Five Factor Model and Roy

Five Factor Model and ROY G. BIV

The five factor model has gained both support and criticism as the dominant empirical theory in recent personality research. In order for the model to have true scientific value, however, it must withstand empirical testing and explanatory power. Such a model is said to have 'truth value' (Hastings 88). In ROY G. BIV and the OCEAN, Brad Hastings compares the five factor model with the ROY G. BIV analysis of the color spectrum in order to assert the truth value of the five factor model.

Research by Allport (1937), Cattell (1945), McRae and Costa (1987 and 1990) and others have concluded that the five factor model of human personality is derived from five biological, innate core personality traits: Openness to experience, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness and Neuroticism (OCEAN, as an acronym). Theoretically, his model has been supported by the lexical hypothesis, which states that natural language "contains the most relevant traits" and that personality traits can be best described by single decontextualized adjectives. The lexical hypothesis has been criticized by many psychologists (McAdams, for instance) for lacking an evidentiary base, not recognizing cultural differences among people and not explaining whole person among the participants (90).

Hastings supports the five factor OCEAN model by comparing this personality theory to our understanding of color and the electromagnetic spectrum. As Hastings explains, color is a scientific fiction, it does not actually exist, though all humans are explicitly taught to believe it does. The appearance of a color occurs when an object does not absorb a particular part of the electromagnetic spectrum. A rose is, therefore, not really red; it is merely absorbing every electromagnetic wave on the spectrum but one which gives the rose a red appearance to the human eye (92). When an electromagnetic wave is not absorbed by an object, there is a corresponding color chart for the resulting appearance, i.e. ROY G. BIV. Every wave not absorb will produce the appearance of one of these colors, or a combination thereof.

Human personality and the five factor OCEAN model, says Hastings, operates in the exact same manner. By applying the scientific fiction of color to the five factor model and trait analysis, Hastings attempts to demonstrate the theory's usefulness and practicality, even to its more ardent critics. While traits are based in biology, they are not best understood in the context of biology, just as color is not understood as an electromagnetic phenomenon. Different cultural structures (collectivist v. individualist) will have a very different understanding of trait research should not be used to denigrate the five factor model, but should instead create different interpretation based on cultural norms, just as happens with a culture's understanding of color (94). The five factor model encourages Western researches to broaden its scope of study to include the theories posited by collectivist cultures and to assess if and why there are substantial differences.