A Basic Bivariate Structure of Personality Attributes Evident Across Nine Languages

TLDR

Personality differences are observed in all human populations, yet existing lexicons contain many distinctions that lack parsimony, and current models are based on limited cultural samples. The studies aim to identify a parsimonious common‑denominator personality structure that replicates across cultures. Factor analyses of personality lexicons from nine diverse languages were compared to prominent psychological models to uncover a shared structure. A bivariate Big Two model—Social Self‑Regulation and Dynamism—converged across cultures, overlapping with the interpersonal circumplex, communion/agency, and morality/warmth‑competence dimensions, and may serve as an umbrella model linking diverse theories.

Abstract

Abstract Here, two studies seek to characterize a parsimonious common‐denominator personality structure with optimal cross‐cultural replicability. Personality differences are observed in all human populations and cultures, but lexicons for personality attributes contain so many distinctions that parsimony is lacking. Models stipulating the most important attributes have been formulated by experts or by empirical studies drawing on experience in a very limited range of cultures. Factor analyses of personality lexicons of nine languages of diverse provenance ( C hinese, K orean, F ilipino, T urkish, G reek, P olish, H ungarian, M aasai, and S enoufo) were examined, and their common structure was compared to that of several prominent models in psychology. A parsimonious bivariate model showed evidence of substantial convergence and ubiquity across cultures. Analyses involving key markers of these dimensions in E nglish indicate that they are broad dimensions involving the overlapping content of the interpersonal circumplex, models of communion and agency, and morality/warmth and competence. These “ B ig T wo” dimensions—Social S elf‐ R egulation and D ynamism—provide a common‐denominator model involving the two most crucial axes of personality variation, ubiquitous across cultures. The B ig T wo might serve as an umbrella model serving to link diverse theoretical models and associated research literatures.