ROMANIAN JOURNAL OF
EXPERIMENTAL APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
RJEAP Vol 7, Special Issue 1, Aug. 2016 - PSIWORLD 2015 Proceedings
www.rjeap.ro – www.psiworld.ro
International Conference “Psychology and the Realities of the Contemporary World” - 6th edition - PSIWORLD 2015,
23-25 October 2015, Bucharest, Romania
#57 PAPER 76 ADAPTATION OF LEXICAL MODEL OF SIX FACTORS- DEVELOPMENT
OF PERSONALITY INSTRUMENT
Teodor Mihăilă 58
University of Bucharest, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, Panduri Avenue, No. 90
Abstract
The six-factor model of personality is known as one of the most valid models of personality, bringing a significant
increment regarding the variance explained by the Big Five taxonomy. The aim of this research was to establish the factorial
structure of the personality inventory which is based on the HEXACO model. 122 undergraduate psychology students
completed an online version of the instrument. We presented item and scale statistics. The factorial structure was established
using the exploratory factor analysis, the factors being rotated using the varimax technique. Results resembled closely the
original six-factor solution represented by the HEXACO taxonomy. We extracted 5 items for each factor, the instrument
being composed of 30 items. In conclusion, the six-factor model of personality is a new empirical-validated model in
personality psychology; therefore there is a need to develop new assessment instruments with the aim of bringing new
evidence that contributes to the development of this lexical model.
Keywords: personality, factor analysis, items, taxonomy, instrument.
1. INTRODUCTION
A simple definition of personality is given by Robert Hogan, and from his perspective, personality is “the
nature of human nature (Ahemtoglu & Chamorro-Premuzic,2013). Allport’s vision is that personality “is the
dynamic organization within the individual of those psychophysical systems that determine his characteristic
behaviour and thought” (Allport, 1961 cited in Cloninger, 2004). Personality traits refers to differences among
individuals in pattern of think, behave, feel, across a variety of relevant situations and over a long period of time
(Ashton, 2013).
HEXACO model of personality it was imposed by Michael Ashton and Kibeom Lee (2004). After a series
of validation studies, the authors found the sixth factor in several countries (Poland, Germany, Italy, Dutch,
France, Korea, Hungary) (Ashton & Lee, 2007; Wasti, Lee & Ashton, 2008; Szarota, Ashton & Lee, 2007;
Ashton, Lee, Marcus & De Vries, 2007; Ashton, et. al., 2006). Honesty/ Humility it is the new discovery of
Ashton and Lee and is characterized by humble, sincere, fair, versus sly, greedy, and pretentious. Agreeableness
is characterized by calm, cooperative, pro-social behaviours versus harsh, temperamental and critical.
Emotionality factor is characterized by sentimentalism, anxiety, sensitivity versus bravery, toughness and
independent. Extraversion is characterized by sociability, dynamism versus shy and passivity. Openness to
experience is characterized by unconventionality, creativity, open minded versus dogmatism and
conventionality. Conscientiousness is characterized by hard working, follow the rules, thorough versus dreamer,
sloppy and impulsivity (Lee & Ashton, 2004; Lee & Ashton, 2013). Thus, Lee and Ashton (2008) have shown
that the HEXACO model is a better model that FFM, explaining more variance of the latent factors.
2. METHOD: PARTICIPANTS, PROCEDURE AND MEASURES
2.1. Participants
This study include 122 participants: 80 female and 42 male with age between 17 and 39 (M = 25,93;SD=
4,23),. Participants are students at Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences or other people (Facebook
friends, family, etc.).
* Corresponding author. Tel.: 0760140078, E-mail address: [email protected]
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2.2. Procedure
All study participants were informed about the nature and purpose of the study. After signing the informal
consent, participants completed the instrument. Completion time was 10-15 minutes.
2.3. Measures
Personality Measure- For this study was used items and this items have been developed through logical
validity. For this study 90 items were developed to measure 6 factors (Honesty, Emotionality, Extraversion,
Agreeableness, Openness to experience, Conscientiousness).
3. RESULTS
Table 1. Cronbach Alpha Coefficient
Factor
Honesty/Humility
Emotionality
Extraversion
Agreeableness
Openness to experience
Conscientiousness
Cronbach
Alpha
Coefficient
.69
.71
.80
.71
.66
.73
In table 1, can see the Cronbach Alpha Coefficient for the six factors of personality questionnaire. All
factors have an acceptable coefficient (Coolican, 2009; Kerlinger & Lee, 1999).
Table 2. Items remaining after exploratory factor analysis
Factors
Items
Extraversion
I am a bold person.
I am a person who talks a lot.
I am an active person.
I am a person who smiles a lot.
I do not like to sit alone in the house.
Openness to Experience
I know many capitals of the world.
I have many original ideas.
The complexity is what defines me.
I like to investigate.
Emotionality
I saddened me immediately when I see someone suffer.
I like to have the opportunity risk.
I am a person that attaches quickly.
I'm not a strong person.
I like extreme sports.
Agreeableness
I am a diplomat.
I am a suspicious person on others.
Trying to forget the people who treated me badly.
Patience is what characterizes me.
Others say that you are a cold person.
Conscientiousness
I’m always late.
I am characterized as a hard worker
Always find efficient ways of working.
I feel like I can not organize.
I can follow the rules.
Honesty
I like to be an honest person.
I like to be a trustworthy person.
I would like to living in a expensive neighborhood.
Luxury is what defines me.
I have the potential to revolutionize the science.
For construct validity of the instrument it was applied exploratory factor analysis and it can see how items
load the six factors of the questionnaire. In this study it was applied the varimax model of exploratory factor
analysis (principal component). Following the analysis, the items partial loaded the factors. Thus, total
variance of the factors it is as follows: Extraversion (13,74%), Openness to experience (8,26%), Emotionality
(6,78%), Agreeableness (6,31%), Conscientiousness (5,24%), Honesty (4,01%). The questionnaire was
composed of 90 items, and after applying the exploratory factor analysis remained 5 items for each factor.
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4. CONCLUSIONS
This study it has the objective to develop a questionnaire to measure six factors of personality (HEXACO).
Being a pilot study were used experimental items for to see how to load in exploratory factor analysis items who
not directly related with the factor. Thus, of the 90 items remained 30 items that measure the factors. The
conclusion is that short items respond very well in EFA (exploratory factor analysis) , because that are easy to
understand. Items like “I think that ethics plays an important role in society” it is hard to understand for lay
people. Thus, even if an introvert likes more to work alone, this type of items loading very weak in EFA.
The questionnaire was developed using classical test theory respecting all the steps imposed by specialists
(DeVellis, 2003; Anastasi & Urbina, 1997; Urbina & Anastasi, 1997; Groth-Marnat,2009; Kaplan & Sacuzzo,
2012)
In conclusion, this instrument can be used by the students for bachelor degree and master degree thesis,
and can be used in studies which will measure personality. The instrument respect the indicators that are found in
literature.
A future direction of this study is to validate the instrument (criterion validity, convergent and divergent
validity, predictive validity).
5. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
This paper was co-financed from the European Social Fund, through the Sectorial Operational Programme
Human Resources Development 2007-2013, contract POSDRU/159/1.5/S/155463 "Supporting excellence in
scientific interdisciplinary doctoral research in the economic, medical and social fields", coordinator The
Bucharest University of Economic Studies”.
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