Modelling the incremental value of personality facets: the domains-incremental facets-acquiescence bifactor showmodel

Abstract

Personality can be described at different levels of abstraction. Whereas the Big Five domains are the dominant level of analysis, several researchers have called for more fine-grained approaches, such as facet-level analysis. Personality facets allow more comprehensive descriptions, more accurate predictions of outcomes, and a better understanding of the mechanisms underlying trait-outcome relationships. However, several methodological issues plague existing evidence on the added value of facet-level descriptions: Manifest facet scale scores differ with respect to their reliability, domain-level variance (variance that is due to the domain factor) and incremental facet-level variance (variance that is specific to a facet and not shared with the other facets). Moreover, manifest scale scores overlap substantially, which affects associations with criterion variables. We suggest a structural equation modelling approach that allows domain-level variance to be separated from incremental facet-level variance. We analysed data from a heterogeneous sample of adults in the USA (N = 1193) who completed the 60-item Big Five Inventory-2. The results illustrate how the variance of manifest personality items and scale scores can be decomposed into domain-level and incremental facet-level variance. The association with criterion variables (educational attainment, income, health, and life satisfaction) further demonstrates the incremental predictive power of personality facets.

Evaluating the Big Five as an organizing framework for commonly used psychological trait scales.

“…This method has two key benefits: First, Big Five facets, explicitly constructed and validated as subscales of the Big Five domains, are conceptually and empirically part of the Big Five. This holds even though facets are—like most stand-alone scales—narrower in focus than the Big Five factors to which they belong, and thus often bring incremental predictive validity beyond the Big Five (e.g., Anglim et al, 2020; Danner et al, 2020). To the degree that a given stand-alone scale shows similar or even greater links with the Big Five than is observed for some Big Five facets, it would be reasonable to conclude that the stand-alone scale can be located within the Big Five, perhaps as a facet itself.…”

The finer details? The predictability of life outcomes from Big Five domains, facets, and nuances

“…Studies using other facets have observed that the Extraversion-SWB association was entirely driven by the Energy Level facet that contains items about being active and enthusiastic, whereas Assertiveness and Sociability facets played no roles at all. Of course, a correlation between low enthusiasm and low wellbeing is hardly surprising (Margolis, Stapley & Lyubomirsky, 2020;Danner, Lechner, Soto & John, 2020).…”

Two Forms of Social Inequality in Students' Socio-Emotional Skills: Do the Levels of Big Five Personality Traits and Their Associations With Academic Achievement Depend on Parental Socioeconomic Status?

“…Moreover, it is beneficial that the BFI-10 controls for acquiescence, which is a likely source of bias in the pSES–personality association because acquiescence is higher in individuals with lower education (Rammstedt et al, 2010 ) and lower cognitive ability (Lechner and Rammstedt, 2015 ). However, ultra-short measures such as the BFI-10 do not allow for facet-level analyses, which are often a more promising level of abstraction in trait–outcome research (e.g., Danner et al, 2020 ; Mõttus et al, 2020 ). Hence, it would be desirable for future research to revisit the interplay between pSES, socio-emotional skills, and achievement using faceted measures of personality.…”