THE EYSENCKIAN PERSONALITY STRUCTURE - A GIANT-3 OR BIG-5 MODEL IN HONG-KONG

In the last decade, the area of personality measurement has been domin ated by three major systems: the Eysenckian Giant Three, the Cattellia n sixteen factors and the Big Five. While many of the Cattellian secon d-stratum factors have been shown to fit the Big Five system, can the factors measured by the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire also be desc ribed by the five-factor model? The study reported in this article was designed to determine whether the dimensions measured by a revised Ch inese version of the Junior Eysenck Personality Questionnaire would, i n a Hong Kong population, replicate the Giant Three or the Big Five an d whether there is evidence to support the suggested dual nature of th e Extraversion dimension and the Lie scale in this Cantonese-speaking group. A four-factor solution indicated that the data did not support the notion of a Giant Three model plus a Lie scale and lacks clarity. A five-factor solution produced factors that can clearly be labelled N euroticism, Conscientiousness, Sociability, Excitement-Seeking and Agr eeableness. Sociability, focusing on meeting people and Excitement-See king, which consists of Impulsivity and Liveliness, derive from items in Eysenck's Extraversion dimension. The Openness factor of the Big Fi ve system is absent in this population. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.