Using the Big Five Personality Traits (OCEAN) in Practice

When I became fascinated by the ability of endurance athletes to push their minds and bodies to their limits, personality was an obvious area to explore.

My PhD research highlighted openness to experience as an essential predictor of success, most likely the result of a willingness to take on new challenges (Sutton, 2019).

Yet openness is just one of the Big Five personality traits. The others — conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism — also significantly impact our lives, behavior, thoughts, and relationships, and can vary over time (Zhang et al., 2024; Stahlmann et al., 2023).

This article explores the Big Five personality trait model and its potential impact across multiple life domains, far beyond the confines of sports.

Before you continue, we thought you might like to download our three Strengths Exercises for free. These detailed, science-based exercises will help your clients realize their unique potential and create a life that feels energizing and authentic.

What Are the Big Five Personality Traits?

Some researchers have attempted to explain the range of human behaviors using just one trait. However, most adopt the multi-trait view that many elements of our personality are involved in how we think, act, and relate to others (Gross, 2020).

While researchers and psychologists have put forward many personality taxonomies, the Big Five personality trait model remains the most widely cited and well researched (Larsen et al., 2017).

The Big Five personality trait multi-trait model (sometimes referred to as the five-factor model) is widely recognized as able to explain individual differences across the human species. It relies on the belief that personality significantly contributes to thinking, behaving, and feeling (Allen et al., 2013).

Its five elements are often captured by the mnemonic OCEAN (Larsen et al., 2017):

Early champions of the Big Five personality trait model include Paul Costa and Robert McCrae (1976; 1992) and Lewis Goldberg (1993).

The following table, inspired by their work, describes each trait included in the Big Five model (Cooper, 2021):

Notably, a high degree of openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, and agreeableness appear to receive a positive description. At the same time, it could be considered favorable to be on the lower end of the neuroticism spectrum (Gross, 2020).

However, it is vital to note that the successful outcomes associated with each personality element depend on their intensity and the situation (Cooper, 2021; Gross, 2020).

The video “The Big Five Personality Traits” offers an entertaining and straightforward introduction to this fascinating model.

How the Big Five Model Matters in Everyday Life

Personality significantly impacts us at an individual and a group level (Gross, 2020).

So, why do we vary so much in our personalities?

Research involving identical twins has found that up to 50% of our Big Five personality traits are inherited, and the other half are accounted for by things like environmental factors and upbringing (Workman & Reader, 2015).

Evolutionary psychologists suggest that elements of our personality have been passed on across multiple generations for a reason. Varying degrees of openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism have supported our species’ survival (Buss, 2009, 2016).

Perhaps during harsh conditions and limited food availability, the more extraverted took greater risks, heading off to new territories to find alternate supplies. On the other hand, during times of surplus, the conscientious may have created stores for later distribution (Workman & Reader, 2015).

At an individual level, the Big Five personality traits shape our thinking and behavior. In our modern society, such characteristics may take the form of whether we apply for a new job, take time to build relationships with those around us, or even experience mental illness (Cooper, 2021).

Daniel Goleman (2006), who popularized the importance of emotional intelligence, recognized that our personality traits are not the entire story. We also benefit from knowing how we, and others, feel. Such emotional intelligence shapes our ability to motivate ourselves, show resilience and persist despite frustrations, control our impulses, and regulate our moods.

The video from Darren Magee offers further insights into the five-factor model of personality and how it impacts our daily lives.

3 Popular Big Five Personality Tests

There have been several attempts to measure the five factors of the Big Five framework.

Perhaps the most reliable and valid measurements come from the Big Five Inventory (Goldberg, 1993) and the Revised NEO Personality Inventory (Costa & McCrae, 1992; . However, others also deserve attention.

Big Five Inventory

Goldberg developed the Big Five Inventory (BFI) in 1993 to measure the five dimensions of the Big Five personality framework. It contains 44 prompts and measures each factor — openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism — through 30 corresponding facets (six facets for each trait).

The responses to items concerning these facets are combined and summarized to produce a score on each factor. This inventory has been widely used in psychology research and is still quite popular, although the Revised NEO Personality Inventory has also gained much attention recently.

To learn more about the BFI, here is a pdf with more information.

NEO Personality Inventory

The original NEO Personality Inventory was created by personality researchers Paul Costa Jr. and Robert McCrae in the 1970s (1992). However, it was later revised several times to keep up with continuing advances from research (in 1990, 2005, and 2010).

While it was later expanded to include all five personality traits, the NEO Personality Inventory began only measuring three: neuroticism, extroversion, and openness (Gross, 2020).

The current NEO Personality Inventory assesses the same five traits (and 30 facets) as the Big Five Inventory (see above) but does so in much greater detail using 240 prompts and is designed for deeper clinical and research-based insights. For a shorter scale, Costa and McCrae (1992) also offer the NEO Five-Factor Inventory, which contains only 60 items and measures only the overall domains rather than all facets.

The NEO PI-R requires only a sixth-grade reading level and can be self-administered without a scoring professional.

Several versions are available online from the SAPA Project and Hogrefe (note that costs are associated).

Goldberg’s Adjective Scale

Goldberg’s Adjective Scale is a 50-item (and a shorter 25-item) version that scores common, subordinate human traits against the Big Five personality trait model.

For example, traits scored between 0 – Not at all accurate and 4 – Extremely accurate include:

• Sluggish
• Hostile
• Sad
• Careless
• Shy
• Introverted
• Happy
• Kind
• Lively
• Touchy
• Nervous

Dissecting the Research & Validity of the Five-Factor Model

The Big Five personality trait model is widely known and used and has considerable academic support.

But where did it come from?

Research from multiple sources underpins the model and its five traits. Goldberg (1993) adopted 1,710 trait descriptions from a prior study and asked college students to rate themselves on each one.

At the same time, Costa and McCrae (1976) investigated associations and overlaps between multiple personality measure scales across various languages. The results led to an agreed-upon set of key personality traits: openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism (Larsen et al., 2017).

While some decisions regarding the five key traits appear at times arbitrary, the model that arose has proven reasonably reliable. Indeed, the five-factor research has been replicated by multiple researchers with various population samples over several decades (Larsen et al., 2017).

Initially, the Big Five taxonomy was tested by self-rating based on:

• Single-word adjectives
  Study participants scored themselves on concepts such as “organized,” “warm,” and “imaginative.”
• Sentences
  Individuals rated themselves according to statements such as “My life is fast paced.”

While the five main factors of the model are openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism, each has a subset of facets that help explain the often subtle nuances between personalities (Larsen et al., 2017).

Applying the OCEAN Personality Traits in Professional Contexts

While the Big Five personality trait model offers valuable insights at a personal level, it can also be powerful for practitioners in various professional contexts.

Therapy

In building a solid therapeutic alliance, it can be valuable for counselors to understand a client’s personality profile. By doing so, mental health practitioners can better connect with their issues and needs and promote behavioral change that increases the likelihood of a positive outcome (Dobson & Dozois, 2021).

Coaching

Awareness and understanding of where clients fall within each element of the five-factor model can support more personalized development plans. Each trait can become a strength (Greenberg, 2016).

For example, conscientiousness might be harnessed to support development and growth in the workplace, while extraversion could promote communication and networking. On the other hand, knowing that a client may fall short on agreeableness might result in homework to encourage emotional intelligence to support deeper bonds (Greenberg, 2016).

Human resources

Human resources departments often use Big Five assessments to aid recruitment of key staff.

They attempt to align candidates to job-related personality profiles, improving job satisfaction, reducing staff turnover, and promoting team performance (Jain et al., 2024).

Education

Educational professionals sometimes use the results of personality tests to adapt teaching strategies to align with varied personality-driven learning styles, thus enhancing educational outcomes (Poropat, 2009).

Ongoing research continues to increase our understanding of the connection between personality models and academic success to identify approaches for tailoring learning to individuals’ and groups’ distinct needs, with varying degrees of success (Çağataylı & Çelebi, 2021).

6 Common Challenges and Critiques

Despite widespread acceptance, the Big Five personality trait model faces several critiques, including the following (Larsen et al., 2017; Cooper, 2021; Gross, 2020):

1. It fails to capture the entire complexity of human personality.
2. Traits such as honesty and humility are missing, forming part of an alternative model known as HEXACO (Cooper, 2021).
3. There is a potential lack of generalizability across cultural boundaries. Research suggests that traits and their significance can significantly vary across cultures (Cooper, 2021).
4. The model suggests that personalities are fixed. Instead, despite being relatively constant in the short term, personality can change over the lifespan in response to aging, experiences, and trauma (Thornton et al., 2023).
5. The model is descriptive rather than explanatory. While it can help to point toward specific behaviors, it does not uncover the underlying psychological processes.
6. Personality reports rely on self-report questionnaires. Therefore, they are subject to bias, distortion, and inaccuracies.

7 Helpful Assessments for Practitioners

While the Big Five personality trait model is incredibly valuable, there are other tools and methods for exploring elements and aspects of personality with clients, including the following:

• Understanding Self-Confidence
  This is a valuable resource for teens, adolescents, and adults who want to understand and improve their self-esteem and self-confidence.
• Things I Like About Me
  This helpful tool encourages reflection, encouraging mental health professionals or clients to see themselves more positively.
• The Self-Esteem Checkup
  Self-esteem is associated with an individual’s self-perception of worth. This assessment provides insights into our sense of self-love, self-respect, and confidence in our capabilities.
• Anxiety Record
  We may feel vulnerable sharing what causes our anxiety. Capturing anxieties, triggers, and their effect can help us learn appropriate coping skills.
• Self-Consciousness Scale
  The self-consciousness scale is a self-assessment tool for clients to better understand their degree of anxiety and self-consciousness.
• Labeling Your Feelings
  Young people may not always be aware of how they feel. This exercise encourages self-reflection and labeling emotions.
• Basic Needs Satisfaction in General Scale
  This worksheet is a valuable assessment for identifying and understanding what we seek from life and those around us.

Helpful Resources From PositivePsychology.com

We have many resources available for therapists, coaches, and HR professionals wishing to understand a client or employee’s personality better while improving self-awareness.

Our free resources include:

• The Proust Questionnaire
  This is a fun question-based game to improve self-awareness and better understand those we connect with.
• Best and Worst
  Children benefit from considering what scares them about a new situation or change in circumstance. This helpful tool compares what’s scary to what is exciting about an opportunity.
• Who Am I?
  Reflecting on our values, desires, and passions can help us better understand our moods, beliefs, thoughts, and feelings.

More extensive versions of the following tools are available with a subscription to the Positive Psychology Toolkit©, but they are described briefly below.

• The Mindset Survey
  Our mindset can shape the interaction between our personality, thinking, and behavior.

This eight-question survey helps us understand whether someone believes their human qualities are fixed or can be cultivated with effort.

Statements are scored between four (strongly disagree) and one (strongly agree); for example:

Your intelligence is something very basic about you that you can’t change very much.
No matter how much intelligence you have, you can always change it quite a bit.
You are a certain kind of person, and there is not much that can be done to really change that.
No matter what kind of person you are, you can always change substantially.

• The Strengths Self-Efficacy Scale
  Our personality and signature strengths are likely to be closely linked, with our strengths shaping how we behave and interact with the world.

In this assessment, we consider how well we use our signature strengths. Taking each of our top five in turn, the client rates a series of statements, including:

How confident are you in your ability to …

Use your strengths at work?
Use your strengths without any struggles?
Find ways to apply your strengths to the things you do every day?
Accomplish a lot using your strengths?
Use your strengths in many situations?
Use your strengths to succeed?

If you’re looking for more science-based ways to help others develop their strengths, this collection contains 17 strength-finding tools for practitioners. Use them to help others better understand and harness their strengths in life-enhancing ways.

A Take-Home Message

Throughout human history, we have attempted to answer the question: Who am I?

Perhaps now we are closer than ever to being able to offer an answer, or at least understand the question better.

In the last hundred years, psychologists have spent a great deal of energy and resources attempting to understand our human characteristics, how they differ between people, and their impact on how we think and behave.

While many frameworks have been put forward, the Big Five personality trait model has received the most attention and a great deal of support.

Paul Costa Jr. and Robert McCrae (1976) are often identified as two of the model’s earliest and strongest proponents. However, various researchers have been involved with building and challenging the inclusion of all five personality traits: openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism (Cooper, 2021).

Often referred to under the acronym OCEAN, the Big Five personality trait model has impacted our understanding of many life domains, from child development and education to the workplace (Gross, 2020; Larsen et al., 2017).

For those of us involved in supporting individual and group wellbeing and performance, it is vital we become better acquainted with this comprehensive personality model and associated assessments to gain powerful insights into the needs and influences that impact the lives of our clients and ourselves.

We hope you enjoyed reading this article. Don’t forget to download our three Strengths Exercises for free.

ED: Updated April 2025