introversion. In the real world, most people lie somewhere in between the two polar ends of each dimension.

 

Big 5 Personality Research

McCrae and his colleagues have also found that the big five traits are also remarkably universal. One study that looked at people from more than 50 different cultures found that the five dimensions could be accurately used to describe personality.

Based on this research, many psychologists now believe that the five personality dimensions are not only universal; they also have biological origins. Psychology David Buss has proposed that an evolutionary explanation for these five core personality traits, suggesting that these personality traits represent the most important qualities that shape our social landscape.

 

 

From http://psychology.about.com/od/personalitydevelopment/a/bigfive.htm