The structure of conscientiousness: An empirical investigation based on seven major personality
questionnaries by Roberts et al. (2005)
Purpose--to identify underlying structure of trait domain of Conscientiousness using scales drawn from 7
major personaity inventories
personality variables predict performance across a diverse array of occupational groups-conscientiousness most important: shown to predict task performance, contextual performance, and
variety of outcomes related to adaptive social
functioning
9 unique facets identified--order, achievement, responsibility, impulse control, moralistic, persistence,
traditionalism, formalness, and decisiveness
no conceptual or empirical solution to providing comprehensive coverage of all 9 facets and no 2
systems in complete agreement
first study to explore lower-order structure of Conscientiousness using scales drawn from most thoroughly
validated personality inventories created to date
7 personality inventories used and each has 2 or more subscales tapping into domain of
Conscientiousness
1) the revised NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-PI-R)
240 items to assess the Big Five
subscales included dutifulness, achievement striving, competence, order, self-discipline,
and deliberation
2) 16 Personality Factor Questionnaire (16PF)
185 items measuring 16 personality traits and one intellectual reasoning trait
subscales included rule-consciousness and perfectionism
3) California Psychological Inventory (CPI)
462 true-false items to assess everyday interpersonal themes in behavior
subscales included responsibility, socialization, self-control, good impression, well-being,
and acheivement via conformance
4) Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire (MPQ)
300 true-false items
subscales included control, harm avoidance, and traditionalism
5) the Jackson Personality Inventory-Revised (JPI-R)
300 items to provide measures of personality traits found to be relevant to prediction of
behavior in a range of contexts, especially industrial settings
subscales included organization, traditional values, and responsibility
6) the Hogan Personality Inventory (HPI)
206 items developed in context of socioanalytic theory and to reflect the Big Five
subscales included moralistic, mastery, virtuous, not autonomous, not spontaneous,
impulse control, and avoids trouble
7) the AB5C scales from the International Personality Item Pool (AB5C-IPIP)
based on fact that traits can be represented as a blend of two higher-order Big Five
dimensions
subscales included Conscientiousness (pure Conscientiousness), efficiency (high
Conscientiousness, high Extraversion), cautiousness (high Conscientiousness, low Extraversion),
dutifulness (high Conscientiousness,
low Agreeableness), purposefulness (high Conscientiousness, high Emotional
Stability), perfectionism (high Conscientiousness, low Emotional Stability), organization (high
Conscientiousness, high intellect), and
orderliness (high Conscientiousness, low intellect)
several used in selection purposes in industry
provide variety of techniques used to create tests and represent types of questionnaires most
used in research and in establishing relationship of traits to specific criteria
study conducted in 3 phases
1) identified scales in each of the 7 inventories that were conceptually related to
Conscientiousness domain
2) derived lower-order structure of Conscientiousness by factor analyzing scale scores for
individuals who completed all 7inventories
exploratory factor analysis used because # of plausible alternative models (how many
lower-order Conscientiousness factors exist or which personality scales they influence) is so high that
confirmatory factor analyses
infeasible and also exploratory factor analysis useful for probing underlying
structure of data and generating hypotheses that can be subjected to more rigorous subsequent testing
six factors found to be most empirically and conceptually satisfying: industriousness,
order, self-control, traditionalism, responsibility, and virtue
3) confirmatory factor analysis used to examine convergent and discriminant validities of resulting
lower-order Conscientiousness facets with global measures of the Big Five
737 participants, ages 22-90, completed seven personality inventories over 5-year span and the inventory
of 400 behavioral acts and measures of health practices
criterion-related validity limited to 197 participants who were working while completing surveys
Results
six factors showed good convergent validity (high correlations with global Conscientiousness
factor) and demonstrated adequate discriminant validity (low correlations with other Big Five)
lower-order facets have differential relationships with criteria (i.e. drug use, work dedication,
preventative health behaviors, and traffic risk), thus improved criterion-related validity over the broad
measure of Conscientiousness no
Discussion
existing personality test provides systematic coverage of total Conscientiousness domain
two factors previously identified not found in this study: decisiveness (identified by lexical
research) and persistence (Hough & Ones, 2001)--more research needed to reconcile discrepancies
discriminant validity problematic and should view following facets as "interstitial" or "transition"
dimensions of Conscientiousness
facets of Conscientiousness such as responsibility and virtue strongly correlated with
Agreeableness and Emotional Stability
high correlation between traditionalism and Openness to Experience
criterion-related validity showed not all outcomes were related to job performance (expect work
dedication)
varied patterns of predictive validity of the six facets across four criteria
one or two facets constituted the best predictors of each outcome
showing individual facets better predictors of criteria than overall Conscientiousness
composite
Limitations
not all personality inventories assessed
factor structure and criterion-related validity based on self-reports, thus socially desirable
responses possibly influenced factor structure and patterns of correlations with external criteria--counter
in future studies by identifying
similar facets and correlates in alternatives methods,
such as observer ratings or test data, and in different samples, such as job applicants
predictor and criterion data came from same source (self) and that could lead to common method
variance and thus somewhat inflated criterion validities
lack of multidimensional job performance criteria to evaluate differential validity of the six factors
Future Directions
more precise knowledge about each facet of Conscientiousness can affect important work
outcomes
facets have better predictive validity than global Big Five
there are moderate intercorrelations between facets--be cautious in interpreting what the average
global Conscientious scores really mean
Conclusion
results can be used to refine meta-analytic categorizations of personality measures in an effort to
determine aspects of Conscientiousness that are most related to outcomes such as task and contextual
performance
the six facets of Conscientiousness found to be heterogeneous--relationships with I/O related
criterion variables may be very different and provide incremental validity beyond general factor of
Conscientiousness