HOW MANY DIMENSIONS TO DESCRIBE PERSONALITY - A COMPARISON OF CATTELL, COMREY, AND THE BIG-5 TAXONOMIES OF PERSONALITY-TRAITS

This study investigated the relationships among the Cattellian taxonom y (as measured by the 16PF Questionnaire), the Comrey taxonomy (as mea sured by the Comrey Personality Scales, CPS) and the taxonomy subsumed by the Five Factor Model of Personality Traits (as measured by the Bi g Five Questionnaire, BFQ). The participants were about 600 Italian ad ults, to whom the 3 questionnaires were administered. The data were an alyzed by means of joint factor analyses of the personality scales in the 16PF and in the CPS. Four principal factors were identified: These factors showed substantial correlations to four of the Big Five, name ly to Energy or Extraversion, Agreeableness or Friendliness, Conscient iousness, and Emotional Stability. Only the Big Five Openness factor w as not covered by the factors in the Cattell and Comrey taxonomies.