DiSC and the Big Five both help teams talk about how they work, but they measure different things. DiSC sorts behavior into four styles (Dominance, Influence, Steadiness and Conscientiousness), while the Big Five, also called the Five Factor Model, measures five personality traits on a continuous spectrum, each broken into six facets. For a team that has already done a DiSC workshop, the Big Five isn't a repeat: it covers ground DiSC mostly leaves out, especially how people respond to change and how they react to stress.
- DiSC describes four behavioral styles; the Big Five measures five traits, and 30 facets, on a spectrum rather than as types.
- The Five Factor Model is the most widely researched model of personality in academic psychology.
- Research comparing the two suggests DiSC overlaps mostly with Extraversion and Agreeableness, and captures Openness least of all.
- Teams that got value from DiSC can keep the conversation they liked and add new topics: change, new ideas, stress and risk.
What Is DiSC?
DiSC is a behavioral assessment based on a model psychologist William Moulton Marston described in his 1928 book Emotions of Normal People. The first questionnaire built on his ideas came later, in the 1940s, and the model has been revised many times since. Today's best-known version, Everything DiSC, places each person on a circle divided into four styles: Dominance, Influence, Steadiness and Conscientiousness. DiSC focuses on observable behavior and communication style, which is a big part of why teams find it easy to pick up and talk about.
What Is the Five Factor Model?
The Five Factor Model, often called the Big Five or OCEAN, is a model of personality built on five broad traits: Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness and Neuroticism. It came out of decades of independent academic research, and it has been studied across many countries, languages and age groups. Each trait is measured on a continuous scale, so a result says where you fall on the spectrum rather than which box you belong in. Each trait also has six facets. Agreeableness, for example, includes Trust, Morality and Cooperation, which can point in different directions for the same person.
What Is the Difference Between DiSC and the Big Five?
The biggest difference is types versus spectrums. DiSC gives you a style, and people often remember their result as a letter: "I'm a high D." The Big Five gives you a position on each of five traits, so two people with similar overall styles can still look quite different once you see all five scores and their facets. The second difference is scope. DiSC was designed around how people behave with others, especially in terms of pace and assertiveness. The Big Five aims to describe personality as a whole, including parts of it that don't show up as clearly in a meeting, such as curiosity, imagination and how strongly someone registers stress.
How Do DiSC Styles Map Onto the Big Five?
A study by 123test of more than 9,000 people who took both assessments found that each DiSC dimension behaves roughly like a blend of two Big Five traits. Influence lined up most closely with Extraversion, and Steadiness with Agreeableness. The trait DiSC captured least was Openness. In other words, a team that has done DiSC has probably already talked about who speaks up, who drives decisions and who keeps the peace. It likely hasn't spent much time on how each person relates to new ideas and change, or on the different ways people experience pressure.
We Already Did DiSC. Won't the Big Five Feel Like the Same Workshop?
It's a fair question, and one we've heard from HR leaders. Their team got a lot out of DiSC, the insights and discussion were valuable, and now they want something fresh instead of running the same workshop again. The Big Five works well as that next step for three reasons.
First, Openness opens a new conversation. How does each person react when a plan changes after the team has agreed on it? Some people want to experiment with the new idea right away, and others want to stick with the plan they committed to. Both are useful, and naming the difference heads off a lot of friction.
Second, Neuroticism gives teams a way to talk about stress and risk without it feeling personal. In Christin Camacho's book Why You Need Neurotic People on Your Team, the colleague who worries first is reframed as the team's control tower rather than a problem to manage. That is a conversation most teams have never had in a workshop.
Third, facets make the familiar traits feel new. Even the parts of the Big Five that overlap with DiSC come with facet scores in the full report, so the team moves past "we already know who the extraverts are" and into more specific questions, like who needs one-on-one time and who thrives in a group brainstorm.
Should Your Team Switch From DiSC to the Big Five?
It doesn't have to be either-or. The shared language your team built with DiSC doesn't disappear. If your team has done DiSC recently and wants a fresh round of insight, the Big Five is a natural next step that builds on that foundation instead of repeating it. If your team has never done a personality workshop, starting with the Big Five gives you the broader, research-based picture from day one.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is DiSC the same as the Big Five?
No. DiSC sorts behavior into four styles, while the Big Five measures five personality traits and 30 facets on a continuous spectrum. Research suggests the two overlap most on Extraversion and Agreeableness.
What does the Big Five measure that DiSC doesn't?
Openness, which covers curiosity, imagination and how people respond to change, is the trait DiSC captures least. The Big Five also measures Neuroticism, or how strongly someone reacts to stress, which most DiSC workshops don't address directly.
Which is more scientific, DiSC or the Big Five?
The Five Factor Model is the most widely researched model of personality in academic psychology and has been studied independently for decades. DiSC is a commercial behavioral tool that is easy to learn and widely used in workplace training.
Can a team use the Big Five after doing DiSC?
Yes. Teams that have done DiSC often find the Big Five a good follow-up, because it keeps the same kind of team discussion while adding new topics like change, new ideas and stress.
How can my team try the Big Five?
Each person can start with the free assessment at big5atwork.com/about/assessment, and teams can compare results together in a Big 5 at Work workshop.
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Christin Camacho is the author of Why You Need Neurotic People on Your Team. To find out where you and your team sit across all five OCEAN traits, take the free assessment at big5atwork.com/about/assessment.
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