Exploratory and confirmatory tests of the Big Five and Tellegen's three- and four-dimensional models.

Abstract

Using about 600 college students and exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, three models of personality structure were tested: the Big Five, as measured by the NEO Personality Inventory (P.T. Costa & R. R. McCrae, 1985), and A. Tellegen's (1985) three- and four-dimensional models, as measured by the Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire (A. Tellegen, 1982). Both factor methods indicated considerable support for, but also some divergences from, the models. We concluded that parsimonious personality models are unlikely to meet conventional goodness-of-fit criteria in confirmatory factor analysis, because of the limited simple structure of personality measures and the personality domain itself. Poor fits of a priori models highlighted not only the limited specificity of personality structure theory, but also the limitations of confirmatory factor analysis for testing personality structure models.

Searching for the structure of coping: A review and critique of category systems for classifying ways of coping.

“…In contrast, the ratio of chi-square to degrees of freedom for each model (Church & Burke, 1994) was well under the value of 3-5, set as reflecting an acceptable model. The factor intercorrelations among the three secondary factors were relatively low, ranging from -.12 to .28.…”

Replicable types and subtypes of personality: Spanish NEO-PI samples

“…Simultaneous component analysis, which was used to calculate the optimal factor variance for both the Spanish and the NorthAmerican NEO-PI data, showed that the total variance accounted for by factors was virtually identical in these two languages. Drifts of individual facets from the intended factor, in particular Extraversion, were not specific to the Spanish samples but could also be observed in two North-American samples (McCrae & Costa, 1989;Church & Burke, 1994) and one German sample (Borkenau & Ostendorf, 1989), except for the facet 'actions' (Openness), which in the Spanish samples received high loadings also on Conscientiousness.…”

Legal Socialization of Children and Adolescents

“…Control ("self-control") is high when subjects describe themselves as reflective, cautious, careful, rational, and planful (Caspi et al, 1997;Church and Burke, 1994;Gottfredson and Hirschi, 1990;Loeber and Farrington, 1998). Self-control was…”