The High Five Model: Associations of the high factors with complete mental well-being and academic adjustment in university students

Abstract

Traditionally, models of positive personality traits have referred to moral characteristics. The High Five Model (HFM) is a factor model of individual positive traits based on an inductive psycho-lexical approach. Unlike other models, in the HFM the positive characteristics were freely determined by lay people, beyond any moral tones. The HFM comprises the following factors: erudition, peace, cheerfulness, honesty, and tenacity, known as “the high factors.” This model was shown to positively exceed the capacity of normal personality to predict emotional, social, and psychological well-being. Additionally, this model is negatively associated with non-transmissible diseases, psychopathological symptoms, and psychopathological personality traits. This study aimed to increase the validation of the HFM, by analyzing the relationships among this model and positive mental health, psychopathological symptoms, academic adjustment, and academic performance in university students. Another objective was to study the association between complete mental well-being (i.e., high well-being and low psychopathological symptomatology) and the high factors of the HFM. The sample consisted of 256 university students. Correlations were calculated, and the two-step cluster analysis was used to obtain profiles. The results showed that tenacity and erudition high factors are positively associated with academic achievement and academic adjustment. Finally, each of the high factors was positively associated with complete mental well-being. The HFM has a broad scope, as it is related not only to psychological variables (e.g., well-being or psychopathological symptomatology) but also to academic performance (e.g., adjustment and achievement) in university students.

Validación de un modelo de rasgos positivos y negativos de personalidad como predictores del bienestar psicológico aplicando algoritmos de machine learning

“…En términos generales, los rasgos positivos comentados (erudición y tenacidad) tenían un efecto protector sobre el bienestar psicológico. Este resultado confirma asimismo los hallazgos previos realizado con este mismo modelo de rasgos positivos en ocasión de predecir el ajuste académico a la vida universitaria (Castro Solano & Cosentino, 2019). Malignismo (e.g., corrupto, embusteros, malintencionado) es el rasgo negativo más vinculado conceptualmente con su equivalente maquiavelismo y psicopatía de la Tríada Oscura.…”

“…Particularmente, los rasgos paz y jovialidad eran los rasgos más fuertemente asociados con el bajo riesgo de contraer tanto enfermedades médicas como psicológicas. En otro estudio realizado con estudiantes universitarios se pudo verificar que los factores altos, además de ser promotores del bienestar psicológico, permitían predecir tanto la adaptación a la vida universitaria como el rendimiento académico de los estudiantes (Castro Solano & Cosentino, 2019). En este caso, la tenacidad y la erudición eran los dos factores de personalidad positivos más fuertemente asociados con la percepción de ajuste a la vida universitaria.…”

“…De acuerdo con lo expuesto, las razones por las cuales se escogen estos modelos son, por un lado, que los modelos de personalidad más modernos (e.g., rasgos positivos y negativos) agregan variancia adicional para la explicación del bienestar psicológico por sobre los modelos de personalidad clásicos Castro Solano & Cosentino, 2019). Por otro lado, ambos modelos han sido desarrollados localmente, desde un enfoque psicoléxico, lo que disminuye el riesgo de caer en una perspectiva ética-impuesta, dado que la equivalencia cultural de algunos constructos psicológicos (e,g., características positivas) es tema de debate constante (Lopez et al, 2002).…”

The High Five Model as a predictor of academic performance over conventional psychological predictors in university students

“…In this context, HFM factors can be considered as the positive poles of BFM. Castro Solano and Cosentino ( 2019 ) posit that the positive traits or high factors of the HFM are relatively stable within each individual and are represented by positive psychological characteristics. Moreover, the high factors of the HFM possess certain notable attributes: they can be measured, vary among individuals, and may increase or decrease due to internal or external influences.…”

“…Among its findings, it has been observed that HFM factors, as positive personality traits, are negatively associated with health indicators and positively correlated with emotional, psychological, and social wellbeing. (Castro Solano and Cosentino, 2019 ) have also demonstrated HFM's association with elements of the academic context and academic performance, utilizing self-reported values by students for performance analysis. In their study, it was found that the high factors of tenacity and erudition were the only ones positively associated with academic performance.…”