The General Factor of Personality (GFP): Self and other ratings

Abstract

In the literature, the General Factor of Personality (GFP) has been interpreted in various ways. In the substantive interpretation the GFP reflects a continuum of socially desirable behavior that facilitates social cohesion. An alternative explanation is that it merely represents faking on personality measures. One way to distinguish between these two interpretations is by comparing self and other ratings of personality. In study 1, we compared a GFP extracted from self-reported Big Five measures with a GFP extracted from other-ratings of personality (e.g., friends, family). The self-report-based GFP significantly overlapped with the other-rating-based GFP. In study 2, the GFP was extracted from self-reports of 3600 applicants, and general impression scores were obtained from the job interviewers. Again, the self-report-based GFP was significantly related to impression scores of the interviewers. The results of the two studies suggest that the GFP has a substantive component.