Cattell's Big Five Factors
Cattell’s Big Five Factors of Personality, Behavioral Genetics, and Evolutionary Personality Theory.
Current Research
Raymond Cattell (1905-present) designed the “Big five Factors of Personality”, in which five classifications are revealed. Big Five factors: #1 extraversion vs. introversion, #2 agreeableness vs. antagonism, #3 conscientiousness vs. undirected ness, #4 neuroticism vs. emotional stability, and #5 openness to experience vs. not open to experience. Han’s Eysenck’s and Sir Francis Galton behavior genetics research and Arnold Buss’ three concerns for evolutionary personality theory coinsided with each other.
The Big five represents a catalog of traits that some personality psychologists
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#3 Conscientiousness describes socially prescribed impulse control that facilitates task and goal-directed behavior, such as thinking before acting, delaying gratification, following norms and rules, and planning, organizing, and prioritizing tasks. #4 Neuroticism contrasts emotional stability and even-temperedness with negative emotionality, such as feeling anxious, nervous, sad, and tense. #5 Openness to experience (versus closed mindedness) describes the breadth, depth, originality, and complexity of an individual’s mental and experiential life, such as an imaginative, independent minded, and divergent thinking person (Potkay & Allen 1986).
Many versions of Cattell’s Big five factors have been reproduced and the first four are always very similar to the first four of Cattell’s, the fifth one however has run into problems with interpretation. Overall the Big Five factors have been intensely studied in seven different languages and the fifth factor (openness to experience) has the most problems with replication. The Big Five factors are broad dimensions or categories in a hierarchical sense, in that they encompass a lot with very little detail. This is why some researchers found a need for an integrative framework for measuring these factors.
From this the NEO Personality Inventory was created by
the five personality factor theory, as well as the theories on which it is based.
The five-factor model (FFM) is a contemporary construct describing personality. It incorporates five traits – openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness and neuroticism also referred to as OCEAN. Within each dimension, there are specific personality attributes, for example, openness includes subcategories of feelings and actions. The FFM was influenced by Cattell’s 16-factor model (1957) and shares traits with many other personality theories such as Eysenck’s PEN model. There has been an ongoing debate discussing how many factors appropriately represent the brain structure of personality, suggestions have varied from 2-7, recently Almagor et al. (1995) advocated that a 7-factor model unfolds when evaluative traits are involved. Costa & Mcrae (1992) claim that the FFM is the best theory of personality, however, the model has received much criticism. Through examining different aspects of the model its credibility can be explored.
In psychology, the Big Five personality traits are five broad domains or dimensions of personality that are used to describe human personality. The theory based on the Big Five factors is called the Five Factor Model (FFM)[1] The Big Five factors are openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism.
Among the numerous psychological models of personality studied in this chapter, I believe the most useful model of personality is the five-factor model. Rather than focusing on character traits, the unconscious, or learning principles, this model describes personality as being derived from five higher-order traits known as the “Big Five” (Weiten, McCann, 2016). The Big Five, developed by Robert McCrae and Paul Costa, consists of extraversion, neuroticism, openness to experience, agreeableness, and conscientiousness. Thesis (?): This model is most compelling to me as I can easily identify fundamental aspects of my personality with it.
The Big Five Theory identifies certain traits that explain the personality of a person. It looks at the following aspects of a person: 1). Openness, 2). Conscientious,3).Extraversion, 4). Agreeableness,5). Neuroticism. A person’s openness is measured on the following factors: 1.) How curious a person is, 2). how truthful a person is 3). appreciation for imagination, 4). willingness to try something new, 5). traditional they are. An individual that scores high in this area usually are outgoing, curious, open to new things, and embrace experience. Individuals that score low in the
Recently we discussed the Myers Briggs types and how although these types are a very well known and popular measure of personality, that the Big 5 personality Types (OCEAN) are a more scientifically backed measure of personality. While the Myers Briggs types measure individuals based on four traits, on which individuals are usually generalized either to be at one extreme end of the scale or the other based on their placement on a scale. This allows individuals to be labeled as personalities such as “ENFJ” or “INTP”. However, The OCEAN model rates people on a scale of how much of a certain trait they possess. Individuals are often deemed to be “high” or “low” on a certain trait. The 5 traits (also known as OCEAN) are as follows: openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness and neuroticism. Individuals who are high in the trait of openness tend to enjoy new experiences and trying new things. Those who are high in the trait of conscientiousness are very organized and detail-oriented. People high in extraversion are very outgoing and talkative. Individuals who are very agreeable tend to be trustworthy, kind and affectionate. Individuals high in neuroticism tend to be emotionally
The Big Five originated in the 1970’s by two independent research teams. They surveyed thousands of people, asking hundreds of questions, and analyzed the data with a statistical factor analysis. The Big Five Personality traits are the best description of personality traits today, even though its usefulness is highly debated (Feldman, 2015). The Big Five approach contends that there are five factors that lie at the core of personality (Feldman, 2015). The Five factors are openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness and neuroticism. These traits appear to exist consistently throughout cultures (Feldman, 2015). The Five Factor Model of personality is even linked to the way in which the brain processes information (Feldman, 2015). This model is regarded as the best test to identify personality traits, and its usage has proven successful in large populations including those with age and cultural differences.
To understand personality there are three main aspects that must be looked at: LArsen and Buss Definition of personality, The Six Domains of knowledge of personality, and Costa and McCrae's Five Factor Theory. In this essay I will first break down larsen and Buss definition and connect it to the domains, then connect the domains to the five factor thoery (FFT).
The Big five model displays five different personalities and the actions created from those personalities can either make a positive or negative impact in the community. The five personalities are Conscientiousness, Agreeableness, Neuroticism, Openness to Experience and Extroversion. Each of these have both positive and negative outcomes depending on the situation. Conscientiousness is “a personality dimension describing people who are careful, dependable, and self-discipline” (38). Agreeableness comes in the category of “Courteous, good-natured, empathic, and caring” (37). Neuroticism Is “a personality dimension describing people with high levels of anxiety, Hostility, depression and self-consciousness” (38). Openness to experience is a personality trait which goes to a person who is “Imaginative,creative, curious,sensitive” (37). Extroversion “characterizes people who are outgoing, talkative, sociable and assertive” (38). When doing the exercise for the big five in week 3, my answers were different than expected. My Score for Conscientiousness is 69%, which means I set goals and pursue them with determination and people regard me as reliable and hard-working. For agreeableness, my score was 71%, which shows that I have a strong interest in others’
The Five Factor Model theory was developed based on extensive research building on Allport’s lexical approach to describing an individual’s personality (King, 2016), and it allows us to better understand the main parts of an individual’s personality. Through numerous studies, scientists identified and grouped traits that overlapped (King, 2016). As a result, they established these five broad factors: openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism. They are often identified as the “Big Five” since the factors cover such a large portion of personality associated terms. For instance, the factor agreeableness is one broad term that can include characteristics such as generosity, friendliness, and selflessness (King, 2016). All of which, and several more, make up the larger factor of “agreeableness.” These five traits show that personality is dynamic, and each component has the ability to influence another.
The five factor model, also known as the big five personality traits, are five dimensions that are held to be the complete description of a personality. The Five factor model consists of Extraversion (E), Agreeableness (A), Conscientiousness (C), Neuroticism (N), and Openness to Change (O). Extraversion includes characteristics like excitability, sociability, talkativeness, assertiveness and high amounts of emotional expressiveness. Agreeableness includes trust, altruism, kindness, affection, and other prosocial behaviors. Conscientiousness include high levels of
To discover the traits of the participants, the participants were given personality tests to discover their scores for the “Big Five” personality traits, otherwise known as openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and emotional stability. They were then asked the
Every individual has a personality unique to themselves that play significant roles within their lives. In the textbook, personality is defined as “an individual’s characteristic patterns of thought, emotion, and behavior, together with the psychological mechanisms behind those patterns” (Funder, 2016, p. 5). Considering this definition, personality is influenced by many factors: your genes, self-image, environment, situations one experiences throughout their life, etc. If one can understand and know their personality, it can help them understand why they behave or think a certain way and even help change their behavior. As a result, may different theories have been created and studied. In particular, I will be explaining Mary Ainsworth strange situations, Carl Jung’s idea of persona, and the Big Five personality theory.
The theorists of the five-factor model organized five categories to describe common personality traits. Extraversion, neuroticism, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and open to experience (Carver & Scheier, 2012). Extraverison is how a person’s interests are in an outward manner or things that does not involve self. Neuroticism is how stable a person’s own emotions. Agreeableness is how the reflection of how a person is while maintaining relationships. Conscientiousness is the representation of people that are responsible in most aspect of their lives, on the other hand, Open to experience is the probability of a person trying new thing (Carver & Scheier, 2012). Everyone falls in one end of the spectrums of the five categories. Spontaneous people tend to fall on the high ends of extraversion, open to experiences, agreeableness, and consciousness and low on neuroticism.
Psychology is easily one of the most applicable sciences when it comes to everyday life. Everyone has behavior and mental processes. Understanding and applying the following concepts to my life will have or have already had a positive impact on my overall well being: the five-factor model of personality, depression disorders, happiness, stress coping, and group influence.