AUTHOR=Bäckström Martin , Björklund Fredrik , Persson Rebecka , Costa Ariela 

TITLE=Five-Factor Personality Inventories Have a Competence-Related Higher-Order Factor Due to Item Phrasing

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Psychology

VOLUME=Volume 11 - 2020

YEAR=2020

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.557544

DOI=10.3389/fpsyg.2020.557544

ISSN=1664-1078

ABSTRACT=This research examines the items of some of the most well established five-factor inventories. Results reveal that both experts and laymen can distinguish between items that refer to how competently a behavior is performed and items that do not (Study 1). Responses to items that refer to competence create a higher-order factor in the personality inventories (Study 2), and the variability in responses to competence related items in personality self-ratings is best modelled as general factor rather than as also tied to the specific Big Five factors (Study 3 and 4). We suggest that a focused debate on what a personality items should refer to is likely to have considerable positive consequences for both theory and measurement or of personality.