APPEARANCE AND REALITY - IS THE BIG 5 THE STRUCTURE OF TRAIT DESCRIPTORS

It is argued that contrary to the claims of Big Five investigators, th e structure of trait descriptors is still very much an open issue. Thi s is because their methodology, factor/component analysis paired with the dimensional interpretation/simple structure (DISS) procedure, does not investigate the closed topological manifold that constitutes the 'structure' of a set of variables. Instead, radex-related configuratio ns are likely candidates for the structure of trait descriptors. Some preliminary support for this claim is given by an analysis of the NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-PI) (Costa & McCrae, Manual for the NEO PI- R. Odessa, FL: Psychological Assessment Resources, 1992), a Big Five q uestionnaire measure, and the Goldberg-40 (Goldberg, Review of Persona lity and Social Psychology, Vol. 2, pp. 141-165, 1981. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage), an adjective measure. In particular, the NEO-PI and Goldber g-40 are shown to have radex structures. A facet theory (Guttman, Psyc hometrika, 36, 329-346, 1971) rationale is provided for these findings . (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.