The Lexical Approach to the Study of Personality Structure: Toward the Identification of Cross–Culturally Replicable Dimensions of Personality Variation

The structure of personality variation is discussed from the perspective of the lexical approach, which is based on the examination of relations among personality-descriptive adjectives that are indigenous to various languages. The results of this approach--which reveal a cross-culturally replicated set of six dimensions--are described. Specifically, the obtained structure corresponds rather closely to the Five-Factor Model, but differs from that model in the nature of the Agreeableness and Emotionality/Neuroticism factors and also in the existence of a sixth factor known as Honesty-Humility. It is suggested that the emergence of this structure provides support for attempts to establish a cross-culturally generalizable structural model that could summarize normal and abnormal personality variation.