Type nouns and the five factor model of personality description

Abstract

Research in the tradition of the lexical approach has been largely confined to adjective rating scales. Another word class that appears particularly suited for personality description is the class of type nouns (e.g. extravert, misanthrope, leader, coward, intellectual). This paper presents the first investigation in the factorial structure of a relatively large set of German type nouns. Stimulus persons were 12 prominent males (e.g. Boris Becker, Helmut Kohl) and 12 prominent females (e.g. Claudia Schiffer, Steffi Graf). Raters were 240 men and 240 women. Each rater judged one stimulus person on 192 unipolar type noun scales and 32 bipolar adjective scales. Factor analyses of the type nouns yielded seven factors for males and six for females. These factors represented a clear-cut and meaningful personality structure. Comparisons with the adjective factors (seven male and six female) demonstrated that the noun factors show some resemblance to the Big Five and Physical Attractiveness. Multiple regression analyses showed that the noun factors cannot be completely reduced to the Big Five. Some systematic differences between male and female stimuli are also discussed. METHODSSubjects were 240 males and 240 females. Subjects' age ranged from 18 to 60 years (median, 26; interquartile, 23±36). Stimulus persons were 12 prominent males and 12 prominent females. More specifically, the male ratees were

What Is Beyond the Big Five?

“…Saucier (1997) noted that this Negative Valence factor was characterized by terms of "invective" (e.g., Evil, Good-for-Nothing), and more generally by attributes that had a low base rate in the sample (e.g., Homeless, Senile). Alongside Negative Valence and the Big Five, Saucier (1997) also found a robust Attractiveness factor; this finding confirmed Henss's (1996aHenss's ( , 1996b hypothesis as well as that of Buss (1996), given that adjectives like Sexy and Seductive had high loadings on Attractiveness. In Saucier (1997), Positive Valence did not appear, and Positive Valence-type adjectives typically loaded on both the Intellect and Attractiveness factors.…”

“…The splitting usefully underlines the multifaceted nature of this non-Big-Five factor, which appears to comprise a number of attributes associated with the intensity and frequency with which an individual evokes courtship behaviors; one might evoke courtship behaviors either by attracting overtures (because one is perceived as Gorgeous, Fashionable, or Youthful) or by facilitating overtures (because one is Sensual or Seductive). The substantial representation of Attractiveness in the natural language helps account for its appearance as a factor additional to the Big Five in other studies (e.g., Henss, 1996aHenss, , 1996bSaucier, 1997;cf. Lanning, 1994), despite the nontrivial multiple correlation with the Big Five of some of its subcomponents (Table 2 and Figure 1).…”

“…Studies of Dutch personality nouns (De Raad & Hoskens, 1990) and Dutch personalityrelevant verbs (De Raad, Mulder, Kloosterman, & Hofstee, 1988) suggest that such characteristics as sense of humor and proclivity to suppression and repression might be beyond the Big Five. In a pair of reports, Henss (1996aHenss ( , 1996b has presented evidence supporting the thesis that judgments of Attractiveness fall outside the Big Five, and that Attractiveness is in fact a sixth factor.…”

A Psycholexical Classification of Ukrainian Descriptors of Individual Differences

“…First, it makes it possible to conduct a study using a non-restrictive approach, analogous to the one by De Raad and Barelds [9], and at the same time to include person-descriptive terms classified into various categories according to the German taxonomy. Second, it makes it possible to analyse personality structure described by means of various morphologically distinct parts of speech -namely, to analyse the factor structure of attribute-nouns [22] and type-nouns [23,24], which have been analysed only in a few languages to date. Third, individual analysis of nondispositional categories and subcategories as understood in the German psycholexical taxonomy makes it possible to reach taxonomic consensus regarding individual differences in worldview [25], cognitive, emotional, and motivational reactions to other people [26,27], social evaluations [28], or emotional states [29].…”

What Are the Most Important Dimensions of Personality?Evidence from Studies of Descriptors in Diverse Languages

“…In terms of generalizability across data types, lexical studies have focused almost entirely on those attributes represented in adjectives, although some attributes may be represented mainly as type nouns (e.g., Know‐it‐all) or as attribute nouns (e.g., Fortitude). Type nouns have been studied in three languages (De Raad & Hoskens, 1990; Henss, 1998; with some indications of cross‐language convergence Saucier, 2003), with some indications of cross‐language convergence among these studies, although the results did not converge consistently with those based on adjectives except at the one‐ and two‐factor levels. More studies that include attributes represented in non‐adjectival forms are needed.…”