Measuring Personality States Below the Big Five: Development and Validation of the Big Five Aspect Adjectives for Traits and States

Despite decades of personality state research at the Big Five domain level, it is unclear if personality states have valid structure below the Big Five because there are no validated scales that measure traits and states at lower levels. We therefore developed the Big Five Aspect Adjectives (BFAA), an adjective-based inventory that measures personality aspects in both trait and state forms. Study 1 ( n = 352, US sample) found support for a 60-item inventory. The BFAA showed excellent psychometric properties, replicated complex structures found in the BFAS, and showed similar correlation patterns with criterion variables as the BFAS. Study 2 ( n = 144, Australian sample) validated the BFAA against the BFAS and showed good 4-week test-retest reliability. Study 3 ( n = 549, US sample) used multivariate modeling to establish cross-instrument correspondence between BFAS traits and BFAA states and showed that BFAA states predict momentary positive and negative affect consistent with theory. Study 4 ( n = 265, UK sample) used multilevel multivariate modeling to replicate Study 3 in an experience sampling design across 24 surveys and 3,999 observations, providing strong evidence for BFAA trait-state correspondence. This research provides the first systematic empirical evidence that personality states are valid constructs at the aspect level.