The purpose of the Big Five model (commonly called the Five-Factor Model by academics) is to reliably categorize most, if not all, of the traits that you would use to describe someone. The model is organized into five factors or dimensions, and each dimension includes multiple traits.

The Big Five Model of Personality categorizes traits into the dimensions of surgency, agreeableness, adjustment, conscientiousness, and openness to experience. The surgency personality dimension includes leadership and extroversion traits. People strong in leadership, more commonly called dominance, personality traits want to be in charge. They are energetic, assertive, active, and ambitious, with an interest in getting ahead and leading through competing and influencing.

Unlike the surgency behavior trait of wanting to get ahead of others, the agreeableness personality dimension includes traits related to getting along with people. Agreeable personality behavior is strong when someone is called warm, easygoing, courteous, good-natured, cooperative, tolerant, compassionate, friendly, and sociable; it is weak when someone is called cold, difficult, uncompassionate, unfriendly, and unsociable. Strong agreeable personality types are sociable, spend most of their time with other people, and have lots of friends.

The adjustment personality dimension includes traits related to emotional stability. Adjustment is on a continuum between being emotionally stable and being emotionally unstable. Stability refers to self-control, calmness—good under pressure, relaxed, secure, and positive—and a willingness to praise others. Being emotionally unstable means being out of control—poor under pressure, nervous, insecure, moody, depressed, angry, and negative—and quick to criticize others.

The conscientiousness personality dimension includes traits related to achievement. Conscientiousness is on a continuum between being responsible and dependable and being irresponsible and undependable. Other traits of high conscientiousness include persistence, credibility, conformity, and organization. This trait is characterized as the willingness to work hard and put in extra time and effort to accomplish goals to achieve success.

The openness to experience personality dimension includes traits related to being willing to change and try new things. People strong in openness to experience are imaginative, intellectual, open-minded, autonomous, and creative, they seek change, and they are willing to try new things, while those who are weak in this dimension avoid change and new things. We need to be able to work well with people who have different personalities than ours. To improve our human relations, it is helpful for us to adjust our behavior based on the other person’s personality type, especially our bosses, because they evaluate our performance, which affects our career.