Self-report measure

Big Five Aspect Scales (BFAS)

The Big Five Aspect Scales (BFAS) use 100 statements from the International Personality Item Pool (IPIP) to assess 10 named scales.

You learn the two aspects behind each of your five traits, such as compassion and politeness within agreeableness.

For anyone who wants to see the two sides inside each of their big personality traits.

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Your answers stay private.

It comes from personality research that splits each of the five big traits into two aspects.

Sample result, example data. Illustrative chart with invented scores; it does not describe any real respondent.

What this test is

Welcome. The Big Five Aspect Scales (BFAS) use 100 statements from the International Personality Item Pool (IPIP) to assess 10 named scales.

The measure

The Big Five Aspect Scales (BFAS) was developed by DeYoung and colleagues (2007). It has 100 items, each answered on a 5-point (Very Inaccurate … Very Accurate) scale. Its scores cover Volatility, Withdrawal, Compassion, Politeness, Industriousness, Orderliness, Enthusiasm, Assertiveness, Intellect and Openness.

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. Items via the International Personality Item Pool (ipip.ori.org).

At a glance

Items

100

Response scale

5-point (Very Inaccurate … Very Accurate)

Est. time

~14 min

Subscales

Access

Free to take · Full report and PDF for $7, or $3 to repeat

Domains

5 broad domains

Aspects

10, two per domain

What it measures

A person who is quick to anger and a person who is quick to feel discouraged can both score high on Neuroticism, yet they do not experience the same difficulties.

DeYoung, Quilty and Peterson (2007) identified this level of the trait hierarchy by factor analyzing the facets of two large inventories and finding that, within each domain, the facets consistently formed two correlated clusters. They interpreted the aspects as a level between the broad domains and the many narrow facets, and as a level that may correspond more closely to distinct underlying systems than either (DeYoung, 2015). The scales were written with items from the public-domain International Personality Item Pool (IPIP; Goldberg, 1999), which allows them to be used without proprietary questionnaires.

Each aspect is scored separately from ten items, and the two aspects within a domain can be read together to show how that domain divides for a given person. Higher scores on an aspect describe a stronger and more consistent version of the tendency it names; lower scores describe its relative absence, which is not a deficit. Because the aspects within a domain are only moderately related, two people with the same domain score may differ markedly at the aspect level, and the report draws attention to such splits.

The aspects are used in research on motivation, emotion regulation, creativity and the biological bases of personality, and in personal development and coaching as a finer-grained description than five domain scores alone. Readers who want only the five domains can take the brief Mini-IPIP; those who want narrower facets can take the IPIP-NEO-120, which scores thirty facets; and the IPIP-HEXACO adds a sixth broad dimension, Honesty-Humility.

Validity evidence

The 10 aspects sit between facets and domains in the Big Five hierarchy and show incremental predictive validity over domain scores for multiple criteria. Confirmatory factor analyses support the two-aspect-per-domain structure within each domain (DeYoung et al., 2007; DeYoung, 2006).

Subscales

Volatility 10 items

how readily you feel and show negative emotion

Withdrawal 10 items

how prone you are to anxiety, worry, and discouragement

Compassion 10 items

how much you care about and connect with others' feelings

Politeness 10 items

how respectful and considerate you are of others

Industriousness 10 items

how hard-working and goal-focused you are

Orderliness 10 items

how much you seek order, routine, and tidiness

Enthusiasm 10 items

how sociable, warm, and outgoing you are

Assertiveness 10 items

how forceful, take-charge, and driven you are

Intellect 10 items

how engaged you are with ideas and abstract problems

Openness 10 items

how drawn you are to art, beauty, and imagination

Example item

“Get angry easily.”

Very InaccurateModerately InaccurateNeither Accurate nor InaccurateModerately AccurateVery Accurate

Illustrative only. During administration items are presented one screen-set at a time; response-key direction is never shown to respondents.

Scoring & interpretation

Your report explains each of your scale scores in plain language.

References

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(5), 880-896.
DeYoung, C. G. (2006). Higher-order factors of the Big Five in a multi-informant sample. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 91(6), 1138-1151.

Sample report preview

The report opens with a profile of your scores on each of the 10 scales, drawn on a common scale so the highest and lowest areas stand out. Each one then receives a short plain-language explanation of what a higher or lower standing describes. It closes with guidance on reading the results and on the limits of self-report.

Report contents
Section	What it shows
Subscale scores	Your score on each of the 10 subscales.
Comparisons	How your scores compare with a published comparison group.

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