Lewis Goldberg is a preeminent personality psychologist whose pioneering work has fundamentally reshaped the field of personality assessment and theory. He currently serves as a Senior Scientist at the Oregon Research Institute and holds the position of Professor Emeritus of Psychology at the University of Oregon, where he taught continuously from 1960 until his retirement. Born in Chicago on January 28, 1932, Goldberg earned his undergraduate degree from Harvard University before completing his Ph.D. in Psychology at the University of Michigan in 1958. His early career included a visiting assistant professorship at Stanford University and significant service as a field selection officer for the United States Peace Corps from 1962 to 1966.
Goldberg is internationally renowned for his development of the Five-Factor Model of personality, commonly known as the Big Five personality traits, which emerged from his rigorous application of the lexical hypothesis to personality psychology. His seminal empirical research in the 1980s and 1990s demonstrated that personality characteristics could be reliably described across cultures using five broad dimensions: openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism. Through systematic validation studies, Goldberg transformed what was initially a theoretical framework into the most widely accepted model of personality structure used by researchers and clinicians worldwide. His creation of the International Personality Item Pool provided the scientific community with freely accessible, validated personality assessment tools that have become indispensable resources for psychological research across numerous disciplines.
Throughout his distinguished career, Goldberg has received the field's highest honors including the Jack Block Award for outstanding contributions to personality research, the Saul Sells Award for contributions to multivariate research, and the Bruno Klopfer Award for contributions to personality assessment. His leadership has extended to presidencies of major professional organizations including the Society of Multivariate Experimental Psychology, the Association for Research in Personality, and most recently the World Association for Personality Psychology from 2019 to 2024. Goldberg's methodological rigor and commitment to open science through the IPIP have established enduring standards for transparent and reproducible research in personality psychology. His work continues to serve as the foundation for contemporary personality assessment and remains profoundly influential in both academic research and practical applications across psychology, organizational behavior, and clinical practice worldwide.
