The Five-Factor Model of Personality Theoretical Perspectives [Hardcover]

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.

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'l“.