The circular model of personality traits structure in Lewis Goldberg’s proposal
The circular model of personality traits structure in Lewis Goldberg’s proposal

Summary/Abstract: The Five-Factor Model (FFM) of personality (Digman, 1990) is one of the most prominent taxonomies of traits. Many empirical studies supporting FFM led McCrae (2009) to the comparison of FFM to the physics of personality. However, researchers have faced some problems in relation to FFM, both theoretical and methodological. The main reason of those problems could refer to the organization of lower-level personality traits. FFM assumes the hierarchical structure of traits. It means that all five basic personality dimensions have their own facets, independent from each other. The Abridged Big Five-Dimensional Circumplex (AB5C) proposed by Hofstee, de Raad, and Goldberg (1992) is a competitive model describing the personality traits structure as circularly organized. Lower-level traits are characterized by loadings on a subset of two from five factors in AB5C model. Each pair of the Big Five factors shape a circumplex that incorporates facets (lower-level traits). In this way, AB5C model consists of 10 two dimensional circumplexes that could be treated – in a metaphoric language – as a kind of “periodic table” of personality traits (Hofstee, de Raad, & Goldberg, 1992). The article presents the main assumptions of AB5C model operationalized by IPIP-45AB5C questionnaire, with the emphasis on differences between hierarchical and circular models of personality traits structure.

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