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# Personality: traits, the Big Five and Freud's models

- Theory

Personality is a person's lasting pattern of thinking, feeling and behaving; today it is described mainly with five broad traits.

Updated Nov 5, 2026

## Key points

- Big Five: openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness and neuroticism; each is a continuum and most people fall in the middle.
- Traits are fairly stable in adulthood; conscientiousness and agreeableness tend to rise and neuroticism to fall from young adulthood to midlife.
- Freud's structural model: id (drives, pleasure principle), ego (reality principle, mediates and uses defenses), superego (conscience and ideals).
- Freud's topographic model: conscious, preconscious (accessible on demand) and unconscious (not accessible, held back by repression).
- Freud's psychosexual stages (oral, anal, phallic, latency, genital) are a classic exam item but are not supported by modern research.

## What it is

Personality is the relatively stable pattern of thoughts, feelings and behavior that distinguishes a person across situations. Trait theories describe it with measurable dimensions, the most used being the five-factor model (the Big Five). Freud's psychodynamic models (structural and topographic) are historically central and still frame defense mechanisms and psychodynamic therapy, but most of their specific claims have little empirical support.

## Key facts

- Allport separated cardinal, central and secondary traits; Eysenck reduced personality to extraversion, neuroticism and later psychoticism; Cattell described sixteen factors.
- Twin studies attribute a substantial share of the variance of the Big Five to genes, the rest to non-shared experience.
- Temperament is the inborn, early-appearing part of personality; character is shaped later by experience and values.
- A personality disorder is an inflexible, maladaptive pattern that causes distress or impairment; it is a condition page, not a variant of normal traits.
- Freud's lasting contribution is the idea that early experience and unconscious processes shape adult life; his theory is hard to test and many claims have been rejected.

## The Big Five and what each trait is linked to in health

| Trait | High end | Low end | Health link |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Openness | Curious, imaginative, open to new ideas | Prefers routine and the familiar | Openness to new treatments and information |
| Conscientiousness | Organized, dependable, self-disciplined | Careless, impulsive | Better adherence and health behaviors; linked to longer life |
| Extraversion | Sociable, energetic, talkative | Reserved, quiet | Larger social networks, but also more risk-taking in some studies |
| Agreeableness | Cooperative, trusting, warm | Critical, suspicious | Smoother therapeutic relationships |
| [Neuroticism](https://durgical.com/en/conditions/generalized-anxiety-disorder/) | Prone to anxiety, worry and low mood | Calm, emotionally stable | More symptom reporting; higher risk of anxiety and depressive disorders |

## Clinical notes

- Knowing the patient's style helps: an anxious, highly conscientious patient may want detailed written plans; a low-conscientiousness patient benefits from simple routines and reminders.
- High neuroticism raises distress and symptom reporting in medical illness; it does not mean the symptoms are not real.
- Personality is assessed with structured interviews and standardized inventories (see psychological testing).

## Memory aid

Picture an iceberg in an OCEAN: on the surface float the five traits (Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, Neuroticism); below the water lies Freud's unconscious.

## Test yourself

Think of the answer, then tap the question to see it.

## What are the five factors of the five-factor model of personality?

Openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness and neuroticism.

## In Freud's structural model, which part follows the reality principle and uses the defense mechanisms?

The ego, which mediates between the drives of the id, the demands of the superego and external reality.

## What is the difference between the preconscious and the unconscious in Freud's topographic model?

Preconscious content is not in awareness now but can be recalled easily; unconscious content is not accessible and is kept out by repression.

## Which Big Five trait is most consistently linked to better adherence and longer life?

Conscientiousness.

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## Connections

## Related 7

- [Defense mechanisms: what they are and how they are ranked](https://durgical.com/en/behavioral-science/defense-mechanisms-what-they-are-and-how-they-are-ranked/)
- [Temperament](https://durgical.com/en/behavioral-science/temperament/)
- [Personality tests: objective and projective](https://durgical.com/en/behavioral-science/personality-tests-objective-and-projective/)
- [Psychodynamic therapy, transference and countertransference](https://durgical.com/en/behavioral-science/psychodynamic-therapy-transference-and-countertransference/)
- [Erikson's psychosocial stages](https://durgical.com/en/behavioral-science/erikson-s-psychosocial-stages/)
- [Immature defense mechanisms](https://durgical.com/en/behavioral-science/immature-defense-mechanisms/)
- [Neurotic and mature defense mechanisms](https://durgical.com/en/behavioral-science/neurotic-and-mature-defense-mechanisms/)

## Related conditions 3

- [Personality disorders (clusters A, B and C)](https://durgical.com/en/conditions/personality-disorders/)
- [Generalized anxiety disorder](https://durgical.com/en/conditions/generalized-anxiety-disorder/)
- [Major depressive disorder](https://durgical.com/en/conditions/major-depressive-disorder/)

[← All of behavioral science](https://durgical.com/en/behavioral-science/)

Educational content on behavior and the clinical relationship; not a diagnostic or treatment guide and no substitute for assessment by a health professional. If you or someone near you is at risk, seek help now from an emergency service or a mental-health helpline.

Sources: [Personality Traits and Mediating Pathways to Mortality Risk: A Systematic Review](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11979782/) (Health Psychology (PubMed Central), 2023); [Trajectories of Big Five Personality Traits: A Coordinated Analysis of 16 Longitudinal Samples](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7869960/) (European Journal of Personality (PubMed Central), 2020); [Overview of Personality Disorders - Psychiatric Disorders - MSD Manual Professional Edition](https://www.msdmanuals.com/professional/psychiatric-disorders/personality-disorders/overview-of-personality-disorders) (MSD Manual Professional Edition, 2026).

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Representative model, for educational purposes only.

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License: CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Cite as: DurgiPedia (durgical.com), https://durgical.com/en/behavioral-science/personality-traits-the-big-five-and-freud-s-models/