Which model describes personality as five basic traits (openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, neuroticism) that tend to be stable across adulthood?

• A. Ecological Niche
• B. The Big Five
• C. Midlife Crisis
• D. Analytic Intelligence

Answer: (B)

The Big Five model describes personality as five broad traits that tend to stay stable across adulthood: openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism. This framework is supported by decades of research showing that these five dimensions capture most of the important individual differences in adult personality, and that people’s relative standing on these traits tends to remain consistent as they age. While the exact levels can shift somewhat over time (for example, conscientiousness often increases with age, and neuroticism can decrease), the overall pattern of who a person is on these five dimensions remains relatively stable.

Why this fits best: it names five distinct traits and emphasizes stability across adulthood, which matches the question. Other options aren’t about a five-trait personality framework—an ecological niche refers to an organism’s role in its environment, a midlife crisis is a cultural stereotype rather than a formal model of personality, and analytic intelligence concerns problem-solving abilities, not personality traits.