Five-Factor Model of Personality:

The five-factor model of personality is a widely recognized method for assessing personality, according to the big five personality traits, with each trait on a spectrum from positive to negative. These traits describe our behavior, emotions, and thinking patterns, which are often used to predict life outcomes like job performance and wellbeing. Each trait exists on a spectrum, with people varying in how strongly they express each one:

• Conscientiousness—impulsive, disorganized vs disciplined, careful
• Agreeableness—suspicious, uncooperative vs trusting, helpful
• Neuroticism—calm, confident vs anxious, pessimistic
• Openness to Experience—prefers routine, practical vs imaginative, spontaneous
• Extraversion—reserved, thoughtful vs sociable, fun-loving
• Fight: Instinct to fight back is the most common response. The body believes it can overpower the threat. A person’s initial reaction is intense anger and rage, accompanied by preparing for the physical demands of fighting (tight jaw, grinding teeth, burning or knotted sensation in the stomach).
• Flight: Body believes danger can be avoided by leaving unexpectedly and fast. Surge of stress hormones (adrenaline) provides stamina to run faster and longer. Can be preemptive: by cancelling or not showing up in anticipation of a stressor. Can experience overwhelming fear/anxiety in flight.
• Freeze: When healthy, the person assesses and determines the best action to take. When unhealthy, they can show dissociation and immobilizing behaviors—like temporary paralysis and disconnection to find emotional safety. Freeze can also result from sensory overload.
• Fawn: People-pleasing response prioritizes others over oneself to diffuse conflict and get approval—often to hide distress from trauma from childhood abuse. Self-preservation instinct is to sooth one’s abuser instead of resorting to flight.
• Flop: Like animals “playing dead,” body goes limp, with a loss of physical control—like an out-of-body experience, as though the stressor is happening to someone else. It may provide some protection from intense, unwanted experiences