The Factor Structure of Lithuanian personality-descriptive adjectives of the highest frequency of use

Abstract

Lexical studies of personality attributes have been highly generative and attracted the interest of psychology researchers worldwide. The purpose of that kind of studies is the identification of the most salient aspects of human personality, based on representations of these aspects in the lexicon of a language. Starting from the rationale of lexical hypothesis, discussion about the advantages and limitations of the lexical approach, we present the development of general taxonomy of personality traits- The Big Five. The present study reviews psycho-lexical studies in English and 14 other languages. Alternative competitor structures like one-, two-, three-, six- and seven-factor models are briefly described. In the present article the interest of the first time in English Lithuanian lexical study are presented. Lithuanian personality-descriptors – 194 adjectives- were factor analysed and clear version of the Big Five factor structure were found. These five factors were labeled: Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Emotional Stability, and Intellect-Openness. The emic structure of Lithuanian personality-descriptors does not appear to be much different from that found in other languages and correlated well with imported Big-Five measure (BFI). With the help of the oldest Indo-European language – Lithuanian – lexical study the universality of the Big Five dimensions of personality in comparison with alternative competitor models was reached.