Mapping The Evolution of Big Five Personality Research: A Comprehensive Literature Review

Author Details

In recent decades, research on big five personality traits has been the focus of many published articles. Despite extensive research on the Big Five personality traits, a comprehensive assessment of the field’s progress and direction remains absent. This study addresses this gap by conducting a systematic evaluation of 739 peer-reviewed articles published in 160 Scopus-indexed journals between 2004 and 2024, following the Scientific Procedures and Rationales for Systematic Literature Reviews (SPAR-4-SLR) protocol for systematic literature reviews. Data visualization and analysis were performed using VOSviewer and Biblioshiny. The analysis revealed a significant increase in the volume of scholarly studies on Big Five personality research over the past two decades. Key findings reveal that the United States is the most prolific contributor, Lounsbury, J.W. stands out as the leading author, University College London as the foremost institution, and ‘personality’ as the most frequent keyword. The review provides a detailed conceptual overview of how Big Five personality research has evolved, highlighting significant thematic trends and offering insights into potential future research directions for scholars, practitioners, and policymakers interested in this discipline. The discussion and Conclusion part represent the overall developments and

diversification in the area. Bibliometric techniques have proven to be an effective tool in providing an overview of the big five personality traits.

Keywords: Personality, Bibliometric review, Big Five personality traits, Personality traits, VOSviewer, SPAR-4-SLR

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