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An alternative "description of personality": the big-five factor structure
1University of Oregon, Eugene.
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
|December 1, 1990
Summary
The five-factor model of personality is robust, consistently emerging across diverse trait terms and analysis methods. This structure, based on five orthogonal factors, demonstrates broad generalizability in personality research.
Area of Science:
- Psychology
- Personality Psychology
- Psychometrics
Background:
- The description of personality has evolved significantly since Cattell's initial work.
- The five-factor model has been proposed as an alternative structure to Cattell's model.
- This study investigates the generality of the five-factor model.
Purpose of the Study:
- To demonstrate the generality of the five-factor model across comprehensive sets of trait terms.
- To validate the five-factor model using various factor-analytic procedures and rating samples.
- To identify potential Big-Five markers for future personality research.
Main Methods:
- Three studies were conducted using large sets of trait adjectives and terms.
- Factor-analytic procedures were applied to analyze trait clusters.
- Data included self-ratings and peer ratings across different samples.
Main Results:
- Virtually identical five-factor structures emerged in 10 replications in the first study.
- The same five-factor structure was replicated across self-ratings and peer ratings in the second study.
- No factors beyond the fifth generalized across samples, reinforcing the five-factor model's distinctiveness.
Conclusions:
- The five-factor model demonstrates remarkable generality and robustness.
- The findings support the five-factor model as a stable structure of personality.
- The study suggests potential utility of derived clusters as Big-Five markers.