1. Department of Psychology, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia
The general factor of personality: Toward a new structural paradigm in personality theory
Janek Musek
Department of Psychology, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia
Abstract
Methods
Results and discussion
Objectives
The recent research of the hierarchy of personality dimensions revealed the existence of highest-order factor of personality labelled general factor of personality (GFP; Musek, 2007). Consequently, a new structural paradigm in personality theory could be proposed with the GFP at the top of the structural hierarchy of personality.
Methods
In the research, presented here, the hypothesized structural hierarchy of personality data has been tested using a variety of multivariate analyses on different samples' data.
Results
The results confirmed the role of the GFP in the personality structure and also contribute to the further clarification of the nature of GFP (regarding the relations to other psychological variables and the cultural, genetic, evolutionary and neurophysiological aspects of GFP).
Conclusion
A new structural model of personality including the GFP could be formulated on the basis of the results. The theoretical and practical implications of the new paradigm are considered and discussed.
Analyzing data from 10 different studies on culturally different samples
4 Slovenian samples (N = 916, 300, 285, 285)
USA, EU, Chinese, Pakistan, South Korea
Including aggregated data on 56 national samples from the study of Schmitt et al. (2007)
More than participants in the whole
Instruments:
BFI, IPIP-300, BFO, NEO-FFI, NEO-PI, MIDI, adjective descriptions
Results obtained by multivariate analysis (EFA, CFA, SEM) using different program packages (SPSS.16, AMOS, R)
Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses using different personality measures in different samples confirmed the existence of general factor of personality or GFP (The Big One) within the Five Factor Model. The results from 4 different Slovenian samples using different measures of the Big Five clearly confirmed the fitness of one-factor solutions (Fig. 1). Additionally, the transcultural stability of higher-order personality dimensions was tested on the data from 6 studies in different cultures, including the aggregated data for 56 national samples (Schmitt et al, 2007) (see Table 1 and Fig. 2).
All two-factor solutions yielded results that confirmed the existence of Digman’s Alpha and Beta factor (or Stability and Plasticity factor according to DeYoung et al (2001). Consequently, a pyramidal model of personality structure was proposed. The proposed new structural model of personality comprises at least five levels of dimensional hierarchy: GFP at top level, two broad factors of personality (stability and plasticity) on the next level, Big Five dimensions and their facets on the next two intermediate levels and the specific personal characteristics or traits at the bottom level (Fig 3).
The Big One was interpreted as a basic personality disposition that integrates the most general non-cognitive dimensions of personality. It is substantially correlated with almost all important non-cognitive psychological variables including well-being, satisfaction with life, self-esteem, social desirability, emotionality, motivation, coping etc. It also may have deep biological roots, evolutionary, genetic, and neurophysiological. As an evolutionary based, highly heritable general disposition it represents the fundamental measure of personal adaptation with a predictive power that exceeds practical all others possible non-cognitive predictors in personality domain.
Yik & Bond, 1993
Aziz & Jackson, 2001
Mi Kyoung Jin, 2005
Boudreau, Boswell, & Judge, 1999
Schmitt et al. (2006)* N
-.77
-.70
-.31
-.75
-.76
-.69 A
.82
.75
.61
.38 C
.72
.74
.60
.68
.83 E
.70
.48
.63
.77
.73
.39 O
.62
.79
.32
.43
.26
% of explained variance
54.67
44.33
36.87
39.86
37,95
49.23 N=
656
135
212
1885
1871
56 national aggregates (N=17837)
Chinese (Hong Kong)
Pakistani
USA, South Korea
USA sample of executives
EU sample of executives
56 national samples
Measure
Adjective descriptors
BFI
NEO-PI
NEO-FFI
Table 1. Loadings of the GFP on Big Five in 6 studies from different national and cultural environment. All analyses yielded results that were very similar to these in previous studies (Digman, 1997; Musek, 2007; Rushton et al., 2008).
GFP
STABILITY
(ALPHA)
PLASTICITY
(BETA) E O -N C A
FACETS
SPECIFIC
TRAITS
Introduction
The question of personality structure is one of the basic problems in psychology. According to the most recent research, the existing structural models of psychology should be upgraded with the dimensional model containing the general factor of personality (GFP) at the apex of the structural hierarchy (Musek, 2007; Rushton, Bons & Hur, 2008, Rushton & Irwing, 2008). The Big One or GFP is defined by high versus low emotional stability, extraversion, conscientiousness, agreeableness and openness on the Big Five level and by high versus low Alpha and Beta factor on the Big Two level. Consequently, a new structural paradigm in personality theory could be proposed with the GFP at the top of the structural hierarchy of personality (pyramidal paradigm of personality structure).
Fig. 1. CFA-s of 4 Slovenian samples using 4 different measures of the Big Five fitted the hypothesized uni-factor models. Standardized coefficients represent the data derived from BFI, TIPI, IPIP-300, and BFO consecutively.
Fig. 3. Multivariate analyses including exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses confirmed the hypothesized pyramidal structure of personality. The proposed new model comprises at least five levels of structural hierarchy: GFP at the top level, two broad factors of personality (stability and plasticity) on the next level, Big Five dimensions and their facets on the next two intermediate levels and the specific personal characteristics at the bottom level.
Fig. 2. Different graphical and non-graphical solutions to the Scree Test (including Kaiser criterion, Parallel Analysis, Optimal Coordinates and Acceleration Factor) indicate the extraction of one single factor for the 56 nations aggregated data of Schmitt et al. (2007). Very strong first factor appears rather typically in the Big Five scales used in our studies.
Conclusions
References
The results confirmed the existence of a strong highest-order factor of personality (GFP) and the Big Two in different national samples as well as in the cross-nationally aggregated data.
The extracted first factor showed a consistent pattern of saturations with the personality dimensions on the subsequent levels of generality.
The discovered transcultural stability of personality structure represents also an important contribution to the psychological meaning of the Big One (GFP) and reinforces the hypothesis of its biological and evolutionary basis.
According to the results, a new pyramidal model of personality structure can be proposed.
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Digman, J. M. (1997). Higher-order factors of the Big Five. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 73,
Musek, J. (2007). A general factor of personality: Evidence for the Big One in the five-factor model. Journal of Research in Personality, 41,
Rushton, J. P., & Irwing, P. (2008). A general factor of personality (GFP) from two meta-analyses of the Big Five: Digman (1997) and Mount, Barrick, Scullen, and Rounds (2005). Personality and Individual Differences, 45,
Rushton, J. P., Bons, T. A., & Hur, Y. M. (2008). The genetics and evolution of the General factor of personality. Journal of Research in Personality, 42 , 1173–1185.
Schmitt, D. P. et al. (2007). The geographic distribution of big five personality traits: patterns and profiles of human self-description across 56 nations. Journal of cross-cultural psychology, vol. 38 no. 2,