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Evaluation-neutral personality description: A natural-language factor-replication study

Posted on:1992-11-22Degree:Ph.DType:Dissertation
University:University of OregonCandidate:Saucier, Gerard ThomasFull Text:PDF
GTID:1476390017450122Subject:Personality psychology
Abstract/Summary:
Some contexts of personality assessment are evaluation-sensitive, and evaluative distinctions are not useful. Instead a systematically neutral vantage point for viewing personality differences is sought. However, current personality measures attuned to these contexts, like the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, are generally seen as having significant psychometric problems. No wide-range model of robust evaluation-neutral personality dimensions has been built by factor-analytic research with trait-adjectives.;The present study begins the work of building such a model. Partialling out the social-desirability values of items from subjects' item-responses is shown to be a preferred method for effecting evaluative neutrality in factors, and the method is employed throughout the study. Preliminary re-analyses of existing data involving a set of 394 of the most familiar English trait-adjectives revealed a fairly consistent five-dimensional structure related to the Big-Five personality model. A 108-item personality inventory was developed to index these dimensions, and employed in a factor replication study. An ethnically diverse sample of 132 urban community-college students rated their own personality characteristics on the inventory.;A factor related to Emotional Stability was not replicated. Replication indices indicated that two other factors had reappeared, but remained subject to subtle evaluative artifact that must be removed before either should be considered replicated. Two factors were fully replicated. They were interpreted as evaluation-neutral dimensions of Interactiveness and Boundary-permeability, with strong reference respectively to temperament and sex-roles. These two factors demonstrated strong but complex relations with the Extraversion and Agreeableness factors from the Big-Five personality taxonomy.
Keywords/Search Tags:Personality, Factors, Evaluation-neutral
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