title: Only three factors of personality description are fully replicable across languages: a comparison of 14 trait taxonomies.
abstract: We tested the hypothesis that only 3 factors of personality description are replicable across many different languages if they are independently derived by a psycholexical approach. Our test was based on 14 trait taxonomies from 12 different languages. Factors were compared at each level of factor extraction with solutions with 1 to 6 factors. The 294 factors in the comparisons were identified using sets of markers of the 6-factor model by correlating the marker scales with the factors. The factor structures were pairwise compared in each case on the basis of the common variables that define the 2 sets of factors. Congruence coefficients were calculated between the varimax rotated structures after Procrustes rotation, where each structure in turn served as a target to which all other structures were rotated. On the basis of average congruence coefficients of all 91 comparisons, we conclude that factor solutions with 3 factors on average are replicable across languages; solutions with more factors are not.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Groningen, 9712 TS, Groningen, the Netherlands. b.de.raad@rug.nl
authors.forename: Boele
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: De Raad
authors.forename: Dick P H
authors.initials: DP
authors.lastname: Barelds
authors.forename: Eveline
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Levert
authors.forename: Fritz
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Ostendorf
authors.forename: Boris
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Mlacić
authors.forename: Lisa
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Di Blas
authors.forename: Martina
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hrebícková
authors.forename: Zsófia
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Szirmák
authors.forename: Piotr
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Szarota
authors.forename: Marco
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Perugini
authors.forename: A Timothy
authors.initials: AT
authors.lastname: Church
authors.forename: Marcia S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Katigbak
mesh_terms: D003431:Cross-Cultural Comparison; D005060:Europe; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D008960:Models, Psychological; D010551:Personality / Q000145:classification*; D009626:Terminology as Topic