About the test
Big Five Aspects test
The Big Five Aspects test splits each of the five broad traits into two aspects, such as compassion and politeness or industriousness and orderliness. It uses the Big Five Aspects Scales by DeYoung, Quilty and Peterson, published through the public-domain IPIP. The result shows when two sides of the same trait pull in different directions.
Questionnaire / instrument: Big Five Aspects Scales (BFAS)
The test at a glance
- Price
- Free, including your results
- Registration
- No account required
- Length
- 100 statements
- Time
- About 12 minutes
- Format
- Self-report · five response options
- Your report
- Five traits · ten aspects
The five traits and ten aspects
Each aspect is measured with ten statements, and each trait combines its two aspects. These are the names used in your report:
Neuroticism
Sensitivity to negative emotions. Volatility is the outward side: irritability, anger and quick mood swings. Withdrawal is the inward side: worry, anxiety, self-doubt and low mood.
Extraversion
Energy, sociability and drive. Enthusiasm covers friendliness, openness with others and joy. Assertiveness covers leadership, influence and taking charge.
Openness to experience
Curiosity about ideas and experiences. Intellect is interest in ideas, quick thinking and reasoning. Openness is engagement with art, beauty, imagination and inner experience.
Agreeableness
Caring about others and getting along. Compassion covers empathy, warmth and care. Politeness covers respect, restraint and avoiding conflict.
Conscientiousness
Getting things done and keeping order. Industriousness covers self-discipline, effort and finishing tasks. Orderliness covers order, routine and attention to detail.
What your results show
Your result is calculated as soon as you have answered. You can preview an example result before taking the test.
- A score from 0 to 100 for each of the five traits, with a low, average or high label and a description of your level.
- Scores, levels and descriptions for the two aspects within each trait.
- A note when your two aspects differ by 25 points or more, since the trait score then hides a clear split.
- An explanation of what the scores do and do not show.
What does it measure?
Five broad personality traits and ten aspects, two within each trait. For example, extraversion is separated into enthusiasm and assertiveness, while conscientiousness includes industriousness and orderliness.
Where does it come from?
The Big Five Aspects Scales (BFAS) were developed by Colin DeYoung, Lena Quilty and Jordan Peterson and published in 2007. The item set and scoring keys are available through IPIP.
How is the result calculated?
Ten items contribute to each aspect. The two aspects within a trait are combined for the broader profile. Reverse-keyed answers are adjusted; the displayed 0–100 scale is a rescaling of responses, not a percentile.
What can the result tell you?
Aspects provide a different level of detail from the 30 facets in IPIP-NEO. They are not interchangeable subscales. This site does not use population norms for the BFAS profile.
Languages and adaptations
Persian uses the published IPIP translation of all 100 items. In other languages, 60 items reuse translations from our IPIP-NEO and HEXACO banks, including published IPIP translations where they exist; the other 40 were translated for this site with AI assistance and have not been reviewed by native speakers. Translation does not by itself establish that a scale has the same measurement properties in another language.
Frequently asked questions
Is the aspects test free, including the results?
Yes. You can answer all the statements and read your result without paying or creating an account.
What is the difference between aspects and facets?
DeYoung and colleagues found that the facets within each Big Five trait group into two related but distinct parts, a level between the five broad traits and the more specific facets. Our Big Five test splits each trait into six narrow facets measured with four statements each. This test splits each trait into two broader aspects measured with ten statements each. The two are not interchangeable, even where names overlap.
Should I take this test or the Big Five test?
Take the Big Five test if you want 30 facets and percentiles that compare you with a large online sample. Take the aspects test if you want a simpler split of each trait, for example to see whether you are more compassionate than polite or more industrious than orderly. Many people find it useful to take both.
How is it different from the HEXACO test?
The aspects test keeps the five Big Five traits. The HEXACO test uses six traits, adds honesty-humility and defines emotionality and agreeableness differently, with four facets per trait. The quick personality test is a short alternative that gives a rough overview of six traits.
Who am I compared with?
No one. There are no public norms for the full BFAS, so a score of 70 means that your answers lie 70 percent of the way up the response scale, not that you score higher than 70 percent of people. Low, average and high use the same limits as our Big Five test.
How reliable are the scales?
The IPIP scoring key reports internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha) between .75 and .85 for the ten aspect scales. That is good for research scales of this length. Our translations have not been validated separately, and a single test result is still only a description of how you answered that day.
License and reuse
Public domainIPIP places its items and scales in the public domain. They may be used, copied, adapted and translated for commercial and non-commercial purposes without a fee or separate permission.
The terms below apply to the test materials. Articles, translations, software and our result descriptions may have separate terms.
Sources and further reading
DeYoung, C. G., Quilty, L. C., & Peterson, J. B. (2007). Between facets and domains: 10 aspects of the Big Five. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 93, 880-896.