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

2022/01/13 by Timothy F. Bainbridge, Steven G. Ludeke, Luke D. Smillie · 165 citations
Psychology · #Big Five personality traits #Cognitive Abilities and Testing #Cognitive psychology #Emotional Intelligence and Performance #Personality #Personality Traits and Psychology #Psychology #Social psychology #Trait

paper · doi:10.1037/pspp0000395

published in Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 122(4), 749-777 (American Psychological Association)

openalex publication_date 2022/01/13 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01

Abstract

= 1,039). Study 1 revealed that 83% of an author-identified collection of scales (e.g., Self-Esteem, Grit, etc.) were as related to the Big Five as at least four of 30 Big Five facets, and Study 2 found that 71% of scales selected based on citation counts passed the same criterion. Several scales had strikingly large links at the Big Five facet level, registering correlations with individual Big Five facets exceeding .9. We conclude that the Big Five can indeed serve as an organizing framework for a sizable majority of stand-alone psychological trait scales and that many of these scales could reasonably be labeled as facets of the Big Five. We suggest an integrative pluralism approach, where reliable, valid scales are located within the Big Five and pertinent Big Five research is considered in all research using trait scales readily located within the Big Five. By adopting such an approach, construct proliferation may be abated and it would become easier to integrate findings from disparate fields. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Citations

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