Chapter 8: Structural Models of Personality

The Big Five structure is highlighted as the dominant paradigm, representing an economized summary of a large number of traits. Historically, the Big Five emerged alongside two other major models—the Cattellian sixteen primary factor (16PF) model and the NEO three-factor model—all sharing a common origin in R. B. Cattell’s initial reduction of the full personality domain to thirty-five trait variables. Cattell organized traits hierarchically into trait-elements, surface traits, and source traits (primary factors), and identified eight secondary factors. Other significant historical models include Guilford’s factors, which eventually resulted in thirteen primary factors, and Eysenck’s three-factor model (PEN), defining personality through Psychoticism, Extraversion, and Neuroticism at the type level, structured into a strict four-level hierarchy. The Big Two, Extraversion and Neuroticism, achieved early consensus across differing systems. Following the confirmation of the Big Five via comprehensive psycholexical studies, researchers began investigating models potentially exhausting the trait domain beyond five factors, leading to proposals such as the six-factor model (including Honesty-Humility), the Big Seven (adding Negative Valence and Positive Valence), and an eight-factor structure (incorporating Virtue, Competence, and Hedonism). At the highest level of abstraction, two basic dimensions, the Basic Two, are consistently found, relating to Communion (captured by Virtue or Morality, focused on relationships) and Agency (captured by Dynamism, focused on personal goals). Furthermore, a single general factor, the p-factor, is suggested as the apex of the hierarchy, largely capturing evaluation and morality. Structural models can also depict circular structures or circumplex models, which represent the fuzzy membership of trait variables by illustrating how traits load substantially on two factors, effectively blending adjacent meanings, as shown in the representation of Virtue and Dynamism. Looking forward, structural models should strive for international consensus on the fundamental kernel structure—including the p-factor and the Basic Two—and be evaluated against the criteria of Truth, Beauty, and Justice.