Psycholexical Approach Research Articles

Swahili personality-trait vocabulary: A psycho-lexical study using dictionary and day-to-day conversations by indigenous speakers

Human social behavior is a function of peoples’ personalities and individual differences. As humans engage in social behaviors, peoples’ traits and other unique attributes come out and get noticed, and community members may feel tempted to talk about these attributes and either encourage them or discourage them: words are created and they become part of the community’s lexicon. In this study we employed the psycho-lexical approach to hunt for those words that describe people’s traits and unique attributes and that have thus become encoded in the lexicon, in particular of the Swahili language, an eastern Africa Bantu language. We used two resources for this purpose, (1) a Swahili dictionary, as the tangible repository of the lexicon, and (2) free descriptions. As a final result we concluded that the trait vocabulary of the Swahili language contains a useful set of 1,338 trait terms, of which 4% are adjectives, 55% are nouns, and 41% are verbs. Thus, nouns form the largest number of trait terms, followed by verbs, while adjectives occupy an insignificant third position in the Swahili trait vocabulary.

Surfing the OCEAN: The machine learning psycholexical approach 2.0 to detect personality traits in texts.

We aimed to develop a machine learning model to infer OCEAN traits from text. The psycholexical approach allows retrieving information about personality traits from human language. However, it has rarely been applied because of methodological and practical issues that current computational advancements could overcome. Classical taxonomies and a large Yelp corpus were leveraged to learn an embedding for each personality trait. These embeddings were used to train a feedforward neural network for predicting trait values. Their generalization performances have been evaluated through two external validation studies involving experts (N = 11) and laypeople (N = 100) in a discrimination task about the best markers of each trait and polarity. Intrinsic validation of the model yielded excellent results, with R2 values greater than 0.78. The validation studies showed a high proportion of matches between participants' choices and model predictions, confirming its efficacy in identifying new terms related to the OCEAN traits. The best performance was observed for agreeableness and extraversion, especially for their positive polarities. The model was less efficient in identifying the negative polarity of openness and conscientiousness. This innovative methodology can be considered a "psycholexical approach 2.0," contributing to research in personality and its practical applications in many fields.

Exploring the indigenous structure of Vietnamese personality traits: A psycho-lexical approach

The goals of this study were to explore the structure of the Vietnamese personality lexicon and to relate emic Vietnamese personality dimensions to proposed etic (universal) personality models. A set of 2,129 person-descriptive terms were culled from a Vietnamese-English Dictionary, classified into the categories of a person-description taxonomy developed for the German language, and rated for their clarity, familiarity, and relevance for personality description. The classification and evaluation of the terms led to a reduced set of 668 trait terms, which were administered to 850 participants to collect self-ratings. After eliminating 140 participants who responded carelessly or omitted many items, the self-ratings of the remaining 710 participants were factor analyzed using principal components analyses with varimax rotations. One- to eight-factor solutions were examined, and correlated with marker scales for etic models of personality structure, including the Big One, the Big Two, the Big Three, the Big Five, the Big Six, and the Multi-Language Seven (ML7) models. The Vietnamese factor structure showed moderate to strong support for the cross-cultural replicability of the Big One, the Big Two, and the Big Three models. The Big Five, Big Six, and ML7 models were not well replicated. An eight-factor solution provided the most interpretable structure, with five of its factors corresponding well with dimensions of the Big Six model: Vietnamese Warmheartedness-Virtue with Agreeableness, Vietnamese Talented-Intellect with Intellect, Vietnamese Orderly-Industriousness with Conscientiousness, Vietnamese Courage with Emotional Stability (inversely), and Vietnamese Vivaciousness with Extraversion. The three remaining indigenous factors – Modesty, Straightforward-Genuineness, and Trustworthiness – showed modest to moderate relationships with Big Six Honesty-Humility. Gender differences on the Vietnamese dimensions were generally modest but provided initial validity evidence for the dimensions. Theoretical and applied implications, as well as strengths, limitations, and future research recommendations are discussed.

The utility of the psycholexical approach for identifying military core values: Illustrated in a sample of Swiss career officers and NCOs

ABSTRACT Values have always been a top priority in the military domains of leadership, training, ethical commitment, and psychological research. However, only a few studies have assessed value descriptors and their underlying dimensional structure in military organizations using an empirical psycholexical and factor analytical approach. This research project examined the structure of military values and derived core military values. Two studies were conducted in cooperation with the Swiss Armed Forces. In study 1, 25 military-specific value descriptors were identified based on a psycholexical analysis of military guidelines and in line with expert ratings by executive military leaders. In study 2, a questionnaire was filled out by a sample of 550 military professionals to capture their ratings of values as applied to everyday military decisions and actions. Principal component analysis in combination with Goldberg’s top-down approach delivered five military value categories that reflect the military culture in Switzerland, characterized as (I) freedom, (II) social cohesion, (III) good soldiership, (IV) mutual respect, and (V) military conformity. Results are discussed in light of introducing a novel research approach to assessing the value structure and culture in military organizations.

The psycho-lexical structure of sports culture.

The psycho-lexical approach can be effectively used to explore the structure of sports culture. Based on a lexical list of adjective vocabulary reflecting sports culture and through an item analysis, 87 discriminating objectives were selected representing sports culture.ObjectiveTo explore the structure of sports culture from the objectives lexicons.MethodsItem analysis and factor analysis were adopted to abstract the structure of sports culture.ResultsThrough a principal component analysis, a structure of six factors including extroversion-activity, diligence-progression, experience, independence-excellence, enjoyment, and body culture was extracted. Through a second-order factor analysis, a psychological structure of sports culture consisting of six dimensions and 12 factors was extracted, and result of the reliability analysis revealed good Cronbach α coefficient and test–retest reliability coefficient.ConclusionThe psycho-lexical structure of sports culture can be used to understand structure of sports culture.

The Impact of Our Personality on Others: The Lithuanian Comprehensive Lexical Taxonomy of Social Effects.

Social effects represent the psychological (emotional, cognitive, and motivational) reactions evoked in other people by the expression of traits in behavior and emotion. From the transactional view on personality, studying the psycholexical structures of social effects can help to discover unique vs. common thought and behavior patterns, affects, and motivations, which are primarily related to personality dispositions. Thus, we developed the comprehensive taxonomy of social effects following the principles of the psycholexical approach. In the first study, two judges selected 9,625 person-descriptive terms—adjectives, type-nouns, attribute-nouns, and participles—from the Dictionary of the Standard Lithuanian Language. In the second study, six judges classified all the selected descriptors using German psycholexical methodology. Finally, a principal component analysis was performed, followed by varimax rotation for the 208 social-effect descriptors, separately for ipsatized self-ratings and observer-ratings from 203 to 204 Lithuanian students, respectively. We found out that the five-component solution was the best fit for self-ratings, whereas for observer-ratings it was a four-component structure. In this article, we present the results from the factor analyses and discuss our findings in the context of previous studies, as well as cross-language personality models.

A comprehensive taxonomy and structure of Lithuanian personality-descriptive terms

We developed a taxonomy and structure of Lithuanian personality attributes following the principles of the psycholexical approach. Personality-relevant descriptors – 9625 adjectives, type-nouns, attribute-nouns, and participles – were selected from the Dictionary of the Standard Lithuanian Language by two judges, and subsequently classified by six judges. Finally, a principal component analysis was performed, followed by varimax rotation for the 627 morphemically unique personality-descriptive terms, separately for ipsatized self-ratings and peer-ratings from 519 and 554 Lithuanian students respectively. We found that the Big Five structure was the best fit for the self-ratings with no need to re-align emic factors, whereas HEXACO dimensions were confirmed after re-rotating the six-factor structure. The best fit for the peer-ratings was four-factor structure.

The influence of personality factors on well-being through self-esteem: An Italian-Spanish lexical comparative study

Considering the psycholexical approach, this study aimed to test the structure of the Big-five model of personality in Italy and Spain using exploratory structural equation modelling (ESEM) and to use predictive latent models to investigate whether these traits influence hedonic and eudaimonic well-being directly and indirectly, as mediated by self-esteem. ESEM analyses conducted with Italian and Spanish samples, including 400 (Mage = 21.49, SD = 2.35; 81.5%female) and 602 (Mage = 20.52, SD = 1.93; 81%female) university students, respectively, found that a three-factor solution (Agreeableness, Extraversion, Conscientiousness) showed better model fit and more well-defined factors than either a four- (adding Emotional-stability) or five-factor (adding Integrity) solution. Predictive models using the three-factor solution showed that, in both samples, Extraversion indirectly affected hedonic well-being, global eudaimonic well-being, and Effortful-Engagement; Conscientiousness directly and indirectly affected hedonic well-being, but affected eudaimonic well-being (directly and indirectly) only in the Italian sample. The main difference between samples in relation to Agreeableness was that, in the Italian sample, this trait did not affect self-esteem, but directly promoted hedonic well-being. Thus, a psycholexical three-factor solution appeared more stable across languages; moreover, the results provided initial evidence on the generalisability across samples of the effects of personality traits on well-being, both directly and as mediated by self-esteem.

The Lexical Approach to the Taxonomy of Emotions

<p>Pierwsze próby klasyfikacji emocji zostały podjęte jeszcze przed wyodrębnieniem psychologii jako nauki. Na przestrzeni wieków, ze szczególną intensyfikacją w ciągu ostatnich 50 lat, naukowcy podejmowali się prób osiągnięcia konsensusu w taksonomii emocji, jednakże – jak do tej pory – nieskutecznie. Pomimo względnej zgodności w podziale emocji na podstawowe oraz złożone nie osiągnięto porozumienia w zakresie kryteriów, jakie powinny stać się podstawą takiego podziału. Doprowadziło to do znaczącej rozbieżności w dotychczas opublikowanych wykazach emocji uznanych za podstawowe. Kolejne, coraz bardziej szczegółowe próby taksonomii emocji również nie doprowadziły do rozwiązania, które może zostać uznane za konsensus. W artykule omówiono wybrane sposoby klasyfikacji emocji oraz zaprezentowano alternatywną drogę w taksonomii emocji, traktując je jako różnice indywidualne w myśl podejścia ewolucyjnego. Potencjał taksonomiczny podejścia leksykalnego w systematyzacji różnic indywidualnych jeszcze nie został wykorzystany w obszarze klasyfikacji emocji, mimo że pozwolił osiągnąć względny konsensus w taksonomii cech osobowości. W artykule przedyskutowano najważniejsze problemy do rozwiązania, aby identyfikacja kulturowo uniwersalnych emocji na bazie języków naturalnych była możliwa.</p>

The domain adjustment problem in the context of product brands: does user-imagery allow a human-to-human comparison?

Extant literature on self-image congruence has not yet come up with an answer to the question of whether the structure of traits describing individual personality differences is identical with the structure of attributes in terms of which consumers compare themselves to typical brand users. Providing a conceptual and methodological review of the literature, this paper applies a peer-rating, psycholexical approach to test the congruence between the structure of personality-trait lexicon of a brand user with the structure of personality lexicon of the natural language. Results of analyses of the personality lexicon structure reveal that typical brand users are described using fewer dimensions than human personality. The study concludes that personality scales developed on the basis of lexical material including the consumer context, and complying with the psycholexical methodology derived from human personality study, can be applied to self-image congruence research.

The High Five Model: Associations of the High Factors With Complete Mental Well-Being and Academic Adjustment in University Students.

Traditionally, models of positive personality traits have referred to moral characteristics. The High Five Model (HFM) is a factor model of individual positive traits based on an inductive psycho-lexical approach. Unlike other models, in the HFM the positive characteristics were freely determined by lay people, beyond any moral tones. The HFM comprises the following factors: erudition, peace, cheerfulness, honesty, and tenacity, known as “the high factors.” This model was shown to positively exceed the capacity of normal personality to predict emotional, social, and psychological well-being. Additionally, this model is negatively associated with non-transmissible diseases, psychopathological symptoms, and psychopathological personality traits. This study aimed to increase the validation of the HFM, by analyzing the relationships among this model and positive mental health, psychopathological symptoms, academic adjustment, and academic performance in university students. Another objective was to study the association between complete mental well-being (i.e., high well-being and low psychopathological symptomatology) and the high factors of the HFM. The sample consisted of 256 university students. Correlations were calculated, and the two-step cluster analysis was used to obtain profiles. The results showed that tenacity and erudition high factors are positively associated with academic achievement and academic adjustment. Finally, each of the high factors was positively associated with complete mental well-being. The HFM has a broad scope, as it is related not only to psychological variables (e.g., well-being or psychopathological symptomatology) but also to academic performance (e.g., adjustment and achievement) in university students.

Structure of Japanese Interpersonal Trait Words: An Analysis Based on the Psycho-Lexical Approach

Structure of Japanese Interpersonal Trait Words: An Analysis Based on the Psycho-Lexical Approach

Development of Indigenous Malay Work-based Personality Inventory using the Malay Personality Taxonomy: A Preliminary Finding

Background: The expression of personality in work context may differ in general context and the transportation of western-based personality measures to non-western cultures have been found problematic in terms of their psychometric soundness. Objective: This research was conducted with the aim to develop an indigenous work-based personality inventory using the indigenously explored Malay personality taxonomy (Nefarious, Emotionality, Virtues, Indulgence, eXtraversion, and Accommodative factors; abbreviated as NEVIXA). Methods: The test was developed using American Psychological Association (APA) Standards of Educational and Psychological Testing’s (2014) four main phases of test development: (1) Test conceptualization, (2) Test construction, (3) Test tryout and item analysis, and (4) Test validation. This preliminary finding, however, discussed results up to Phase 3 of the test development—test tryout and item analysis phase. Results: Item response theory (IRT) analysis using Samejima’s graded response model (GRM) of IRT for polytomous items recorded a total of 286 items (143 English items and 143 Malay items) with appropriate item discrimination index and reliability values, namely, the Cronbach alphas and Equivalence coefficients. Conclusion: Further efforts are needed to validate the items for a full development of an indigenous work-based personality test that can be used for work-related applications. Keywords: test development, work-based personality, psycholexical approach, Malay personality taxonomy, item response theory

Do adjectives exhaust the personality lexicon? A psycholexical study of the Lithuanian language

BackgroundThe psycholexical approach is based on the assumption that the most important individual differences that people can observe have been encoded into the natural language. Thus, by studying the structure of these lexicons, we are able to identify individual differences that are universal across cultures as well as dimensions that are unique to some of them. The aim of the study was to develop a psycholexical taxonomy of the Lithuanian language including different parts of speech.Participants and procedurethe authors analysed over 76,000 entries included in a dictionary of Lithuanian and identified 9625 person-descriptive terms: adjectives, attribute-nouns, type-nouns, and participles. The selected lexical material was classified by a team of six judges into 11 subcategories making up six higher-order categories. The authors performed the psychometric validity and consistency of the judges’ classification decisions.ResultsThe analysis of proportions between types of lexical units describing dispositional traits showed that nearly 20.00% of terms in the personality lexicon did not have an adjectival form and were expressed by means of other – morphemically non-redundant – parts of speech.ConclusionsThe present study points to the necessity of taking into account various parts of speech describing dispositional traits in order to avoid the error of reductionism; it also contributes to the debate on universals in personality description. The results of the study can be used to determine the structure of the description of individual differences for the Lithuanian personality lexicon, for type-nouns or attribute-nouns, and for non-dispositional categories, including emotions, social effects, and worldview.

A cross-cultural assessment of the semantic dimensions of intellectual humility

Intellectual humility can be broadly construed as being conscious of the limits of one’s existing knowledge and capable of acquiring more knowledge, which makes it a key virtue of the information age. However, the claim “I am (intellectually) humble” seems paradoxical in that someone who has the disposition in question would not typically volunteer it. Therefore, measuring intellectual humility via self-report may be methodologically unsound. As a consequence, we suggest analyzing intellectual humility semantically, using a psycholexical approach that focuses on both synonyms and antonyms of ‘intellectual humility’. We present a thesaurus-based methodology to map the semantic space of intellectual humility and the vices it opposes as a heuristic to support analysis and diagnosis of this disposition. We performed the mapping both in English and German in order to test for possible cultural differences in the understanding of intellectual humility. In both languages, we find basically the same three semantic dimensions of intellectual humility (sensibility, unpretentiousness, and knowledge dimensions) as well as three dimensions of its related vices (self-overrating, other-underrating and dogmatism dimensions). The resulting semantic clusters were validated in an empirical study with English (n = 276) and German (n = 406) participants. We find medium-to-high correlations (0.54–0.72) between thesaurus similarity and perceived similarity, and we can validate the three dimensions identified in the study. But we also find limitations of the thesaurus methodology in terms of cluster plausibility. We conclude by discussing the importance of these findings for constructing psychometric measures of intellectual humility via self-report vs. computer models.

A mixed-methods study of personality conceptions in the Levant: Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, and the West Bank.

Personality taxonomies are investigated using either etic-style studies that test whether Western-developed models fit in a new culture, or emic-style studies that derive personality dimensions from a local culture, using a psycholexical approach. Recent studies have incorporated strengths from both approaches. We combine the 2 approaches in the first study of personality descriptors in spoken Arabic. In Study 1, we collected 17,283 responses from a sample of adults in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, and the West Bank (N = 545). Qualitative analysis revealed 9 personality dimensions: Soft-Heartedness, Positive Social Relatedness, Integrity, Humility versus Dominance, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Emotional Stability, Intellect, and Openness. In Study 2, we converted the qualitative model into an indigenous personality inventory and obtained self-ratings of a sample of adults in the same region (N = 395). We also simultaneously obtained self-ratings on an adapted etic inventory that measures the lexical Big Five (N = 325). Psychometric and conceptual considerations yielded a robust 7-factor indigenous model: Agreeableness/Soft Heartedness, Honesty/Integrity, Unconventionality, Emotional Stability, Conscientiousness, Extraversion/Positive Social Relatedness, and Intellect. Initial validation evidence shows that 5 of the 7 factors overlapped with the Big Five, whereas Honesty/Integrity and Unconventionality did not overlap. Also, scores on the indigenous tools were better predicted by relevant demographic variables than scores on the etic tool. Our study demonstrated the viability of combining etic and emic approaches as key to the understanding of personality in its cultural context. (PsycINFO Database Record

How to create reproducible brand personality scales

By means of personality traits, brands can be characterized in a concise and comprehensible manner that predestines a brand’s personality for management with the assessment of brand characteristics and comparison with competing brands. To be able to do comparisons, the respective personality model has to be reproducible. The differing measurements must be invariant across brands, time, and, if needed, cultures. This reproducibility, however, is in question for existing brand personality scales. Recent studies could not replicate several of the existing solutions, neither in other countries nor for other brands than those in the respective studies in which the scales were generated. This study examines potential causes for invariance problems and identifies a more stringent application of the psycho-lexical approach as a remedy. The study traces back to Galton’s (Fortn Rev 36:179–185, 1884) thoughts about synonyms. When factor items possess substantially more pairwise synonyms with items within this factor than with traits outside that respective factor, the personality model will turn out to be reproducible. Surveys were conducted in the USA, Germany, and France to test for cross-cultural invariance. Implications, particularly for global branding, will be discussed.

Searching for a common methodological ground for the study of politicians' perceived personality traits: A multilevel psycholexical approach

The aim of the three-stage psycholexical research was to systematize individual differences in voters’ perception of politicians’ personality traits and the differentiation dimensions of politicians’ images using the example of Ukraine. On the basis of 200 interviews, politicians’ personality lexicon was compiled and categorized. A representative sample of that lexicon was used in a study concerning the perception of several dozen politicians which allowed to identify four dimensions of politicians’ perceived personality traits at the individual and aggregate levels, distinct from the classic Big Five. Another study confirmed the stability of the structure of perception based on 2-level CFA and a strong relationship of personality image with preferences for politicians based on 2-level regression analysis.

The Psycho-Lexical Approach in Exploring the Field of Values: A Reply to Schwartz.

We reply to each of the issues raised by Schwartz in a commentary on our article on a comparison of value taxonomies. We discuss two approaches, mentioned in that commentary, the lexical approach and the theory-driven approach, especially with respect to their capacities in covering the domain of values and with respect to the representation of important values in a useful structure. We refute the critique by Schwartz that the lexical approach is superfluous, because his theory “toward universals in values” would already cover all values, and that their mutual relationships are relevant to individuals around the globe. We explain the necessity and strength of the lexical approach in taxonomizing the value domain, both within and across languages. Furthermore, we argue that principal components analysis (PCA) and simultaneous component analysis (SCA) are most adequate in arriving at a satisfactory structuring of the great many values in terms of both underlying constructs and their facets. We point to a misrepresentation in Schwartz’s circular model, and we review some misunderstandings on the side of Schwartz with respect to our results in comparison with those proceeding from his circular model.

The factor structure of Lithuanian personality-descriptive adjectives of the highest frequency of use.

We developed the Lithuanian taxonomy of personality traits according to the psycho-lexical approach. This was done in two studies. First, trait descriptive terms were selected from a Lithuanian dictionary. This selection led to a list of 435 personality-relevant adjectives was thus collected. This list was reduced to the more useful terms and ultimately led to the 194 most frequently used trait adjectives. Second, self-ratings from 212 participants were collected on both those 194 terms and on the 44-item BFI. Principal Components Analysis followed by Varimax rotation was applied on the collected ratings, and also on the ratings after ipsatization. For both these types of analysis structures with two up to seven factors were discussed. Each of the structures was also related to the five BFI-scales. The slightly clearer structure was found in the ipsatized ratings, in which clear support was found for the two-factor model (with Dynamism and Social Propriety), for the three-factor model (Dynamism, Affiliation and Order). A five-factor solution was fully presented with the Big Five factors Extraversion, Agreeableness and Conscientiousness and with a factor that had Intellect traits on the one pole and Neurotic traits on the other, and finally a factor called Toughness.