What is personality?

Personality is a key concept for explaining individual differences. The American Psychological Association (APA) has defined personality as “individual differences in characteristic patterns of thinking, feeling and behaving” (APA, 2022).

How can we capture personality?

Researchers have developed a variety of classification schemes to organize the complex field of human personality into a solid taxonomy. One of the most popular and most widely used models to capture personality is the Five-Factor Model (FFM), often referred to as the Big 5 Model. The FFM assumes that personality can be divided into five relatively distinctive personality traits: Extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, emotional stability, and intellect/ imagination (traits according to Goldberg, 1992).

These five traits reflect major facets of an individual. The following figure depicts exemplary attributes associated with the personality traits agreeableness, conscientiousness, emotional stability, and intellect/ imagination.

How can we measure personality?

Various scales have been established in science to measure personality traits quantitatively. Many of them are based on the Five-Factor Model just presented. Most measurement scales ask participants to indicate the extent to which certain statements apply to themselves. Well-known scales are for example the Revised NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-PR-I), the 50-item scale of the International Personality Item Pool (IPIP 50) or the Big-Five Inventory (BFI).

To create comparability between different individuals, it is very important that the personality assessment is performed in exactly the same way each time.