What is the five-factor model?

The five-factor model is the most common model in personality psychology. The model is built upon five factors (aspects) that steer personality characteristics.

These are the five factors in the model

• Openness to experience
• Conscientiousness
• Extraversion
• Agreeableness
• Neuroticism

The factors are built on facets of personality

Each of these factors can be broken down into subfactors, called facets. Conscientiousness does for example consist of acting dutifully, self-discipline and perseverance. The facets are all behaviors related to the main factor but are all slightly different. In other words, you can have high scores on conscientiousness without having scored on all facets.

The five-factor model is based on research

The advantage of the big five model is that it is well-grounded in empirical research. It is of course sad to highlight that as an advantage, but the fact still remains. Several well-known models that are being used today not are grounded in research. 

In short, the five-factor model is based on empirical research where scientists have observed a large number of people and seen how they tend to behave. Based on that the five factors have been chiseled out from how behaviors vary. It is these that now are the five factors. This is an important difference compared to the theories where individuals or consultancy bureaus have had an idea of what the world looks like and afterward tried to mash people into that model.

Personality according to the five-factor model is relatively stable over time. It is only a few factors that tend to change. Primarily it is neuroticism, which tends to decline with increased age.

The five-factor model is relevant in a workplace context

Being able to choose the best-suited person for a job, or to adapt to a work environment after how an employee works best are both situations where it is important to understand how personality works. When looking deeper into the different factors, it is clear that some have a strong impact on work performance.

Conscientiousness is the factor with the largest impact on work performance, where a high score in the facets of thoughtfulness, orderliness, and self-discipline leads to good job performance. How a specific factor impacts work performance does of course depends on the characteristics of the job itself. Conscientiousness has, for example, a larger impact within health care than law enforcement.

When using personality assessments in recruitment processes, it’s therefore important to only measure the factors and facets that have an impact on the specific scope.

Read more about why organizations should use assessments when recruiting.

evali is based on the five-factor model. Do you want to know more about how to use evali in recruitment?