In this study we investigate the usefulness of the instinct-conception for
personality trait-research. Of particular interest is the effectiveness-con
notation of instincts for personality conceptualizations. In its kind, the
study forms an indirect test of the so-called psycholexical approach and it
s main result, the Big Five personality trait factors. For this, 14,046 ins
tinct-expressions, collected by Bernard (1924) are taken as the starting-po
int. This large list of instincts is treated according to psycholexical pri
nciples, namely by classifying the most relevant instinct-expressions into
the recently developed AB5C representation of the Big Five framework. The c
lassification was performed through both primary and secondary factor pole
identifications of each instinct-expression and for each Big Five factor. T
he majority of the personality-relevant instinct terms could be classified
in the Big Five system, thus supporting the inclusive potential of the sema
ntics of the Big Five, (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.