The Big Five explained
Clear explanations of the Big Five personality traits: what they are, how they are measured and how to read your own scores.
The model
- What is the Big Five? The five-factor model of personalityThe Big Five is the most widely used scientific model of personality. It describes people on five broad traits: Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness and Emotional stability. Each trait is a scale with two sides rather than a box, and everyone has their own place on it.
- Is the Big Five scientific? What the research showsYes. The Big Five is the best-researched model of personality: the five traits reappear across many languages, stay fairly stable in adults and are linked to life outcomes across groups of people. The model has limits too: it mainly measures self-description, does not work equally well in every setting and describes broad lines, not a whole person.
- Big Five vs MBTI, what is the difference?The main difference between the Big Five and the MBTI is scale versus type. The Big Five gives you five scores on a continuous scale, while the MBTI places you in one of 16 four-letter types. Research finds continuous differences rather than clear-cut types, which is why researchers work with the Big Five; the MBTI remains useful as a shared language for talking about differences.
- Big Five facets and aspects explainedEach Big Five trait is broad and made up of narrower sides. Researchers distinguish two aspects within every trait and, below those, narrower facets such as orderliness and self-discipline within Conscientiousness. DepthFive reports only the five broad traits, because they have the strongest evidence behind them and 120 questions give a more precise profile of them than separate facet scores would.
- Does personality change with age?Personality changes with age, but slowly. On average, people between about 20 and 40 become more conscientious, more self-assured and more emotionally stable, while their place compared with people their age stays fairly stable. These are group averages; how it goes for one person can differ a lot.
The five traits
- Openness in the Big Five: what high and low scores meanOpenness is the Big Five personality trait that describes how strongly you seek out new ideas, experiences and perspectives. A high score means you look for variety and complexity; a low score means you prefer the tried and tested and the concrete. Both sides have real value, and many people sit somewhere in between.
- Conscientiousness: meaning and high or low scoresConscientiousness is the Big Five personality trait that describes how organised, careful and goal-directed you are. The word comes from the Latin for conscience. A high score points to structure and finishing what you start, a low score to flexibility and going with the flow; both sides have real value.
- Extraversion and introversion: a scale, not a boxExtraversion is the Big Five personality trait that describes how much energy you get from other people, activity and stimulation. Introversion is not a separate type but the low end of the same scale, and most people sit somewhere between the two ends. High and low scores are equally valuable: they say where your energy comes from, not how good you are with people.
- Agreeableness in the Big Five: high and low scores explainedAgreeableness is the Big Five personality trait that describes how strongly you lean towards harmony with others: warmth, trust, helpfulness and taking other people into account. A high score points to cooperation and connection, a low score to candour and independent judgement. Neither is better; each side brings its own strengths.
- Emotional stability in the Big Five explainedEmotional stability is the Big Five trait that describes how calm you stay under pressure, how quickly you recover from a setback and how strongly tension and moods affect you. Other tests measure the same trait from the opposite end and call it neuroticism. A high score shows calm, a low score shows quick and strong feelings, and each side has its own value.
Reading your result
- Big Five percentiles and norm groups explainedA percentile is your position in a group, not an amount of personality and not a grade. A score of 70 means you score higher than about 70 out of 100 people in the norm group. Which group that is helps decide the number you get.
- Two comparisons: everyone and people like youDepthFive compares your answers with two groups: the full reference group of more than 100,000 people and, if you give your age and gender, people like you. Your answers stay the same; only the group changes. When the two numbers differ, your group scores differently on that trait, on average, from everyone taken together.
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