# Five-Factor Model of Personality | Psychology **Covers**:: **Source**:: [Five-Factor Model of Personality | Psychology](https://www.britannica.com/science/five-factor-model-of-personality) **Creator**:: [[britannica.com]] # Highlights ##### ^242142331 highlight_tags:: [[five-factor model]] Q:: What is a personality trait? A:: ###### ^242142331q Personality traits are understood as patterns of thought, feeling, and behaviour that are relatively enduring across an individual’s life span. ^242142331 ##### ^242142332 ###### ^242142332q The five-factor model was developed in the 1980s and ’90s largely on the basis of the lexical hypothesis, which suggested that the fundamental traits of human personality have, over time, become encoded in language ^242142332