This application describes a series of projects aimed at the clarification of the Big-Five factor structure, a hierarchical representation that has been gaining consensus among personality researchers.
One aim i s to integrate the two dominant variants of that model: one associated with the work of McCrae and Costa; the other, developed by the present taxonomy team. Another aim is to provide an integrative framework for the comparison of this structure with other major models of personality, such as those proposed by Block, Cattell, Cloninger, Eysenck, and Tellegen. Over the next 4 years, the investigators will extend their previous taxonomic research, which has been rooted in the lexical hypothesis, in a variety of ways: from a primary focus on trait-descriptive adjectives (e.g., Hardworking) to nouns (e.g., Workaholic); from a primary focus on terms describing personality traits (e.g., Cowardly) to terms describing moods or other states (e.g., Afraid), and to terms describing social roles, relationships, or effects (e.g., Henpecked); and from a primary focus on the Germanic languages int he IndoEuropean stream (English, Dutch, and German) to Russian first and then to a variety of non-IndoEuropean languages. In addition, the investigators propose to extend the heterogeneity of subject samples; from college students to a quasi- representative community sample. And, finally, the investigators will continue efforts to develop evaluation-neutral personality dimensions for use in contexts where evaluative traits can prove harmful. The overall objective is to continue the development of a scientifically compelling taxonomic structure for individual differences.
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