The Big Five

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Do you have any information on The big five factor the five basic dimensions of personality.

-- Ysabel biscoe (ybiscoe@aol.com), April 08, 2001

Answers

I am not sure from your question what sort of information you are looking for. Since I am not a specialist in this area, I only have very basic information to give. The "Big 5" personality factors are openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism (OCEAN). This set has been distilled down through factor analysis from many popular theories that were developed during the latter half of the 20th century (Eysenck's EPI, Cattell's 16PF, etc.) I believe the most popular assessment questionnaire for the "Big 5" was developed by Costa & Rae. You can find some trenchant criticism of their theory in the work of Norman Endler (among others).

-- Christopher Green (christo@yorku.ca), April 09, 2001.

It might also be useful, if you studying the "big 5" for a particular course or paper, to focus on the fact that the 'OCEAN' 5 factor model has no explanatory basis. However, Eysenck's 5-factor model of personality proposed that differences in brain biology (e.g. sensitivity, arousability) explained the differences in personality traits. Higher order traits are considered temperamental predispositions along a continuum or orthogonal dimension. The dimensions are: extraversion-introversion, neuroticism-stability, and psychoticism (NOT predictive of psychotic breakdown but referring to aggressiveness, egocentricity, lacking in empathy, 'toughmindedness", etc.). The extravert, for example, is characterized by inherently lower levels of cortical arousal, needing more stimulation in order to reach the "optimal" level.

-- Mirisse Foroughé (mirisse@yorku.ca), April 12, 2001.

I am not a personality or statistical expert, but in my opinion, McCrae & Costa (1986) with their big five is an interesting starting place for determining our personality traits. The factor-analysis technique, however is complex and somewhat controversial. First the factor-analysis technique may not correctly identify all our traits. Myers' introductory text suggests three other traits that theorists have proposed adding to the big five (degree of self-consciousness, masculinity-femininity, and positive-negative emotion bias). It is even possible McCrae & Costa misidentify some traits. Even if the factor-analyzed traits are correctly determined, there is sometimes a problem of correctly naming them, since they seem to consist of clusters of somewhat related characteristics. Also it might be advisable to look at other trait theories or even other approaches to personality to evaluate the big five theory. Paul

-- paul kleinginna (prklein@gsvms2.cc.gasou.edu), April 15, 2001.

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