Which theory proposes five core traits underlie all personality traits and remain stable in adulthood?

• A. The Big Five
• B. The Psychoanalytic Model
• C. Free Association
• D. TAT

Answer: (A)

Five-factor theory, often called the Big Five, holds that personality is built from five broad traits that underlie most individual differences and tend to stay stable through adulthood. Those five traits are openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism. This model arose from studying many words used to describe people and applying factor analysis, finding that these domains consistently capture the major patterns of variation across cultures. Because these traits summarize broad tendencies in thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, they reliably predict a wide range of outcomes—things like work performance, relationships, and health—and individual differences in them are relatively stable after early adulthood, with some potential for gradual change over time. The other options aren’t trait-based theories: the psychoanalytic model focuses on unconscious conflicts and developmental stages; free association is a technique used to explore those unconscious processes; and the TAT (Thematic Apperception Test) is a projective assessment used to probe motives and needs through storytelling about pictures.