Comparison of Two Methods to Identify Major Personality Factors

Abstract

Both Howarth and Comrey have developed taxon omies of personality traits and inventories to measure them. The Howarth Personality Questionnaire and Ad ditional Personality Factor inventories include 20 fac tors, whereas the Comrey Personality Scales (CPS) taxonomy includes eight factors. Howarth identified his factors through factor analysis of items, whereas Comrey identified his primary level factors through factor analysis of conceptually distinct clusters of ho mogeneous items, called Factored Homogeneous Item Dimensions (FHIDs), while avoiding the inclusion of highly redundant variables in the same analysis. Data for all three inventories were collected from the same subjects and factor analyzed. The Howarth factor scales were narrower in content and more highly over lapping than the CPS factor scales. Most of the Ho warth factor scales were good marker variables for the CPS primary factors. Five CPS factors had major loadings for more than one of the Howarth factor scales. The CPS Emotional Stability vs. Neuroticism (S) primary level factor was split into several lower level factors in the Howarth system. Factor analysis of items is recommended to identify FHIDs. Factor anal ysis of FHIDs, in which no two FHIDs are merely al ternate forms of the same conceptual variable, is rec ommended to identify the major primary factors of personality.