The OCEAN Scale, also known as the Big Five personality traits or the Five-Factor Model (FFM), is a widely recognized scientific model used in psychology and psychometrics to measure and describe human personality traits. The acronym "OCEAN" represents the five broad dimensions of personality: Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism. Sometimes, the acronym CANOE is used instead.
Developed through empirical research analyzing the language people use to describe themselves, the Big Five model groups variations in personality into these five separate factors, each measured on a continuous scale. It suggests that most of the variance in human personality can be explained using these factors. Each trait represents a continuum, where individuals can fall anywhere on the spectrum for each trait. The "Big 5" version was developed by Lewis Goldberg and others in the 1980s.
The OCEAN model is used to improve communication, make smarter hiring decisions, and help individuals understand their behaviors and actions. Awareness of one's personality type allows individuals to articulate their needs, relate to others, and regulate their behavior. The Big Five traits tend to remain relatively stable throughout an individual's life and are influenced by both genes and environment, with an estimated heritability of 50%.