How general is the “General Factor of Personality”? Evidence from the Texas Adoption Project

Genotype-environment correlation in the era of DNA

One of John Loehlin’s many contributions to the field of behavioral genetics involves gene-environment (GE) correlation. The empirical base for GE correlation was research showing that environmental measures are nearly as heritable as behavioral measures and that genetic factors mediate correlations between environment and behavior. Attempts to identify genes responsible for these phenomena will come up against the ‘missing heritability’ problem that plagues DNA research on complex traits throughout the life sciences. However, DNA can also be used for quantitative genetic analyses of unrelated individuals (Genome-wide Complex Trait Analysis, GCTA) to investigate genetic influence on environmental measures and their behavioral correlates. A novel feature of GCTA is that it enables genetic analysis of family-level environments (e.g., parental socioeconomic status) and school-level environments (e.g., teaching quality) that cannot be investigated using within-family designs such as the twin method. An important implication of GE correlation is its shift from a passive model of the environment imposed on individuals to an active model in which individuals actively create their own experiences in part on the basis of their genetic propensities.

The General Factor of Personality: A General Critique

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: The first factor or component of a correlation or covariance matrix.The first factor resulting from a bifactor rotation or biquartimin transformationNecessarily 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.

The Elusive General Factor of Personality: The Acquaintance Effect

A general factor (gp) at the apex of personality has been suggested to account for the correlations between the Big Five. Although the gp has received ample support from monomethod studies, results from studies incorporating different methods have remained rather ambiguous; some have identified a gp across different informants, whereas others have not. It was hypothesized that these divergent findings are a result of varying lengths of acquaintance between raters. To this end, the current study presents a multitrait multi–informant meta–analysis (total N = 11 941) that found weak support for a gp as a substantive trait of personality. Evidence for a gp was susceptible to the length of acquaintance between informants. Although a gp could be identified for short–term acquaintances, it remained elusive at long–term acquaintance. Thus, the gp in other ratings more likely reflects normative ratings of an average individual rather than ratings of the specific target person. Copyright © 2013 European Association of Personality Psychology