Abstract
Recently, it has been proposed that all non-cognitive measures of personality share a general factor of personality. A problem with many of these studies is a lack of clarity in defining a general factor. In this paper we address the multiple ways in which a general factor has been identified and argue that many of these approaches find factors that are not in fact general. Through the use of artificial examples, we show that a general factor is not:. 1.The first factor or component of a correlation or covariance matrix.2.The first factor resulting from a bifactor rotation or biquartimin transformation.3.Necessarily the result of a confirmatory factor analysis forcing a bifactor solution.We consider how the definition of what constitutes a general factor can lead to confusion, and we will demonstrate alternative ways of estimating the general factor saturation that are more appropriate.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 493-504 |
Number of pages | 12 |
Journal | Journal of Research in Personality |
Volume | 47 |
Issue number | 5 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Oct 2013 |
Keywords
- CFA
- EFA
- Factor analysis
- General factor of personality
- Psychometrics
- SEM
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Social Psychology
- General Psychology