Personality Traits
Author: Psychology Today staff
Personality Traits | Psychology Today. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/personality/personality-traits. Accessed 22 Jan. 2026.
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| Jan-22-26 | Personality Disorders |
Traits are the building blocks of personality. So what is a trait? In short, it’s a relatively stable way of thinking and behaving that can be used to describe a person and compare and contrast that person with others.
Traits can be cast in very broad terms, such as how positively disposed a person generally is toward other people, or in more specific ones, such as how much that person tends to trust other people. These more specific aspects of personality are sometimes referred to as “facets.” Personality traits are usually considered distinct from mental abilities (including general intelligence) that are assessed based on how well one responds to problems or questions.
Psychologists have developed a variety of ways to define and organize the span of personality traits. They are often bundled together based on broad personality factors, as in the commonly used Big Five trait taxonomy. But personality can be sliced in many different ways, and some traits are frequently measured and studied by psychologists on their own.
Here are some of the scientifically studied groups of personality traits. Importantly, people generally do not simply have these traits or not have them—they can rate high, low, or somewhere in the middle on each one, compared to other people.
The Big Five Personality Traits
The Big Five traits—usually labeled openness, conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism, or OCEAN for short—are among the most commonly studied in psychology. The five-factor model splits personality into five broad traits that an individual can rate higher or lower on compared to other people, based on the extent to which the person exhibits them. Each of the five personality factors covers a group of narrower personality facets that tend to go together in individuals.
Openness (also called openness-to-experience or open-mindedness) reflects, roughly, how receptive a person is to new ideas and the robustness and complexity of a person’s mental life. Facets include intellectual curiosity and creative imagination.
Conscientiousness is a person’s tendency to control impulses and act responsibly and productively. It may be reflected in a person’s preference for keeping things in order, dependability at work, or punctuality. Grit, a much-talked-about trait concept involving steady persistence toward a goal, is related to conscientiousness.
Extroversion can be thought of as the level of energy with which a person interacts with the outside world and other people. Aspects of extroversion are thought to include sociability and assertiveness, but also one’s general energy and enthusiasm. Introversion is the opposite of extroversion. (Shyness, not included in the Big Five, is similar, but not the same as introversion.)
Agreeableness is a person’s degree of positivity and helpfulness toward other people. Facets of agreeableness include one’s respectfulness toward others, compassion, altruism, and tendency to trust others.
HEXACO and Honesty-Humility
Some personality researchers have proposed a sixth major trait factor, in addition to the Big Five: it’s called honesty-humility and provides the “H” in the HEXACO model. Honesty-humility as a trait concept reflects the degree to which people place themselves ahead of other people, such as by seeking special treatment or manipulating others. Proposed facets include sincerity, fairness, and the avoidance of greed.
For more on honesty-humility, see HEXACO.
The Dark Triad
Three traits, often called the Dark Triad—narcissism, psychopathy, and Machiavellianism—are commonly assessed to investigate the darker, or more antagonistic and self-interested side of human nature. While they represent particular ways of thinking about anti-social thoughts and behavior, they are not necessarily separate from other traits—for instance, it’s easy to see how they share some common ground with the Big Five concept of agreeableness or HEXACO’s honesty-humility.
Some people who rate highly on these traits are described as being “a narcissist” or a “psychopath,” but the Dark Triad traits can be thought of in terms of a spectrum: A person can rate low, high, or anywhere in between on each one. Personality disorders, some of which involve Dark Triad-related behavior, are defined differently, using specified cut-offs for diagnosis.
For more, see Dark Triad and Personality Disorders
Narcissism is generally one’s sense of self-importance and entitlement relative to others. High narcissism may be reflected in attention-seeking or an excessive need for admiration.
Psychopathy captures a lack of empathy, remorse, and impulse control, along with other specific facets. Someone who is highly psychopathic may tend to hurt others without feeling bad or taking responsibility.
Machiavellianism refers to a person’s tendency to treat others in a calculating way, including using manipulation in order to achieve goals. It is named after Niccolò Machiavell, the 16th-century author of the book The Prince.
Added January 22, 2026 at 3:02pm
by Chris Sloan
Title: Personality Disorders
Personality Disorders are long-standing patterns of thinking and behavior that lead to problems in interpersonal relationships and may cause impairment or distress in the person with the disorder.
A personality disorder may reflect a potentially disruptive combination of personality traits, such as low agreeableness or high narcissism, that make it more difficult for someone to get along smoothly with others in life or dispose the person to treat others poorly. In practice, however, personality disorders are typically defined in terms of sets of signs and symptoms that reflect the harm or difficulty stemming from a person’s way of being.
The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders includes 10 personality disorders, grouped into three clusters.
For more information, see Personality Disorders.
Cluster A: Paranoid, Schizoid, and Schizotypal Personality Disorders
Cluster A personality disorders are characterized by odd or eccentric patterns of thinking. These may include persistent suspiciousness of or disinterest in other people or strange beliefs that are not better attributed to a psychotic disorder such as schizophrenia.
Paranoid Personality Disorder involves a distrust of other people in various areas of one’s life. Potential signs include irrational suspicions that one is being manipulated by others, that others are untrustworthy, or that others are communicating hidden threats or insults.
Schizoid Personality Disorder is a pattern of detachment from social relationships in general and limited emotional expression in social settings. It may involve a lack of desire for close relationships, an overwhelming preference for solitude, or a lack of apparent concern about others’ praise or criticism.
Schizotypal Personality Disorder involves a discomfort with and limited capacity for having close relationships along with cognitive or perceptual abnormalities—which may include magical beliefs (such as in telepathy) that influence behavior, false beliefs that events are directly related to them, or social anxiety due to paranoid fears.
Cluster B: Antisocial, Borderline, Histrionic, and Narcissistic Personality Disorders
Cluster B personality disorders are marked by unstable emotional states and erratic behavior. For those with such disorders, the propensity to lash out or to try to manipulate others, along with other behaviors, can cause major disruption in interpersonal relationships.
Antisocial Personality Disorder is a pattern of disregard for others’ rights, which can show up in behaviors such as repeated criminal activity, fighting, or lying, a tendency to act impulsively and failure to plan ahead, and a lack of remorse. Psychopathy and sociopathy, while not defined in exactly the same way, are related personality concepts.
Borderline Personality Disorder is defined by instability in a person’s relationships, sense of self, and emotional state, as well as impulsivity (such as in risky sexual behavior or drug use). People with this disorder may have a history of troubled relationships and swing between extreme positive and negative views of other people.
Histrionic Personality Disorder is marked by excessive attention-seeking and emotional expression. This may involve inappropriate, provocative behavior, theatricality, and a discomfort with not being the focus of attention.
Someone with Narcissistic Personality Disorder shows, in a variety of areas of life, a grandiose sense of self and need for admiration, along with a lack of empathy. It may involve arrogant behavior, exploitativeness, and a belief that one deserves special treatment. Though defined differently, it is related to the personality trait of narcissism.
Cluster C: Avoidant, Dependent, and Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorders
Cluster C personality disorders involve ingrained ways of thinking and relating to others that are colored by anxiety and fear.
Someone with Avoidant Personality Disorder tends to resist getting close to other people (which can include romantic partners) and fears the negative evaluations of others. The potential for rejection or embarrassment and perceived inadequacy may be frequent concerns.
Dependent Personality Disorder involves an excessive need to be taken care of by others—to have others make decisions or assume responsibility, for example—that leads to fear of separation. Someone with this disorder may struggle to disagree with a partner or act in a submissive way so as not to jeopardize a relationship.
Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder is marked by perfectionism and a demand for order and control, which can manifest in a counterproductive fixation on rules and details and a devotion to work that crowds out other parts of one’s life. It is distinct from obsessive-compulsive disorder, which is not a personality disorder.
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This shows that Squealer consistently uses manipulative communication to control how other animals think and feel. He repeatedly rewrites facts and changes explanations to benefit Napoleon and the pigs. This behavior aligns with traits of manipulativeness and lack of empathy, which are often seen in antisocial personality patterns
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