New research published in The Humanistic Psychologist introduces the Five-Factor Personality Assessment System (FFPAS), a novel method for individualizing psychological assessments.
The five-factor model (FFM) of personality (or the Big Five) has been a dominant framework in psychological research. While widely used, traditional applications of the FFM, such as the NEO Personality Inventory, often fail to account for the unique, individualized experiences that contribute to psychological distress. This gap has become increasingly apparent in humanistic psychology, which emphasizes a person-centered, holistic approach to understanding psychological challenges.
The FFPAS seeks to connect individual trait measures with life situations that contribute to psychological distress by highlighting trait-situation mismatches.
“A guiding question behind my research has been to understand the relationship between Big Five personality traits and the world as we encounter it in perception,” explained Dr. Garri Hovhannisyan (@garrihovha), a clinician in private practice at the Centre for Interpersonal Relationships and the Centre for Psychology and Emotional Health, in Toronto, Canada
“The semistructured interview I propose in my article – based on my dissertation research – provides a way of methodically explicating how individuals’ personality traits are implicated in the problematic patterns they experience. This, in turn, affords novel clinical applications of the Big Five model in diagnosing and ultimately treating individuals who are caught up in negative patterns – something of value to clinicians and mental health researchers alike.”
The FFPAS is built around a semistructured interview format, designed to be implemented alongside established personality assessments like the NEO. Hovhannisyan’s approach uses coding criteria to analyze client narratives, focusing on how personality traits manifest in everyday situations. In a pilot study, the system was tested with a sample recruited through university mailing lists and psychology groups. Four participants completed an extensive personality assessment using the International Personality Item Pool NEO (IPIP-NEO) questionnaire, followed by two hour-long interviews.
During the interviews, participants identified repetitive patterns of distress in their lives, providing detailed examples. Their narratives were transcribed and analyzed using the FFPAS coding system, which tagged references to the five personality domains (i.e., Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, Neuroticism) and their corresponding facets (e.g., Self-discipline, Impulsiveness). This allowed the researcher to identify patterns of trait-situation mismatches.
“Personality traits are not static but interact dynamically with life situations,” Hovhannisyan explained. “For example, Extraverts have a particularly pronounced need for interacting with others, which influences their behavior and predisposes them to seeking connection – such as by attending parties or social gatherings. Conversely, Introverts are less likely to behave in such ways, because their need for interaction is less pronounced.”
“The FFPAS demonstrates that personal struggles often result from mismatches between our traits and the demands of our environments (e.g., when Extraverts have no opportunities to interact, or when Introverts have no opportunities to be alone). This awareness could lead to greater self-understanding and help guide personalized interventions for improved mental health outcomes.”
“None of the problematic patterns we experience are just within us but arise from our relationship to the world. This perspective is helpful, particularly in conducting psychological assessments. It can relieve clients from feelings of guilt and shame by allowing them to see that, without the world’s presence, their experience of negative patterns would not be possible, and that despite their suffering, there is certainly a place in the world for them and their distinct styles of being in the world, as per their Big Five traits.”
One limitation is that the FFPAS has yet to undergo extensive psychometric validation.
“The current findings are based on preliminary research, so more empirical data would solidify the system’s reliability and applicability,” Hovhannisyan said.
“Questions that remain include establishing a stronger empirical foundation for the FFPAS’ coding system, understanding the full range of its clinical applications, and examining how it can be best implemented in various therapeutic settings. Additionally, exploring trait-situation mismatches in more diverse populations would enhance its generalizability.”
He added, “I would like to emphasize the potential of the FFPAS to make a significant contribution to clinical practice. By providing a systematic way to link Big Five personality traits with lived experiences of distress, it can bridge existing theoretical insights from personality research with practical, therapeutic applications in psychology.”
The research, “The Five-Factor Personality Assessment System”, was authored by Garri Hovhannisyan.
