The 5-Factor ModelThe 5-Factor Model

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The “Big 5”The “Big 5”

Five Factor ModelFive Factor ModelHistory: Lexical HypothesisHistory: Lexical Hypothesis

• (1936) Allport and Odbert.– 17,953 trait terms in English.– Divided these into groups.

– Identified 4,500 stable trait terms.• (1943) Cattell

– Reduced the list to 171 clusters.– Later refined it to 35 groups of personality

traits.• (1949) Fiske

– Through factor analysis identified five factors.

Big Five History, ContinuedBig Five History, Continued

• • (1961) Tupes and Christal(1961) Tupes and Christal – – Expanded on Fiske’s work with largerExpanded on Fiske’s work with larger sample.sample. • • Current.Current. – – Same five factors identified in manySame five factors identified in many languages and cultures.languages and cultures.

The Five FactorsThe Five Factors

OpennessOpenness ConscientiousnessConscientiousness ExtraversionExtraversion AgreeablenessAgreeableness NeuroticismNeuroticism

Universality

• The Big Five are based on an analysis of the relation between trait words in the English language.

• Studies in other languages have shown that similar factors emerge in other languages.

• This finding suggests that the Big Five characterize universal human traits.

• Openness received the weakest support for universality.

Issues and ContributionsIssues and Contributions

• • IssuesIssues – – Where do the factors come from?Where do the factors come from? – – Descriptive.Descriptive. – – How comprehensive?How comprehensive?

• • ContributionsContributions – – Framework across cultures and languages.Framework across cultures and languages. – – Strong empirical support.Strong empirical support.

Pure Markers of the Big Five

Openness: artistic, creative, broad interests, cultured, knowledgeableConscientiousness: careful, fussy, tidy, hardworking, neat, punctualExtraversion: extraverted, frank, talkative, fun loving, sociableAgreeableness: acquiescent, mild, gentle, softheartedNeuroticism: angry, anxious, worried, guilt ridden, nervous

Relation between Big Five dimensions

• One goal of factor analysis is to find dimensions that are not correlated with each other (orthogonal).

• The Big Five are supposed to be uncorrelated with each other. A score on one dimension does not predict scores on other dimensions.

• In reality, some weak correlations exists. For example, neuroticism tends to be negatively correlated with extraversion, agreeableness, and conscientiousness.

Problems of the Big Five

• Surely, scores on five factors cannot capture all aspects of individual differences.

• What important traits are not represented?

• Factor analysis also does not provide a clear answer to the number of factors.

• Different researchers have argued for different numbers of factors.

• The Five Factor Model has become the dominant classification system in the past 20 years.