What is the history of personality and adolescence? Specifically how does this relate to the Big 5 and how far back does the research go?

-- Bethany Fichera (Bdf523@hotmail.com), October 17, 2001

Answers

These are very large areas of study. You should take a look at textbooks on personality and developmental psychology, respectively. The "Big 5" research dates back to the 1970s. Costa and Mcrae are the major names, I believe. The idea of extracting personality factors from factor analysis is not a new idea, however. Before the "Big 5" were Hans Eysenck's Extraversion-Neuroticism (and later Psychoticism) scales, and R.B. Cattell's 16PF questionnaire. Before that questionnaires were developed to measure many putative traits, such as anxiety and intelligence. See the work of people like Spearman, Thurstone, and Guilford.

-- Christopher Green (christo@yorku.ca), October 18, 2001.

in terms of the big 5 i think this related to how people feel i mean thier feeling

-- lana omotola funmilayo (tolly022002@yahoo.com), March 19, 2004.