What the Big Five measures
The Big Five personality traits, also known as the five-factor model (FFM) and the OCEAN model, is a taxonomy for personality traits widely considered to be the best-validated model in contemporary psychology. Derived from the lexical hypothesis (the idea that the most socially relevant personality traits will become encoded in language), the Big Five represents the five overarching domains that account for the vast majority of variance in human personality.
The dimensions it assesses
- Openness to Experience (O): Intellectual curiosity, preference for novelty, aesthetic sensitivity, and willingness to challenge authority. Measured here by the IPIP's Intellect/Imagination factor.
- Conscientiousness (C): Self-discipline, dutifulness, organization, and preference for planned rather than spontaneous behavior.
- Extraversion (E): Energy creation from external stimuli, assertiveness, sociability, and positive emotionality.
- Agreeableness (A): Compassion, cooperativeness, trust, and a tendency to defer to others rather than being antagonistic.
- Neuroticism (N): The tendency to experience negative emotions (anxiety, anger, depression), emotional instability, and vulnerability to stress. The IPIP keys this factor as Emotional Stability, its opposite pole; the keying below is inverted so that a high score means high Neuroticism, consistent with the OCEAN convention.
Already have a Big Five score from somewhere else? Look it up without retaking the questionnaire.
What your score means
Calculate the total score for each trait by summing the raw (or reversed) scores of the 10 corresponding items.
| Score | Interpretation | What it suggests |
|---|---|---|
| 10 – 23 | Lower range | The individual favors the opposite pole of the trait (e.g., Low Extraversion = High Introversion). |
| 24 – 37 | Middle range | The individual exhibits situational flexibility. Behavior depends heavily on context rather than a rigid baseline. |
| 38 – 50 | Upper range | The trait is a defining and readily visible feature of the individual's personality. |
These ranges describe groups of people, not individuals. A score near a boundary is not meaningfully different from one just across it, and no range on this table is a diagnosis.
What to do with your result
- Low Conscientiousness & High Openness: Often indicates a highly creative but disorganized individual. Interventions should focus on scaffolding (using calendars, strict deadlines) so creativity isn't lost to chaos.
- High Neuroticism: In the upper range of the scale, the individual is more susceptible to burnout. Mindfulness, cognitive restructuring, and boundary-setting are useful professional buffers.
- Low Agreeableness: Often seen in competitive leadership, but can become toxic. The individual must actively practice "perspective-taking" exercises to avoid alienating team members.
Common questions about the Big Five
- What does the Big Five measure?
- The Five-Factor Model of personality (Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, Neuroticism).
- Can the Big Five diagnose me?
- No. Personality Profile (Big Five) is a screening questionnaire, not a diagnostic tool. It can flag that something may need a closer look. It cannot tell you what is causing it. It describes tendencies rather than diagnosing anything, and no result here is a condition or something to fix.
- How long does the Big Five take?
- 50 questions, which most people finish in 10 – 15 minutes. There is no time limit, and answering honestly matters more than answering quickly. The results page checks for patterns suggesting the questions were rushed.
- Is this Big Five test really free?
- Yes. No account, no email address, no payment. Psychometrics Today is funded by donations rather than advertising, which is also what allows us to publish instruments whose authors permit free but non-commercial use.
- Are my answers stored or shared?
- No. Your answers are scored inside your browser and never sent to us. There is no database of responses, because we never receive any. Closing the tab erases them, which is why results cannot be recovered afterwards.
- How often should I retake the Big Five?
- Traits and preferences move slowly, so retaking this every few months is more informative than retaking it often. Larger shifts usually follow a genuine change in circumstances.
- Who created the Big Five, and is this the real version?
- It was published by International Personality Item Pool (IPIP). IPIP items are explicitly public domain and carry no use restrictions. The items here are the published ones rather than a paraphrase, and the scoring follows the original rules. Both are documented on this page so they can be checked.
- How accurate is the Big Five?
- Screening questionnaires are good at flagging that something merits attention and poor at establishing what it is. This one is sensitive to how you feel on the day you take it, and many instruments were validated on narrow populations whose cut-offs may not transfer cleanly to everyone. The references at the foot of this page are the primary sources.
Sources
Rights held by International Personality Item Pool (IPIP). Developed and validated by the researchers cited below.
- Goldberg, L. R. (1992). The development of markers for the Big-Five factor structure. Psychological Assessment, 4(1), 26-42.
- Goldberg, L. R. (1993). The structure of phenotypic personality traits. American Psychologist, 48(1), 26-34.
- Goldberg, L. R., Johnson, J. A., Eber, H. W., Hogan, R., Ashton, M. C., Cloninger, C. R., & Gough, H. G. (2006). The International Personality Item Pool and the future of public-domain personality measures. Journal of Research in Personality, 40(1), 84-96.
- Costa, P. T., & McCrae, R. R. (1992). Normal personality assessment in clinical practice: The NEO Personality Inventory. Psychological Assessment, 4(1), 5-13.
Licensing
Public domain. IPIP items are explicitly public domain and carry no use restrictions.
Only lawful if the items used are IPIP items. The BFI-2 (Soto & John) is free for non-commercial research ONLY, and the NEO-PI-R is a commercial PAR instrument. Source Big Five items from IPIP.