A HIERARCHICAL FACETED MODEL OF THE BIG-5

The Five-Factor Model (FFM) is nowadays the personality structure whic h has reached the highest consensus among researchers. Although there exists agreement on its general features, there ale some controversies regarding its specific features. With this contribution we intend to add a 'little brick' to the unfolding of the FFM. We propose a multifa ceted organization of the Big Five and a methodological approach to re ach this aim. Using a sample of 961 subjects and a data set of 116 adj ectives, 22 facets were empirically developed. They proved to be relia ble, convergent, discriminable, and coherent in meaning. When factor a nalysed together, they reproduced a clear FFM. Moreover, they proved t o lie at the narrower cove of their factor. To develop these facets we performed a series of principal-component analyses with Promax rotati on on a set of adjectives already selected as lying in the cove of the factors (i.e. a less than 30 degrees distance from the factor). These facets and this methodology can help to bring out the more prototypic al elements of the Big Five: a hierarchical multifaceted FFM is advoca ted as an approach that refines knowledge about the Big Five. (C) 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.