<P> The Big Five personality traits, also known as the five factor model (FFM), is a model based on common language descriptors of personality . When factor analysis (a statistical technique) is applied to personality survey data, some words used to describe aspects of personality are often applied to the same person . For example, someone described as conscientious is more likely to be described as "always prepared" rather than "messy". This theory is based therefore on the association between words but not on neuropsychological experiments . This theory uses descriptors of common language and therefore suggests five broad dimensions commonly used to describe the human personality and psyche . The five factors have been defined as openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism, often represented by the acronyms OCEAN or CANOE . Beneath each proposed global factor, there are a number of correlated and more specific primary factors . For example, extraversion is said to include such related qualities as gregariousness, assertiveness, excitement seeking, warmth, activity, and positive emotions . </P> <P> That these underlying factors can be found is consistent with the lexical hypothesis: personality characteristics that are most important in peoples' lives will eventually become a part of their language and, secondly, that more important personality characteristics are more likely to be encoded into language as a single word . </P>

What is the big five trait of conscientiousness