The Five Factor Model of Personality The precise definition of personality has been a point of discussion amongst many different theorists within many different disciplines since the beginning of civilisation. Personality can be defined as "the distinctive and characteristic patterns of thought, emotion, and behaviour that define an individual's personal style and influence his or her interactions with the environment" (Atkinson, Atkinson, Smith & Bem, 1993: 525). It can be proposed that personality psychology has two different tasks. "The first involves specifying the variables on which individuals differ from one another. The second involves synthesising the