How to Define Your Personality with the Big 5 Traits (OCEAN) Test

How would you describe your personality? What makes up your character?

When it comes to the psychology of personality people often talk about either types or traits. The difference between traits and types reflects the distinction between analogue and digital. 

Personality type theory is more digital, saying that something either is or isn’t of a certain sort. For example, a test using the ‘type’ approach will say you are either extroverted or introverted. It does not illustrate to what degree you are either introverted, or extroverted, and the same with other traits. In other words, it is less nuanced. The Myers-Briggs test uses this more binary approach of typology. 

Traits are analogue as they measure aspects of character on a spectrum. For example, we might be more or less of a team player. The Big 5 model uses this approach to understanding personality and is the preferred tool of most psychologists when it comes to personality tests.

The Big 5, which stands for five personality traits (also known by the acronym OCEAN) was developed by a series of researchers but is most closely associated with the work of Paul Costa and Robert McCrae. The 5 traits of the OCEAN model are:

O - Openness

C – Conscientiousness 

E – Extroversion 

A - Agreeableness

N – Neuroticism 

The traits are generally measured by the use of psychometric questionnaires that indicate preferences and create scores expressed on a scale. 

This podcast episode includes an explanation of each of the five traits. You can find out more information in the accompanying article using this link:
https://therightquestions.co/how-to-work-out-your-personality-type-with-the-big-5-ocean-model/

If you would like to do a personality test then one free resource I often use and can recommend is https://openpsychometrics.org where you can find a variety of tests including the Big 5 model.