For decades, psychologists strived to understand people and their personalities by defining personality traits. Eventually, most settled on the five-factor model, also known as the big five.

Various ways of representing major traits have been proposed, and personality researchers continue to disagree on the number of distinct characteristics that can be measured. The five-factor model ...

Why the Big Five Personality Traits Are Important The five-factor model not only helps people better understand how they compare to others and to put names to their characteristics.

But when scientists look to measure people’s personalities, they all turn to the Big 5. This system of describing personality places people on five sliding scales that measure your levels of ...