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

Abstract

Progress is reviewed with respect on how attributes of personality and character can best be organized and structured. Key insights on this important scientific issue have been gained by a lexical approach, which posits that the degree of representation of an attribute in language corresponds substantially with the general importance of the attribute in real‐world transactions. The rationale for studying the language of personality is explained, followed by a review of the most salient findings from lexical studies of person‐descriptors in 16 languages. In these studies, one‐ and two‐factor structures are found to be not only the most parsimonious but also the most easily replicated across variable selection procedures, and across languages and cultures. Structures with more factors are likely to show a comparative predictive advantage, but replicate more unevenly. Lexical studies appear to support a six‐factor model at least as well as the Big Five. Future research attention should be directed toward inclusion of a wider range of individual differences, integration with models of temperament, and the search for causal factors and underlying mechanisms that are associated with the best‐replicated personality dimensions.

Agency‐Communion and Self‐Esteem Relations Are Moderated by Culture, Religiosity, Age, and Sex: Evidence for the “Self‐Centrality Breeds Self‐Enhancement” Principle

“…They found that people universally cherish a communal value orientation more than they cherish an agentic value orientation, and values are widely regarded as the “conceptual tools and weapons that we all employ in order to maintain and enhance self‐esteem” (Rokeach, , p. 14). Second, Extraversion and Openness are core elements of agency, whereas Agreeableness and Conscientiousness are core elements of communion (Paulhus & John, ; Saucier, ), and Neuroticism and self‐esteem share a genetic core (Neiss, Stevenson, Legrand, Iacono, & Sedikides, ) or “may be markers of the same higher order concept” (Judge et al., , p. 693). Therefore, it is informative to find out whether low Neuroticism (proxy for self‐esteem) is more strongly tied to Extraversion‐Openness (proxy for agency) or to Agreeableness‐Conscientiousness (proxy for communion).…”

“…Second, Robins, Tracy, Trzesniewski, Potter, and Gosling () examined the relation between the Big Five and self‐esteem in a sample of over 300,000 participants. Both Extraversion‐Openness (i.e., agentic aspects) and Agreeableness‐Conscientiousness (i.e., communal aspects; Saucier, ) were, on average, moderately related to self‐esteem. Schmitt and Allik () reported similar relations at the country level.…”

Family and abuse characteristics of gang-involved, pressured-to-join, and non–gang-involved girls.

“…Reviews (e.g.. Saucier, 2009b;Saucier & Goldberg, 2001) indicate that previous lexical studies of personality-to varying degrees, including other human-attribute terms-have provided evidence to support more than one structural model. These structural models vary principally in how many dimensions they contain.…”

The High Five: Associations of the Five Positive Factors with the Big Five and Well-being

“…This view is in agreement with several recent studies on personality (cf., Ashton and Lee, 2005; Saucier, 2009; De Raad et al, 2010). …”