The big five personality traits, often referred to as OCEAN, and sometimes CANOE, are: Openness, Conscientiousness, Extroversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism. These five traits represent broad domains of human behaviour and account for differences in both personality and decision making. Today, the model is used by HR practitioners to evaluate potential employees and marketers to understand the audiences of their products.
The history and development of the traits is long and not without significant challenge. In fact, the earliest known attempt to build a taxonomy of human behaviour dates back to the late 1800s. Between that first investigation and the 1940s, the taxonomy was refined from over 4,000 traits to 171 and eventually 5.
However, psychological and sociological discourse over the next two decades would call into question the validity of any attempt to correlate personality with behaviour. The influential book Personality and Assessment, authored by Walter Mischel , went so far as to suggest that there was only a correlation of 0.3 between personality and behaviour. Mischel argued the case that situational variables had a much greater impact on action than pre-disposition.
By the 1990s, it had been widely accepted that both situational and personality factors affect in-the-moment behaviours. As recently as 2016, research and refinement of the OCEAN model has been ongoing, demonstrating just how influential it is – even to this day.
The Big Five Personality Traits
- Openness to experience. Sometimes called intellect or imagination, this represents the willingness to try new things and think outside the box. Traits include insightfulness, originality and curiosity.
- Conscientiousness. The desire to be careful, diligent and to regulate immediate gratification with self-discipline. Traits include ambition, discipline, consistency and reliability.
- Extroversion. A state where an individual draws energy from others and seeks social connections or interaction, as opposed to being alone (introversion). Traits include being outgoing, energetic and confident.
- Agreeableness The measure of how an individual interacts with others, characterised by degree of compassion and co-operation. Traits include tactfulness, kindness and loyalty.
- Neuroticism. A tendency towards negative personality traits, emotional instability and self-destructive thinking. Traits include pessimism, anxiety, insecurity and fearfulness.
How the Model is Used Today
The OCEAN model is best thought of as a series of interconnected scales. Everyone will sit somewhere on each scale, but tests that use the OCEAN framework aim to determine the degree to which an individual shows the traits covered by each of the domains.
Many organisations use employee scores to determine cultural fit, in addition to building teams that have similar or complimentary personality traits. Some even take this a step further by providing staff with a summary of their results and advice on how best to communicate with employees with different personality types.
Outside of HR departments, marketers are the most frequent users of the OCEAN framework. Often combined with demographic or other targeting factors, the model is used to help understand audiences and what will likely appeal to them based on the commonalities within their personality profiles. Much has been written about subsets of personality types that marketers can target, in addition to strategies for doing so.
Debates and Challenges
While the Big Five represent the prevailing theory of personality, the model is not without its challenges. The most significant is simply the fast changing nature of the discourse around topics of the self, identity and personality. Additionally, there is no single consensus on how to assess an individual based on the OCEAN framework. The most well accepted is the NEO PI assessment, which has been three times since its initial inception in the late 1970s. However, there are also NEO FFR and NEO PI-R assessments which offer variations on assessment tactic.
A more direct challenge that researchers and marketers face is that assessing personality types is a lengthy process. Even the shortest accepted assessment – the NEO FFI – asks individuals to rate 60 items on a 5-point scale. This drawn out process makes it difficult to put the OCEAN framework to use on a regular basis. But that is not to say the model does not add value when it can be implemented.
Writing in Greenbook, Brooke Patton highlights recent examples from GutCheck that apply the Big Five personality traits to consumer research. By including personality assessments, the agency found that the favourable audience of a brand’s new product concept also scored high on the agreeableness scale. The result highlighted the messages and communications that the brand should use in order to reach their target audience in a positive way.
On the other hand, a literature review of studies into The Big Five and their applications in marketing from The University of Vienna points out some of the reasons for marketers and researchers alike to be cautious. Notably:
- Personality traits do not take into consideration cross-cultural or demographic differences in behaviour
- The OCEAN framework is a simplification of a complex topic and should never be used without a hint of caution
- The theory of personality traits and assessment methods are frequently changing, making choice of methodology is important
In summary, while there are – as with most measures – both advantages and limitations to The Big Five personality traits, they still represent the most coherent and researched model of personality that has been devised to date. With careful planning and a clear understanding of how they will inform research, the OCEAN model can add a huge amount of value to brands’ understanding of their audiences.
Personality research has generated a variety of different theories that attempt to define and measure personality. The most widely accepted taxonomy of personality among industrial-organizational psychologists is the Big Five Personality Traits model, or the Five Factor Model of personality. The Five Factor Model breaks personality down into five components: Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Openness, and Stress Tolerance. Personality tests that are based on this model measure where an individual lies on the spectrum of each of the five traits.
Each trait measures a unique aspect of human personality:
- Agreeableness is a measure of an individual’s tendencies with respect to social harmony. This trait reflects how well the individual gets along with others, how cooperative or skeptical they are, and how they might interact within a team.
- Conscientiousness is a measure of how careful, deliberate, self-disciplined, and organized an individual is. Conscientiousness is often predictive of employee productivity, particularly in lower-level positions.
- Extraversion is a measure of how sociable, outgoing, and energetic an individual is. Individuals who score lower on the extraversion scale are considered to be more introverted, or more deliberate, quiet, low key, and independent. Some types of positions are better suited for individuals who fall on one side of the spectrum or the other.
- Openness measures the extent to which an individual is imaginative and creative, as opposed to down-to-earth and conventional.
- Stress Tolerance measures the ways in which individuals react to stress.
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Personality can be described by five distinct traits, and together they are known as the Big Five.
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Personalities contain the patterns of your thoughts, feelings, and behaviors that make each person unique. Together, these aspects can play a role in every part of our lives, from friendships to careers, to hobbies.
Throughout history, researchers have tried to simplify complex personalities by suggesting that most people fit into specific categories. By focusing on an individual’s characteristics and patterns of behavior, researchers can try and predict or explain behavior.
Experts believe that there are five personality traits, known as the “Big Five” or the Five-Factor Model. Each trait reflects how a person thinks, feels, and behaves. This model is one of the most widely used frameworks in personality research.
According to a 2015 article, the Big Five model is one of the most recognized approaches to describing and measuring individual differences in one’s personality. It’s used to help people better understand themselves and how they compare to others.
Companies use this model to predict how employees or potential candidates relate to others. Also, it can be used for understanding how employees might think and handle stress.
The Big Five personality traits consist of:
- agreeableness
- conscientiousness
- extraversion
- neuroticism
- openness to experience
Each of the five personality factors is composed of a range between two extremes. Most people score in between the two ends of each dimension.
Extraversion, sometimes called extroversion, reflects how you interact socially. It describes your emotional expression and how comfortable you are in your environment.
People who score high in extraversion may have tendencies to:
- be more outgoing and talkative
- thrive in social situations
- have a wide social circle and find it easy to make friends
- like to start conversations
- feel comfortable arguing and debating your opinions
- seek excitement
- generally enjoy being around people
- work in a supervisor position with others
If you score lower on extraversion in the Big Five model, you might:
- be more introverted or reserved
- feel tired after socializing
- prefer solitude or need more periods of alone time
- feel uncomfortable interacting with strangers
- dislike small talk
- tend to avoid large groups
- be uncomfortable as the center of attention
Agreeableness is a personality trait that describes how you treat your relationships with others. It’s how kind and helpful you are toward people. Overall, high agreeableness means you desire to keep things running smoothly and value social harmony.
If you score high in agreeableness, you may be:
- altruistic
- kind to others
- empathetic
- helpful
- caring
- compassionate
- trustworthy
People with lower scores in this personality trait might be more:
- selfish
- less likely to help others
- stubborn
- competitive
- manipulative
- less compassionate
- suspicious
Conscientiousness is a trait that refers to how thoughtful and goal-oriented you are. It’s how in control you are over your impulses and your level of organization and work ethic.
If you score high in conscientiousness, you tend to be:
- more optimistic
- emotionally stable
- unlikely to react in a stressful environment
- well-organized
- hardworking
- detailed-oriented
- good at planning
- mindful of deadlines
- goal-driven
Scoring low in conscientiousness means you may:
- be more impulsive
- have trouble focusing on your goals
- be messy
- be less structured
- have more difficulty staying organized
- prone to lateness
- procrastinate
Neuroticism is a personality trait that refers to your emotional stability. As a personality dimension, neuroticism is characterized by unsettling thoughts and feelings of sadness or moodiness.
A high score in neuroticism means that you may:
- often feels insecure
- get stressed easily
- appear irritable or moody to others
- worry a lot
- experience mood swings or feelings of sadness
People who score low in this personality trait might mean you:
- are more optimistic
- manage stress easily
- don’t worry a lot
- are emotionally stable and resilient
- are unlikely to react in stressful situations
- often feel relaxed
Intellect, imagination, and openness describe your imagination and how creative you are. It refers to your sense of curiosity about the world and your willingness to try new things.
If you score high in this personality trait, you may:
- enjoy learning and trying new things
- have an active imagination
- be more creative
- be intellectually curious
- think about abstract concepts
- enjoy challenges
- like to travel
- have a wide range of interests
A lower score in openness means you might:
- dislike change
- be likely to stick to routines
- not be imaginative or creative
- have more traditional thinking
- be more grounded
Personality tests can shed light on the various aspects of your personality and help you get to know yourself better. Though a test can’t fully describe you or define who you are as a person, it can help you recognize your strengths and weaknesses. The tests may even help you discover a new way to approach your problems.
If you’ve discovered that one of your character traits has a negative impact on your life or relationships, you could consider discussing this with a licensed therapist.
A therapist can help you understand your personality and suggest ways to make changes.