TYPE NOUNS AND THE 5 FACTOR MODEL OF PERSONALITY DESCRIPTION

Research in the tradition of the lexical approach has been largely con fined to adjective rating scales. Another word class that appears part icularly suited for personality description is the class of type nouns (e.g. extravert, misanthrope, leaner, coward, intellectual). This pap er presents the first investigation in the factorial structure of a re latively large set of German type nouns. Stimulus persons were 12 prom inent males (e.g. Boris Becker, Helmut Kohl) and 12 prominent females (e.g. Claudia Schiffer, Steffi Graf). Raters were 240 men and 240 wome n. Each rater judged one stimulus person an 192 unipolar type noun sca les and 32 bipolar adjective scales. Factor analyses of the type nouns yielded seven factors for males and six for females. These factors re presented a clear-cut and meaningful personality structure. Comparison s with the adjective factors (seven male and six female) demonstrated that the noun factors show some resemblance to the Big Five and Physic al Attractiveness. Multiple regression analyses showed that the noun f actors cannot be completely reduced 20 the Big Five. Some systematic d ifferences between male and female stimuli are also discussed (C) 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.