Big Five Personality

The Big Five are personality dimensions which are differing facets that comprise a person's personality. They are different factors of a person's personality that everyone has to varying levels.

The big five are openness, conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism. You can remember these easier by using the word OCEAN, which uses the first letter of each one.

These traits exist on a spectrum. So when personality measures are given to measure the big five traits people are scored on a range.

For example, a person would score on a spectrum that ranges from extroversion to introversion. Openness traits are having imagination, a high range of interests, and openness to new experiences. High conscientiousness means high levels of thoughtfulness, good impulse control, and being organized. People scoring high in extroversion are high in excitability, sociability, and are often talkative. Agreeableness means beings trusting, unselfish, and kind. High neuroticism scores often are predictors of behavior that is anxious, moody, sad, and emotionally unstable.