Big five

The Big five is a model for personality. It consists of 5 scores representing different aspects of personality:

• Extroversion: tendency to be outgoing and to seek high-stimulation environments
• Neuroticism: tendency for stress and negative feelings
• Agreeableness: tendency to act kindly and avoid conflict
• Conscientiousness: discipline, capacity to plan and organize tasks
• Openness: tendency to seek new experiences

This model is preferred over many others models such as MBTI, as it is relatively stable throughout time¹ and predictive of life outcomes. In particular, conscientiousness is predictive of academic success² and job performance³, even after controlling for IQ. Agreeableness and low neuroticism are more moderately predictive of these outcomes, but are also predictive of relationship satisfaction⁴.

Footnotes

1. Atherton et al. (2023), Stability and Change in the Big Five Personality Traits: Findings from a Longitudinal Study of Mexican-Origin Adults ↩

2. Zell & Lesick (2022), Big five personality traits and performance: A quantitative synthesis of 50+ meta-analyses ↩

3. van Aarde et al. (2017), The validity of the Big Five personality traits for job performance: Meta-analyses of South African studies ↩

4. Malouff et al. (2012), The Five-Factor Model of personality and relationship satisfaction of intimate partners: A meta-analysis ↩