Final answer:
The "Big Five" personality traits proposed by McCrae and Costa are Openness to Experience, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism. Together, these encompass the major dimensions of human personality and are remembered by the mnemonic OCEAN.
Step-by-step explanation:
McCrae and Costa's theory of personality emphasizes five core dimensions that encapsulate human personality variation. These are commonly known as the "Big Five" personality traits, which include:
- Openness to Experience: This trait features characteristics such as imagination, curiosity, and broad-mindedness.
- Conscientiousness: This refers to how reliable, organized, and diligent an individual is.
- Extraversion: This trait covers one's level of sociability, energy, and the tendency to seek companionship.
- Agreeableness: This involves attributes like altruism, tenderness, trust, and cooperation.
- Neuroticism: This dimension measures emotional stability and the degree to which emotions are experienced negatively, such as fear, sadness, and anger.
These traits provide a framework for understanding personality that is consistent across different cultures and has been demonstrated to have some biological and genetic basis. The mnemonic OCEAN is often used to remember these five factors.