The Non‐Evaluative Circumplex of Personality Adjectives

Abstract

In judgments about personality, descriptive and evaluative aspects are ordinarily combined; separating them can be important both theoretically and practically. Study 1 showed that two similar descriptive factors can be found in analyses of personality terms, selected independently in English and in German and using different methods to control for evaluation. The factors relate to two pairs of independent axes suggested by previous work: Assertive-Unassertive and Tight-Loose, or alternatively, Interactional Orientation (Extraversion-Introversion) and Affective Orientation. These two pairs of axes are shown to be rotations of each other, and to form the prime non-evaluative circumplex. As in previous studies, non-evaluative scales elicited higher levels of self-peer agreement than did more typical evaluation-confounded scales. Study 2 showed that adjective scales for the octants of this circumplex have circular ordering, can fit even very stringent constraints of a circumplex model, have mild to strong isomorphism with the interpersonal circumplex, but represent somewhat broader constructs, and are systematically related to the Big Five and the Big Three personality factors.

Instrument timbre and trait attribution.

“…Trumpet players were rated as tougher than fiautists or violin players. To the extent that toughness or emotional stability is related to extraversion and dominance (Saucier, Ostendorf, & Peabody, 2001), these results may be considered in line with previous studies (Cribb & Gregory, 1999). However, violin players were rated as more egocentric than fiautists or trumpet players.…”

The Factor Structure of Greek Personality Adjectives.

“…It includes a 20th category (II-X-gr) added to complete the circle that is central to the figure and interpreted as "Expressive Involvement" on the basis of patterns of correlations with questionnaire scales. The circle in the figure corresponds closely to that defined in the double-cone model of Peabody and Goldberg (1989) and the Non-Evaluative Personality Circumplex of Saucier, Ostendorf, and Peabody (2001). Clusters adjacent to each other in the figure contained adjectives that had their highest loading on the same factor in two of the three models and, thus, that in new studies are more likely to fall on the same factor than are those more distant.…”

On the Relationship Between Circumplexes: Affect and Wiggins' IAS

“…Trobst (2000) placed the IAS scales within the space defined by her Support Actions Scales Circumplex scales (and vice versa) and concluded that the two measures overlapped on the horizontal axis (LM-DE). Saucier, Ostendorf, and Peabody (2001) found the IAS and their Non-Evaluative Personality Circumplex shared the vertical axis (PA-HI). To assess the validity of the interpersonal transaction cycle, Wagner, Kiesler, and Schmidt (1995) conducted a PCA on Impact Message Inventory (Kiesler, 1987) and Inventory of Interpersonal Problems (Alden et al, 1990) and found a structural convergence of these two circumplex measures on a common two-dimensional space.…”