The Five-Factor Model of Personality

Since the 1980s, personality psychologists from a range of perspectives have found the five-factor model to be an effective tool for identifying and structuring personality attributes. Measuring individual differences in terms of degrees of extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, emotional stability, and openness to experience, the model provides a common language for the field of personality psychology while, at the same time, it supports widely divergent approaches. How has the model evolved over time, and how has it been challenged? Are these five dimensions adequate to describe the entire range of personality traits? This timely and inclusive volume addresses these and other questions as it explores the five-factor model's theoretical underpinnings, initiating a fruitful dialogue among some of the leading figures in contemporary personality research.

Table of Contents:
1. The Curious History of the Five-Factor Model, John M. Digman 2. The Language of Personality: Lexical Perspectives on the Five-Factor Model, Gerard Saucier and Lewis R. Goldberg 3. Toward a New Generation of Personality Theories: Theoretical Contexts for the Five-Factor Model, Robert R. McCrae and Paul T. Costa, Jr. 4. A Dyadic Interactional Perspective on the Five-Factor Model, Jerry S. Wiggins and Paul D. Trapnell 5. A Socioanalytic Perspective on the Five-Factor Model, Robert Hogan 6. Social Adaptation and Five Major Factors of Personality, David M. Buss

About the Author :
Jerry S. Wiggins, Ph.D., has held teaching positions at the University of Rochester, Stanford University, the University of Illinois, and the University of British Columbia, where he is currently Professor of Psychology and coordinator of the graduate program in personality. He is internationally known for his advocacy of theory-driven methods of personality assessment and for his efforts to integrate diverse approaches to personality test construction, including the empirical, psychometric-trait, and interpersonal traditions.

Review :
This volume is a much-needed examination of the five-factor model and its contribution to the ongoing revolution in theorizing about personality. The book demonstrates that the five-factor model is much more than an extraordinarily consistent and perhaps universal empirical picture of five basic personality dimensions. The volume presents perspectives from the new wave of theorizing that will replace the grand old theories of personality, a wave to which the five-factor model contributes. Both the novice and the journeyman in personality will profit greatly from studying this highly readable volume. --Donald W. Fiske, Ph.D., Department of Psychology, University of Chicago One of the most significant contributions to the resurgence of personality psychology in the last 15 years is the establishment of the five-factor model of personality traits. This collection of six ambitious and integrative essays written by leading scholars in personality psychology marks a coming of age for the five-factor model. Many articles and books demonstrate the range and the facility of 'the Big Five' as a grand scheme for organizing dispositional characteristics in personality. But this impressive volume is distinguished for the authors' efforts to generate new theoretical perspectives informed by the five-factor trait model and to link the model to lines of theorizing coming out of evolutionary psychology, sociology, anthropology, and the humanities. As such, this volume begins what promises to be a long and fruitful conversation among scholars of different stripes and varied disciplines about persons, personality, and the nature of human individuality. --Dan P. McAdams, Ph.D., Professor of Human Development and Psychology, Northwestern University - ...a highly stimulating and suggestive work. --Choice, 3/17/1996ƒƒ The Five-Factor Model of Personality is an invaluable resource in the field of personality, social, and clinical psychology. Highly recommended! --Internet Bookwatch, 3/17/1996 This volume is a much-needed examination of the five-factor model and its contribution to the ongoing revolution in theorizing about personality. The book demonstrates that the five-factor model is much more than an extraordinarily consistent and perhaps universal empirical picture of five basic personality dimensions. The volume presents perspectives from the new wave of theorizing that will replace the grand old theories of personality, a wave to which the five-factor model contributes. Both the novice and the journeyman in personality will profit greatly from studying this highly readable volume. --Donald W. Fiske, Ph.D., Department of Psychology, University of Chicago One of the most significant contributions to the resurgence of personality psychology in the last 15 years is the establishment of the five-factor model of personality traits. This collection of six ambitious and integrative essays written by leading scholars in personality psychology marks a coming of age for the five-factor model. Many articles and books demonstrate the range and the facility of 'the Big Five' as a grand scheme for organizing dispositional characteristics in personality. But this impressive volume is distinguished for the authors' efforts to generate new theoretical perspectives informed by the five-factor trait model and to link the model to lines of theorizing coming out of evolutionary psychology, sociology, anthropology, and the humanities. As such, this volume begins what promises to be a long and fruitful conversation among scholars of different stripes and varied disciplines about persons, personality, and the nature of human individuality. --Dan P. McAdams, Ph.D., Professor of Human Development and Psychology, Northwestern University - ...a highly stimulating and suggestive work. --Choice, 3/17/1996Æ’Æ’ The Five-Factor Model of Personality is an invaluable resource in the field of personality, social, and clinical psychology. Highly recommended! --Internet Bookwatch, 3/17/1996