The Big-Five Trait Taxonomy: History, Measurement, and Theoretical Perspectives Oliver P. John and Sanjay Srivastava University of California at Berkeley Running head: Big Five Trait Taxonomy

The Big-Five Trait Taxonomy: History, Measurement, and Theoretical Perspectives Oliver P. John and Sanjay Srivastava University of California at Berkeley Running head: Big Five Trait Taxonomy Final draft: March 5, 1999 Author's Address: Oliver P. John Department of Psychology University of California, MC 1650 Berkeley, CA 94720-1650 W: (510) 642-2178; H: 540-7159; Fax: 643-9334 Email: ojohn@socrates.berkeley.edu; sanjays@socrates.berkeley.edu To appear in L. Pervin and O.P. John (Eds.), Handbook of personality: Theory and research (2nd ed.). New York: Guilford (in press). 2 Taxonomy is always a contentious issue because the world does not come to us in neat little packages (S. J. Gould, 1981, p. 158). Personality has been conceptualized from a variety of theoretical perspectives, and at various levels of abstraction or breadth (John, Hampson, & Goldberg, 1991; McAdams, 1995). Each of these levels has made unique contributions to our understanding of individual differences in behavior and experience. However, the number of personality traits, and scales designed to measure them, escalated without an end in sight (Goldberg, 1971). Researchers, as well as practitioners in the field of personality assessment, were faced with a bewildering array of personality scales from which to choose, with little guidance and no overall rationale at hand. What made matters worse was ...