High-dimensionality structure in English-language personality type-nouns.

OBJECTIVE: Past applications of the lexical approach to type-noun personality structures have yielded different results compared with those generated for adjectival personality structures, since then new methods have arisen for identifying robust higher-dimensionality structure in data. This research aims to identify an optimal taxonomy of English language type-nouns. METHOD: Current study reanalyzed 372 type-nouns from a previous study emphasizing robustness across methodological variations (original vs. ipsatized data, oblique vs. orthogonal rotations, convergence between male and female target ratings) to determine a replicable but more comprehensive model of personality type-noun structure. RESULTS: A 13-factor original-data oblimin-rotated solution was determined to be the most robust model, except for a one-factor model that was far less comprehensive and informative; an original-data 32-factor oblimin-rotated solution was also fairly robust. Although each of the Big Five adjectival markers indicated a large correlation with one or more type-noun factors; nearly half of the 13 type-noun factors lacked such large correlations with the Big Five. CONCLUSIONS: A high-dimensionality approach thus indicated that type-nouns capture substantial content beyond the Big Five. A comparison with the character-types described by an ancient philosopher (Theophrastus) signified that some granular type-noun dimensions may have stability across multiple millennia.

The Khoekhoegowab Personality Inventory: The Comparative Validity of a Locally Derived Measure of Traits.

Objective: This study explores a personality inventory derived from the results of an indigenous lexical study of personality. From the 272 most commonly used personality descriptors in Khoekhoegowab, the most-spoken of extant Khoesan click languages of southern Africa, an 11-factor model of personality-trait structure was identified. Here, the Khoekhoegowab Personality Inventory (KPI) was created based on those results. Its psychometric properties, the convergent and divergent validity of its scales, and its incremental validity over Big Five and Six traits for predicting physical and mental health, religious practice and attitudes, and income are reported. Methods: Two to five key terms were selected for each of 10 KPI scales: Temperance, Prosocial Diligence, Gossip, Honesty/Morality, Temper, Implacability, Humility, Vanity, Resiliency vs. Agitation, and Courage vs. Fear. These 38 total items were administered to a large sample of adult speakers of Khoekhoegowab in Namibia (N = 632), together with five imported inventories translated into Khoekhoegowab: the 30-item Questionnaire Big Six (QB6), General Self-Reported Health, the Cascades Mental Health Assessment, the Satisfaction with Life Scale, the Duke Religion Index. The properties and intercorrelations of KPI subscales are explored, and their predictive ability for the other variables is compared to that of the QB6. Results: Due to the small number of items on each scale, poor internal consistency was anticipated, but the KPI scales' properties were somewhat better than those of the QB6. R-square change by the inventories as a whole, after accounting for age and gender, indicted that the KPI scales explained more variance than the QB6 scales in almost all criterion variables. Replication of established associations for Big Six traits was mixed: associations were largely as expected for Resiliency, Conscientiousness, and Honesty, but less so for Agreeableness and Extraversion. Conclusions: The KPI had some advantages over the QB6 in predicting physical and mental health. In particular, the four items of Resiliency vs. Agitation predicted lower scores on all physical and mental problem scales. Given psychological-care needs in Namibia, this might be used as a non-intrusive screener. Measurement challenges common to both surveys are discussed, possible solutions, and the utility of higher-order structures are discussed.

Being spiritual but not religious.

'Spiritual but not religious' appears to be an increasingly popular self-designation for individuals asked about their religious affiliation. We review scientific literature that helps to unpackage the meaning of the phrase, from conceptual to empirical analyses. Both diversity and ambiguity in how individuals understand the designation and in their motivations for using it are very much evident. Use of the designation appears to have some confound with demographic and cultural background factors. Empirical research does indicate a detectable clear divergence between conventionally religious and mystical tendencies, at least in Western populations that have been the focus of most investigations. But the mystical tendencies that may serve to separate spirituality from religion appear to be themselves heterogeneous, and not necessarily reducible to one disposition.

ǂUsigu: A mixed-method lexical study of character description in Khoekhoegowab.

Personality psychology relies heavily on evidence from North America and Europe. Lexical studies, based on the rationale that the most important psychological distinctions between people will be encoded in the natural languages, can provide input from underrepresented contexts by defining locally relevant personality concepts and their structure. We report the results of a psycholexical study in Khoekhoegowab, the most widely spoken of southern Africa's (non-Bantu) click languages. It includes the largest sample of any lexical study conducted in Sub-Saharan Africa, is the first anywhere to include qualitative interviews to systematically assess the interpretability of terms, and is one of few to rely on a more representative community sample of adults rather than students. Refinement of the survey included frequency-of-use ratings by native speakers from throughout Namibia and input on relevance to personality by those with a psychology degree. The survey was administered by interview to 622 participants by a team of 15 schoolteachers of Khoekhoegowab. The 11 dimensions of the optimal local model were labeled: Intemperance, Prosocial Diligence, Intrusive Gossip, Good Nature, Bad Temper, Predatory Aggression, Haughty Self-Respect, Vanity/Egotism, and Fear versus Courage. A Big One model of evaluation was strongly replicated. Moderate replication was found for the Big Two, Pan-Cultural Three, and a hypothesized pan-African model based on prior lexical results in 2 languages. Replication criteria were not achieved for the Big Five, Big Six, or South African Personality Inventory models. What results suggest about the local cultural context and about culturally specific aspects of the imported models are discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

High-dimensionality personality structure in the natural language: Further analyses of classic sets of English-language trait-adjectives.

Contemporary structural models of personality, like the Big Five, are rooted in natural-language lexicons in which socially important individual-differences concepts are sedimented. But key studies of these lexicons have been narrow in scope and mainly sought confirmatory evidence for one model of interest, rather than the maximum number of meaningful dimensions obtainable from the lexicon. Here, building on established methods for determining the appropriate number of factors, and comparing various methods of data-treatment and factor-rotation, analyses allowed higher-dimensionality structures to emerge from the same data. Factor-number-determination methods always recommended well more than 5 or 6 factors. In data using the largest 1,710-term set, we compared 18 candidate-structures derived from different method-combinations, identifying 15-, 21-, and 28-factor structures as most robust and promising. Among these, in a larger sample using a smaller 540-term set, the factors related to the 21-dimensional structure were most advantageously robust. Robustness-comparisons in an even larger sample with a 449-term subset of the original 1,710 converged on a similar number of factors. Though such a high-dimensionality model is slightly less robust than the Big Five across method-variations, we were able to confirm its clearly superior predictive capacity. And as comprehensiveness would imply, one can readily identify a low-dimensionality structure like the Big Five from within this higher-dimensionality structure, but one cannot generate this structure from the Big Five. A high-dimensionality structure can function as an improved scientific framework for cataloging trait variables and dimensions, including those that fall outside popular classifications involving only 5 or 6 factors. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Personality structure in east and west Africa: Lexical studies of personality in Maa and Supyire-Senufo.

The field of psychology relies heavily on evidence from North America and Northern Europe. Universally applicable models require input from around the globe. Indigenous lexical studies of personality, which define the most salient person-descriptive concepts and their structure in a population, provide this. Such results are reported from two nonindustrialized communities, representing 2 of the 3 main language families of Africa, in groups with differing cultural characteristics. Maasai participants, traditionally herders in rural Kenya and Tanzania, have a highly structured, traditional culture. Supyire-Senufo participants are traditional horticulturalists in Mali. The 203 most common person-descriptive terms in Maasai were administered to 166 participants, who described 320 persons (166 highly regarded, 154 less so). The optimal emic solution included 5 factors: virtue/moral-character, debilitation/vulnerability, boldness/surgency, hubris/pride, and timidity. In the Maasai context, descriptions of well-regarded individuals were exceptionally uniform, suggesting the role of personality language in norm socialization in tight, traditional cultures. In Supyire, 115 participants used 208 person-descriptive terms to describe 227 targets (half highly regarded). The optimal emic solution included 10 factors: social self-regulation, well-being, vitality/resilience, broadmindedness, diligence versus laziness, madness, stubbornness versus attractiveness, acceptance versus discontent, hurry/worry, and peacefulness. The best convergence between the languages was at the 3-factor level, where factors relate to moral character, low agreeableness coupled with high extraversion, and emotional stability. Beginning with the 4-factor level, content related to local cultural characteristics became apparent. In both languages, 2-factor solutions matched the Big Two, but 3-, 5-, and 6-factor solutions failed to overlap with etic Pan-Cultural Three, Big Five, or Big Six models. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Testing Measurement Invariance of the Moral Foundations Questionnaire Across 27 Countries.

It has become clear that there are multiple "moralities": diverse bases that guide people's judgments of right and wrong. The widely known Moral Foundations Theory stipulates that there are at least five such moralities, measurable via questionnaire, and tends to assume that these distinct foundations are rooted deep in humanity's evolutionary past. Were this true, we should find that the structure of five foundations is cross-culturally generalizable. Such assumptions are best tested in a diverse range of global populations with no built-in Western bias. Here, we test the measurement invariance of the short-form Moral Foundations Questionnaire across 27 countries spanning the five largest continents. We find that it is difficult to specify Moral Foundations Questionnaire items in a quantitative five-factor model that will converge nonproblematically across a wide variety of populations.

Ethics-relevant values in adulthood: Longitudinal findings from the life and time study.

OBJECTIVE: This study investigates a set of variables related to the relative valuing of narrow self-interest versus the concerns of a larger community. These values likely capture stable dispositions. Additionally, because ethics-relevant values are associated with ongoing cultural and moral socialization, they may develop over time as in May's theory of "mature" values. METHOD: We administered eight value priority scales (Mature Values, Unmitigated Self-Interest, Materialism, Financial Aspirations, and Horizontal and Vertical Individualism and Collectivism) to a national community sample (N = 864, 66% female, 71% White, mean age 36) on four occasions approximately one year apart (Time 4 N = 570). We examined the mean-level change as cross-sectional age differences and longitudinal change, and rank-order stability. Correlations with Big Five/Big Six personality traits are reported. RESULTS: As people grew older, they increased in Mature Values and Horizontal and Vertical Collectivism, and decreased in Unmitigated Self-Interest, Materialism, and Vertical Individualism. Rank-order stability of the values was nearly as high as personality traits over three years. Stability increased with age for some scales. DISCUSSION: The stability of values scores suggests that they capture dispositional aspects, but age differences and longitudinal trends are also consistent with the hypothesis of socialization toward more inclusive value priorities.

Culture, morality and individual differences: comparability and incomparability across species.

Major routes to identifying individual differences (in diverse species) include studies of behaviour patterns as represented in language and neurophysiology. But results from these approaches appear not to converge on some major dimensions. Identifying dimensions of human variation least applicable to non-human species may help to partition human-specific individual differences of recent evolutionary origin from those shared across species. Human culture includes learned, enforced social-norm systems that are symbolically reinforced and referenced in displays signalling adherence. At a key juncture in human evolution bullying aggression and deception-based cheating apparently became censured in the language of a moral community, enabling mutual observation coordinated in gossip, associated with external sanctions. That still-conserved cultural paradigm moralistically regulates selfish advantage-taking, with shared semantics and explicit rules. Ethics and moral codes remain critical and universal components of human culture and have a stronger imprint in language than most aspects of the currently popular Big-Five taxonomy, a model that sets out five major lines of individual-differences variation in human personality. In other species (e.g. chimpanzees), human observers might see apparent individual differences in morality-relevant traits, but not because the animals have human-analogue sanctioning systems. Removing the moral dimension of personality and other human-specific manifestations (e.g. religion) may aid in identifying those other bases of individual differences more ubiquitous across species.This article is part of the theme issue 'Diverse perspectives on diversity: multi-disciplinary approaches to taxonomies of individual differences'.

Chinese isms dimensions in mainland China and Taiwan: Convergence and extension of American isms dimensions.

OBJECTIVE: Previous studies of American English isms terms have uncovered as many as five broad factors: tradition-oriented religiousness (TR), subjective spirituality (SS), communal rationalism (CR), unmitigated self-interest (USI), and inequality aversion (IA). The present studies took a similar lexical approach to investigate the Chinese-language isms structures in both mainland China and Taiwan. METHOD AND RESULTS: In Study 1, exploratory factor analyses with 915 mainland Chinese subjects uncovered four interpretable factors dimensionalizing 165 mainland Chinese dictionary isms terms. These factors represented contents of a combination of TR and SS, USI, CR, and a culturally unique Communist Party of China (CPC) ideology factor. In Study 2, exploratory factor analyses with 467 Taiwan Chinese subjects revealed four interpretable factors categorizing 291 Taiwan Chinese dictionary isms terms. These factors represented contents of a combination of TR and SS, USI, CR, and a culturally unique dimension expressing aspirations for happiness. CONCLUSIONS: The results gave evidence for the existence of the isms factors TR and SS, USI, and CR in Chinese culture. Cultural uniqueness was reflected in the merging of TR and SS into the factor Syncretic Religiousness and the culture-specific factors of CPC ideology in China and Happiness/Peace Promotion in Taiwan.

The conceptual link between social desirability and cultural normativity.

Psychologists have a recurrent concern that socially desirable responding (SDR) is a form of response distortion that compromises the validity of self-report measures, especially in high-stakes situations where participants are motivated to make a good impression. Psychologists have used various strategies to minimise SDR or its impact, for example, forced choice responding, ipsatization, and direct measures of social desirability. However, empirical evidence suggests that SDR is a robust phenomenon existing in many cultures and a substantive variable with meaningful associations with other psychological variables and outcomes. Here, we review evidence of the occurrence of SDR across cultures and tie SDR to the study of cultural normativity and cultural consonance in anthropology. We suggest that cultural normativity is an important component of SDR, which may partly explain the adaptiveness of SDR and its association with positive outcomes.

Human attribute concepts: relative ubiquity across twelve mutually isolated languages.

It has been unclear which human-attribute concepts are most universal across languages. To identify common-denominator concepts, we used dictionaries for 12 mutually isolated languages-Maasai, Supyire Senoufo, Khoekhoe, Afar, Mara Chin, Hmong, Wik-Mungkan, Enga, Fijian, Inuktitut, Hopi, and Kuna-representing diverse cultural characteristics and language families, from multiple continents. A composite list of every person-descriptive term in each lexicon was closely examined to determine the content (in terms of English translation) most ubiquitous across languages. Study 1 identified 28 single-word concepts used to describe persons in all 12 languages, as well as 41 additional terms found in 11 of 12. Results indicated that attribute concepts related to morality and competence appear to be as cross-culturally ubiquitous as basic-emotion concepts. Formulations of universal-attribute concepts from Osgood and Wierzbicka were well-supported. Study 2 compared lexically based personality models on the relative ubiquity of key associated terms, finding that 1- and 2-dimensional models draw on markedly more ubiquitous terms than do 5- or 6-factor models. We suggest that ubiquitous attributes reflect common cultural as well as common biological processes.

A Basic Bivariate Structure of Personality Attributes Evident Across Nine Languages.

Here, two studies seek to characterize a parsimonious common-denominator personality structure with optimal cross-cultural replicability. Personality differences are observed in all human populations and cultures, but lexicons for personality attributes contain so many distinctions that parsimony is lacking. Models stipulating the most important attributes have been formulated by experts or by empirical studies drawing on experience in a very limited range of cultures. Factor analyses of personality lexicons of nine languages of diverse provenance (Chinese, Korean, Filipino, Turkish, Greek, Polish, Hungarian, Maasai, and Senoufo) were examined, and their common structure was compared to that of several prominent models in psychology. A parsimonious bivariate model showed evidence of substantial convergence and ubiquity across cultures. Analyses involving key markers of these dimensions in English indicate that they are broad dimensions involving the overlapping content of the interpersonal circumplex, models of communion and agency, and morality/warmth and competence. These "Big Two" dimensions-Social Self-Regulation and Dynamism-provide a common-denominator model involving the two most crucial axes of personality variation, ubiquitous across cultures. The Big Two might serve as an umbrella model serving to link diverse theoretical models and associated research literatures.

Isms dimensions: toward a more comprehensive and integrative model of belief-system components.

Psychological research on beliefs, values, worldview, and ideology has been limited by inadequate structural models to organize the plethora of constructs. The present studies investigate the potential of a dimensional model based on lexical, dictionary-represented -ism concepts to form an organizing structural model. Four isms factors found previously in college samples are shown to replicate in community-sample data with better controls for acquiescent responding. But analyses also reveal a 5th factor involving egalitarianism and inequality-aversion, increasing the comprehensiveness of the structural model. Relations of frequently used constructs (values, authoritarianism, social dominance orientation) to the isms dimensions are detailed, demonstrating both the integrative and value-adding potentials of the model. The possibility of potential additional nonlexical factors (Trust in Government, Ethnocentrism, Xenophobia, and Nativism) is evaluated. Factors identified in these studies are demonstrated to show interesting relations with political-party preference, subjective well-being, and change over time in the Big Five personality dimensions.

Comparative validity of brief to medium-length Big Five and Big Six Personality Questionnaires.

A general consensus on the Big Five model of personality attributes has been highly generative for the field of personality psychology. Many important psychological and life outcome correlates with Big Five trait dimensions have been established. But researchers must choose between multiple Big Five inventories when conducting a study and are faced with a variety of options as to inventory length. Furthermore, a 6-factor model has been proposed to extend and update the Big Five model, in part by adding a dimension of Honesty/Humility or Honesty/Propriety. In this study, 3 popular brief to medium-length Big Five measures (NEO Five Factor Inventory, Big Five Inventory [BFI], and International Personality Item Pool), and 3 six-factor measures (HEXACO Personality Inventory, Questionnaire Big Six Scales, and a 6-factor version of the BFI) were placed in competition to best predict important student life outcomes. The effect of test length was investigated by comparing brief versions of most measures (subsets of items) with original versions. Personality questionnaires were administered to undergraduate students (N = 227). Participants' college transcripts and student conduct records were obtained 6-9 months after data was collected. Six-factor inventories demonstrated better predictive ability for life outcomes than did some Big Five inventories. Additional behavioral observations made on participants, including their Facebook profiles and cell-phone text usage, were predicted similarly by Big Five and 6-factor measures. A brief version of the BFI performed surprisingly well; across inventory platforms, increasing test length had little effect on predictive validity. Comparative validity of the models and measures in terms of outcome prediction and parsimony is discussed.

Contemporary militant extremism: a linguistic approach to scale development.

In this article, the authors describe procedures used in the development of a new scale of militant extremist mindset. A 2-step approach consisted of (a) linguistic analysis of the texts produced by known terrorist organizations and selection of statements from these texts that reflect the mindset of those belonging to these organizations and (b) analyses of the structural properties of the scales based on 132 selected statements. Factor analysis of militant extremist statements with participants (N = 452) from Australia, Serbia, and the United States produced 3 dimensions: (a) justification and advocacy of violence (War factor), (b) violence in the name of God (God factor), and (c) blaming Western nations for the problems in the world today (West factor). We also report the distributions of scores for the 3 subscales, mean differences among the 3 national samples, and correlations with a measure of dogmatism (M. Rokeach, 1956).

Militant extremist mind-set: Proviolence, Vile World, and Divine Power.

In the present article, the authors report on the development of a scale for the measurement of the militant extremist mind-set. A previous pilot study identified 56 statements selected from writings of various terrorist groups as well as from psychological, historical, and political texts on terrorism. These statements, together with measures of personality, social attitudes, values, and social cynicism, were administered to participants from 9 countries (N = 2,424). A series of exploratory factor analyses of 56 statements produced 3 factors: Proviolence, Vile World, and Divine Power. Correlations of these factors with external variables indicate that Divine Power is a traditional religiosity scale, whereas Proviolence and Vile World scales cannot be accounted for by the existing psychological constructs. The distribution of scores on the Proviolence scale is skewed, indicating that the majority of participants disapprove of this attitude. The authors also present means for the countries included in the analysis. Participants from Malaysia endorse Vile World and Divine Power statements stronger than participants from other countries. The 3 Asian countries (China, Korea, and Malaysia) endorse Proviolence more strongly than countries from other parts of the world.

Recurrent personality dimensions in inclusive lexical studies: indications for a big six structure.

Previous evidence for both the Big Five and the alternative six-factor model has been drawn from lexical studies with relatively narrow selections of attributes. This study examined factors from previous lexical studies using a wider selection of attributes in 7 languages (Chinese, English, Filipino, Greek, Hebrew, Spanish, and Turkish) and found 6 recurrent factors, each with common conceptual content across most of the studies. The previous narrow-selection-based six-factor model outperformed the Big Five in capturing the content of the 6 recurrent wideband factors. Adjective markers of the 6 recurrent wideband factors showed substantial incremental prediction of important criterion variables over and above the Big Five. Correspondence between wideband 6 and narrowband 6 factors indicate they are variants of a "Big Six" model that is more general across variable-selection procedures and may be more general across languages and populations.

The factor structure of Chinese personality terms.

From the Contemporary Chinese Dictionary, 3,159 personality descriptors were selected and then ranked by the frequency of use. Among those, the top 413 terms with the highest frequency were administered to two independent large samples in China for self-ratings and peer ratings to explore the emic Chinese personality structure as well as to test the universality of other models. One- and two-factor structures found in previous studies of other languages were well replicated. Previous structures with more than two factors were not well replicated, but six- and seven-factor models were at least as well supported as the Big Five. Emic analysis indicated that a seven-factor structure was the most informative structure relatively salient across subsamples of self-ratings and peer ratings, across original and ipsatized data, and across differences in variable selections. These factors can be called Extraversion, Conscientiousness/Diligence, Unselfishness, Negative Valence, Emotional Volatility, Intellect/Positive Valence, and Dependency/Fragility.