The Five-Factor Model (FFM) of Personality

(a.k.a. The Big Five Model of Personality)

From my not-so-extensive research, psychologists prefer the FFM to the popular Myers Briggs (Jung type) model of personality. Even among advocates of the FFM, the Jung type personality indicators are widely respected, so this page is not meant to contradict Myers Briggs typing, or even criticize it.

As would be expected, the FFM identifies five primary factors, each with several facets. These are shown in the table below. Your rating for a given factor is the average of your ratings in the appropriate facets.

In this model, there are roughly 243 personality archtypes. This probably explains the popularity of the Myers Briggs model, which has only 16 archtypes. Because of the extensive interaction matrix (59,049 archtype interactions) that would result from so many distinct archtypes, I doubt that the FFM is truly useful for formulating work strategies, and learning to identifying with coworkers, family, and friends.

Because of this same granularity, it is probably a lot more useful in describing someone and predicting their reaction to a specific stimulus.

My personal opinion is that personality-typing is interesting, but impossible. The people I'm around, the place, the time of day, the activity, and my role in a situation can each coax a different personality from me. In practice, my personality factors can be wildly erratic, and I suspect that it's the same with most people.