The Structure of Conscientiousness: An Empirical Investigation Based on Seven Major Personality Questionnaires

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to identify the underlying structure of the trait domain of Conscientiousness using scales drawn from 7 major personality inventories. Thirty-six scales conceptually related to Conscientiousness were administered to a large community sample (N = 737); analyses of those scales revealed a hierarchical structure with 6 factors: industriousness, order, self-control, responsibility, traditionalism, and virtue. All 6 factors demonstrated excellent convergent validity. Three of the 6 factors, industriousness, order, and self-control, showed good discriminant validity. The remaining 3 factors-responsibility, traditionalism and virtue-appear to be interstitial constructs located equally between Conscientiousness and the remaining Big Five dimensions. In addition, the 6 underlying factors had both differential predictive validity and provided incremental validity beyond the general factor of Conscientiousness when used to predict a variety of criterion variables, including work dedication, drug use, and health behaviors.

Investigating the effects of conscientiousness on daily stress, affect and physical symptom processes: A daily diary study

“…Roberts et al (2005a) described these facets: Order deals with the ability to organise and plan tasks and activities (example item: I need a neat environment in order to work well). Virtue reflects adherence to moral standards, honesty, and "good Samaritan" behaviour (example item: If I find money laying around, I"ll keep it to myself).…”

“…Research into the factor structure of C provides evidence for six lower order facets: Order, Virtue, Traditionalism, Self-control, Responsibility, and Industriousness (Roberts, Chernyshenko, Stark, & Goldberg, 2005a). The latest work has emphasised the importance of examining facet effects in the study of C (see Roberts, Lejuez, Krueger, Richards & Hill, in press).…”

Personality and Job Engagement

“…For example, studies have distinguished empirically and conceptually between two sub-factors of Conscientiousness -active industriousness sometimes referred to as Achievement Orientation, and diligent, rule-following Dependability with its emphasis on orderly, hard-working reliability (e.g., Roberts, Chernyshenko, Stark, & Goldberg, 2005). Similarly, distinguishable facets of Extraversion have been identified as Affiliation (strongly desiring social interaction) and Social Potency (proactivity in influencing other people) (e.g., DeYoung, Quilty, & Peterson, 2007).…”

Adolescent conscientiousness predicts lower lifetime unemployment.

“…Because self-control is considered to be a lower-order facet of conscientiousness (Roberts, Chernyshenko, Stark, & Goldberg, 2005) and is an established predictor of unemployment (Daly, Delaney, Egan, & Baumeister, 2015), we tested whether conscientiousness was associated with unemployment independently of the effects of self-control. That robustness test found that controlling for childhood self-control reduced the conscientiousness coefficient slightly without altering its significance level (see Table S1).…”