The monograph deals with one of the basic concepts of the trait theory in the psychology of personality. In a clearly organised way it presents the history of the five-factor model, starting with Galeton’s lexical hypothesis (1884) and ending with the presentation of current lexical research of personality descriptors, including Czech studies and their factor analysis. The next chapter is of no less importance: methods of measuring individual dimensions of the personality (evaluation scales and personality inventories). It is important to mention that Martina Hřebíčková is the main developer of both of these directions of research within the five-factor model (both lexical study of Czech taxonomy of descriptors from 1992 – 1995 and personality inventory NEO-PI-R from 2004), thus, from the research point of view, the paper presented here is their consistent theoretical completion.