The General Factor of Personality

Abstract

A recent hypothesis is that a general factor of personality (GFP) occupies the apex of the hierarchy of personality as well as the apex of the personality disorders in the same way in which g , the general factor of mental ability, occupies the apex in the organization of cognitive abilities (Rushton, Bons, & Hur, 2008 ). High scores on the GFP indicate what is meant by someone having a " good " personality; low scores indicate what is meant by a " diffi cult " personality, in other words someone who is hard to get along with. Individuals high on the GFP are altruistic, agreeable, relaxed, conscientious, sociable, and open, with high levels of well -being and self -esteem. Because the GFP defi nes clear positive and negative poles, it provides potential for understanding the socially " advantaged " (those with high levels of emotional intelligence) as well as the socially " challenged " (those more likely to suffer a personality disorder). The GFP can be viewed as a dimension of social effectiveness.The explanation we favor for the GFP is that it arose through evolutionary selection for socially desirable traits that facilitate performance across a wide range of contexts . This follows a proposal by Darwin (1871) that natural selection acted directionally, to endow people with more cooperative and less contentious personalities than their archaic ancestors or nearest living relatives, the chimpanzees. conjectured that individuals high on the GFP left more progeny, since people prefer as mates, fellow workers, and leaders those who are altruistic, conscientious, and emotionally stable. People able to cooperate in groups were also more likely to win competitions and wars. The alternative to the GFP being substantive is that it results from artifacts of scale construction and from evaluative bias such as responding in a socially desirable manner.The main empirical impetus for identifying a GFP comes from the observation that the Big -Five factors typically intercorrelate, despite claims that they areThe Wiley-Blackwell Handbook of Individual Differences, First Edition. Edited by Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic, Sophie von Stumm, and Adrian Furnham.

Are g and the General Factor of Personality (GFP) correlated?

“…This is best conceived of as an organizing framework in which g sits at the apex of the hierarchy of specific cognitive abilities, of which there are probably four strata, and about 16 Stratum II factors (McGrew, 2009). More controversial has been the recent hypothesis that a similar construct, the General Factor of Personality (GFP), sits at the apex of the personality hierarchy (Musek, 2007;Rushton, Bons & Hur, 2008;Rushton & Irwing, 2011). The current study seeks to explore the relationship between g and the GFP, and to offer a possible explanation of this relationship drawing on recent work in individual differences and behavioural ecology.…”

“…Thus LH theory predicts greater intelligence, both within and between species, mediated by brain size (Rushton, 2004). It also predicts a general factor of personality (GFP), for which there is substantial psychometric evidence (Rushton & Irwing, 2011). Rushton et al (2008) proposed that much like g, the GFP has clear positive and negative poles.…”

“…There is growing psychometric support for the location of a GFP in a large number of personality inventories (Rushton & Irwing, 2011). The nonclinical inventories include the Big Five and Big Five alternatives, the California Psychological Inventory, the Comrey Personality Scales, the EAS Temperament Scales, the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire, the Guilford-Zimmerman Temperament Survey, the Hexaco Personality Inventory, the Hogan Personality Inventory, the Jackson Personality Inventory, the Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire, the Personality Research Form, the Temperament and Character Inventory, and the Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire (Erdle, Irwing, Rushton, & Park, 2010;Figueredo, Vásquez, Brumbach, & Schneider, 2004;Loehlin & Martin, 2011;Musek, 2007;Rushton et al, 2008;Rushton, Bons, Ando, Hur, Irwing,, Vernon, Petrides, & Barbaranelli;2009;Rushton & Irwing, 2008, 2009c, 2009dSchermer & Vernon, 2010;Veselka, Schermer, Petrides, & Vernon, 2009a;Veselka, Schermer, Petrides, Cherkas, Spence, & Vernon, 2009b;Zawadzki & Strelau, 2010).…”

Predicting Intellectual Ability and Scholastic Outcomes with a Single Item: From Early Childhood to Adulthood

“…Theoretical and empirical evidence suggests that a GFP may underlie a constellation of personality traits, in a fashion similar to g and individual cognitive abilities [31]. Dunkel (2013) found a strong relationship between the GFP [32], which may reflect social-effectiveness [31], and general intelligence using the Block and Block data file [17].…”

“…Dunkel (2013) found a strong relationship between the GFP [32], which may reflect social-effectiveness [31], and general intelligence using the Block and Block data file [17]. Hence, the Q-sort raters could be influenced by a child's disposition in their rating of the child's intellectual capacity which could cause a spurious association between the target variables.…”