Five Factor Model (FFM)

I learned about the five factor model in second year psychology. I thought it was really fun to test it on myself and my friends. Basically the five factor model is a model believed to be applicable to everyone. It contains five dimensions that are held to be a complete description of personality. In 1936 Gordan Allport and H.S. Odbert went through two of the most comprehensive dictionaries and extracted 27,953 personality-describing words, it was then reduced to 4,504 adjectives. In the 1940's Raymond Cattell eliminated synonyms, the list then sat at 171. He reduced it further to 35 and later 16, which led to the development of the 16PF personality questionnaire. In 1961 two air force researches used Cattell's data and found five reoccuiring factors. The five dimensions are O.C.E.A.N. or, Openness to Experience, Conscientiousness, Exrtaversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism.

Openness to experience- curiousity, adventure, ideas, experience
Conscientiousness- self-descipline, act dutifully, planned behaviour, achievment-aimer.
Extraversion- energetic, positive, surgency, stimuli seeker.
Agreeableness- compassionate, coopertative, not suspicious and antagonistic.
Neuroticism- experiences unpleasant emotions easily, anger, anxiety, depression, vulnerability.

These five factors are influenced by both heredity and environment. The test results are not necessaily constant but longitudinal and cross-sectional studies show data with a high degree in stability over time, a.k.a. test results usually don't significantly change over time. It is believed that if you score too low or too high on a certain category it could be a sign of a mental disorder.

Now out of 100 points each category could be divided equally into 20 points. So you have 100 points to designate to how you believe you are suited to each trait. 20 on one trait is average, 0 is low, and 40 is high.

To take the 16pf questionaire,
http://similarminds.com/cgi-bin/16sm.pl

My 16pf results,

Cattell's 16 Factor Test Results Warmth ||||||||||||||||||||| 66% Intellect ||||||||||||||||||||| 66% Emotional Stability |||||||||||| 38% Aggressiveness |||||||||||||||||| 54% Liveliness |||||||||||||||||| 54% Dutifulness ||||||||||||||| 42% Social Assertiveness |||||||||||||||||| 58% Sensitivity ||||||||||||||||||||| 62% Paranoia ||||||||||||||||||||| 62% Abstractness |||||||||||||||||||||||| 74% Introversion ||||||||||||||||||||| 70% Anxiety ||||||||||||||||||||| 62% Openmindedness ||||||||||||||||||||| 70% Independence |||||||||||||||||| 58% Perfectionism ||||||||||||||| 50% Tension ||||||||||||||| 42% Take Cattell 16 Factor Test (similar to 16pf) personality tests by similarminds.com