Six approaches to the explication of facet-level traits: examples from conscientiousness

✍ Scribed by Paul T. Costa Jr; Robert R. McCrae

• Book ID: 101282146
• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1998
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 219 KB
• Volume: 12
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0890-2070
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1099-0984(199803/04)12:2<117::aid-per295>3.0.co;2-c

✦ Synopsis

Proponents of the Five-Factor Model (FFM) of personality have argued for somewhat dierent conceptualizations of the factors. Ultimately, the factors are best understood by a speci®cation of the traits (or facets) that de®ne them, and these facets in turn must be clearly conceptualized. Using as examples the Conscientiousness facet scales of the Revised NEO Personality Inventory, we discuss six approaches to understanding facetlevel traits: (i) rational analysis of item content; (ii) characterization of the low pole, the psychological opposite; (iii) interpretation of external correlates; (iv) examination of secondary and tertiary factor loadings; (v) translation into the specialized languages of applied psychology; and (vi) case studies.