Review article
The Lexical Approach in Personality Psychology: A Review of Personality Descriptive Taxonomies
Boris MLAČIĆ
Abstract
The paper describes the lexical approach in personality
psychology and the development of personality descriptive
taxonomies in various languages and cultures. The lexical
approach is based on the assumption that the most
important personality traits are encoded as words in natural
languages and that the analysis of the structure of those
words may lead to a scientifically acceptable personality
model. Starting with Galton's lexical hypothesis, through
initial research of adjective structure in the United States of
America, the lexical approach and associated taxonomies
expanded to other countries and other word classes in recent
years. The paper describes and compares the main findings
of lexical studies of personality dimensions in eleven languages. Those studies confirmed the cross-cultural validity
of the Big-Five personality model (Extraversion,
Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Emotional Stability and
Intellect) in general, but also indicated that there are some
cultural specificities. The paper also evaluates the lexical
approach and describes its possible future directions.
Keywords
Hrčak ID:
19667
URI
Publication date:
31.10.2002.
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