Explaining personality or explaining variance? A comment on Creed and Funder (1998)

Based on factor analyses of the private self-consciousness scale, Creed and Funder (1998) posit ‘two faces of private self-consciousness’: self-reflectiveness, which relates to negative outcomes, and internal state awareness, which relates to positive outcomes. The significance of this distinction is questioned. I contend (i) that the existence of two subfactors is a fatal deficiency in the private self-consciousness scale, not a benefit; (ii) that factor analysis can never discover aspects of personality; (iii) that only an underlying theoretical network, not unique variance, makes a scale useful; and (iv) that the SR and ISA distinction exemplifies the undesirable Aristotelian approach (Lewin, 1931) to personality.