Paul Costa

Paul Costa is a well-known psychologist who has contributed heavily to the field of personality and trait psychology. He was born on July 26, 1941, and studied psychology at the University of Chicago. Paul Costa worked with colleague Robert McCrea, and used factor analysis to create the Five Factor Model. The five factors include neuroticism, extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and openness to experience, which are noted as the basic ingredients to human personality. These factors are dimensions; therefore, they vary in persistence from person to person. They are stable only over a certain period, which is believed to be forty-five years, beginning in adolescence. The factors are also heritable, meaning they can be passed down from

They are bipolar since they can range from high to low. Openness to experience exhibits your appreciation for art, range of emotion, and imagination. Conscientiousness is the tendency to show self-discipline and aim for achievement. Extraversion describes your energy, sociability, and self-confidence. Agreeableness shows your ability to be compassionate, and to what degree you are likeable. The last factor, Neuroticism, is the tendency to experience unpleasant emotions, usually with little to no control over what degree you experience them. The degree at which each factor is present helps determine that person’s

It uses the five factors in a similar way Costa and McCrea in their study. Since the nineties, when the Big Five began to gain popularity, there was increasing evidence that not only did agreeableness and conscientiousness increase; the original three factors, openness, extraversion, and neuroticism tend to decrease. The tests also showed a difference between male and female. Since females usually scored higher on agreeableness and neuroticism, it strongly suggested that there was an innate difference in personality between the sexes. The big five also revealed a relationship between scores and countries. Countries where extraversion was more evident tend to have a more individualistic culture. Yet again, it only suggests correlation between cultures and