Beyond the Big Five

This article aims at a discussion of three controversial issues about the Big Five (1) Is the five-factor model comprehensive? (2) How should the amount of variance accounted for by the Big Five be measured? (3) Are the Big Five orthogonal and do they represent the highest hierarchical level of personality description? Subjects were 115 men and women in the age range from 20 to 63 years. They answered three Big Five measures (1) a German version of the NEO-FFI, (2) 45 bipolar ratings scales, developed by Ostendorf [Ostendorf, F. (1990). Sprache und Persönlichkeitsstruktur. Zur Validität des Fünf-Faktoren-Modells. [Language and the structure of personality. About the validity of the Five-Factor-Model]. Regensburg: Roderer.], (3) the Hamburg personality inventory, developed by Andresen [Andresen, B. (1995). Risikobereitschaft (R): der sechste Basisfaktor der Persönlichkeit: Konvergenz multivariater Studien und Konstruktexplikation. [Risk preference (R): the sixth basic factor of personality: convergence of multivariate studies and construct explication], Zeitschrift für Differentielle und Diagnostische Psychologie, 16, 210–236.], as well as the Trier personality inventory, developed by Becker [Becker, P. (1989). Der Trierer Persönlichkeitsfragebogen TPF. Handanweisung. [The Trier personality inventory. TPI. Manual]. Göttingen: Hogrefe.] and the Trier behavior control inventory, developed by Becker [Becker, P. (1995). Seelische Gesundheit und Verhaltenskontrolle. Eine integrative Persönlichkeitstheorie und ihre klinische Anwendung. [Mental health and behavior control. An integrative personality theory and its clinical application]. Göttingen: Hogrefe.]. The results of several factor analyses lead to the following conclusions (1) The five-factor model is not comprehensive. At least a sixth factor hedonism/spontaneity can be replicated. (2) The Big Five and the six first-order factors are not orthogonal but oblique so that two higher-order factors (the Big Two), labelled mental health and behavior control, can be found. The loadings of the 33 basic variables and of the six first-order factors on the Big Two have a circumplex structure.