A study on the structure of conceptual representations of trait terms in everyday Japanese language

Abstract

The structure of conceptual representations of personality traits was investigated using the 75 trait terms in everyday language which were previously employed for the ratings for actual people (Isaka, 1990). Subjects were asked to estimate how possible it is for each of 75 traits to coexist with the other 74 traits. The three factors obtained corresponding to the common "Big Five" factors (e.g., Norman, 1963) were; 1) Extroversion with a negative connotation, 2) Kindness/Agreeableness, and 3) Dominance and Industriousness/Conscientiousness. The multi-dimensional analysis showed the circular representation of those traits, with seven clusters derived from cluster analysis dividing the circle. This circle was similar to those previously illustrated for the interpersonal traits (e.g., Leary, 1957). These findings suggest that people's conceptual representation of traits is more schematic and simpler than that of actual person perception.

Semantic self-knowledge and episodic self-knowledge: Independent or interrelated representations?

“…For example, when ''intellectual'' was used in the autobiographical task, the prime sentence was ''I am smart.'' The trait words for the prime stimuli in the related-trait condition were chosen from Isaka (1992), who examined the semantic similarity of Japanese trait adjectives.…”