The Five Factor Model (FFM) or OCEAN/CANOE describes the “Big Five” personality traits: openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism. Each factor is a set of specific traits. The FFM is descriptive, not theoretical, and there is no consensus on any one theory. The traits are evaluated through tests and are not absolute. The FFM was created using lexical analysis and is considered the most scientific of personality tests.
The “Big Five” personality traits are five empirically supported personality dimensions: openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism (OCEAN or CANOE when rearranged). This description is also known as the Five Factor Model (FFM). The five-factor model of personality traits was first presented by the president of the American Psychological Association, LL Thurstone, in 1933. Each factor is actually a set of more specific traits that are known to be statistically related. There is the greatest disagreement about the specifics of the opening stroke.
The five-factor model of personality traits is meant to be descriptive (presenting data objectively) rather than theoretical: it does not attempt to explain why these traits are grouped together and distinct. Many have looked for theories to explain it, but there is no full consensus on any one theory. Summarizing what the personality traits mean:
Openness: Appreciation for emotion, art, unusual ideas, adventure, curiosity, imagination, and variety of experience.
Conscientiousness: Tendency to act diligently, show self-discipline, and strive for success; planned rather than spontaneous behavior.
Extraversion: Positive emotions, energy, self-confidence, extraversion, and a tendency to seek stimulation and comfort from others.
Agreeableness: Tendency to be cooperative and compassionate rather than antagonistic and suspicious of others.
Neuroticism: tendency to feel negative emotions easily, such as depression, anxiety, anger, or vulnerability; sometimes called emotional stability.
When these values are evaluated through tests, the results are usually provided in percentile format. As in, I might be in the 90th percentile for openness, but only in the 50th percentile for conscientiousness. These personality traits are not absolute, but they persist when all else is equal.
The Five Factor Model was created using lexical analysis, analyzing 17,953 words describing personality, which were reduced to 4,504 adjectives, then only 171, through the elimination of synonyms and near-synonyms. In the 1940s, 16 major factors were isolated and considered the most important, and in 1961 it was reduced to just five. After two decades of research haitus, the Five Factor Model was revived at a conference in 1981 where a group of leading personality researchers agreed that it was the most empirically accurate and predictive model available. Since the early 1980s, the Five Factor Model has been considered the most scientific of personality tests, in contrast to, for example, the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), which is based on discredited typological theories of Carl Jung .
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