Personality Assessment Using The Hexaco Model of Personality Structure

Introduction

The HEXACO Personality Inventory is a six-dimensional model of human personality that is constructed by Ashton (2013). A lot of researchers did make use of the Big Five framework since 1990, but now many researchers make use of this newer HEXACO-PI-R model. This instrument is used to measure the six dimensions of personality that are found in previous personality research conducted in various cultures.

HEXACO-PI-R is the revised inventory that has forms of three lengths. These are 200 items, 100 items and 60 items. Each of these forms are grouped into scales measuring narrower personality traits. Then, these scale that measure the personality traits are formed into broader scales. These broader scales measure the six dimensions which are the following: H is for honesty/humility, E for emotionality, X for extraversion, A for agreeableness, C for conscientiousness and O for openness to experience.

There is a large similarity between the HEXACO-PI-R and the factors of the NEO-PI-R. These factors are extraversion, conscientiousness and openness to experience. However, there is a difference for the other factors. In the HEXACO-PI-R the trait emotionality includes some traits associated with NEO-PI-R trait neuroticism but also some of the traits excluded for neuroticism. Another difference is that HEXACO-PI-R trait agreeableness includes traits related with NEO-PI-R trait agreeableness but also traits which are related to low neuroticism.

The last trait of HEXACO-PI-R, honesty-humility includes also some traits which are associated with NEO-PI-R trait agreeableness. There have been investigations who did research on whether or not the HEXACO framework can explain some personality traits that are not well explained by the Big Five of Five-Factor model. The results were that several traits do fit well within the HEXACO framework and not within the Five-factor model. Suggested is that the domain of personality characteristics is more in detail summarized by the HEXACO framework.

It is worth studying the content of different personality factors and thus to understand the similarities and differences. The HEXACO-PI-R model information of this report is based on a self-rating questionnaire filled in by the participant and the other-rating questionnaire was filled in by the researcher, both in Dutch. De Vries et all. (2008) indicate that more intimate relationships like family members or partners, are characterized by much stronger correlations between self-reports and other-reports than are less intimate relationships. The participant and other are partners. The questionnaires were entered in SPSS and the raw data was converted to T-scores to compare them. Important to mention is that this information does not provide any diagnosis of mental health problems.

The raw scores from the self- and other questionnaire are transformed into standard scores in order to compare scores between persons. T-scores ranges from lower than 35, which means a very low score. Then there is 35-44 which means a low score, 45-55 which means an average score, 56-65 which means a high score and higher than 65 means a very high score. This data is taken from the college slides on 19-09-2018. The first trait of the self, honesty-humility, has a T-score of 43, 41. This score means that the participant has a low score on the trait honesty-humility. The other has a T-score of 53, 49, which is an average score on the trait honesty/humility.

The next trait emotionality, the self has a T-score of 47, 10, which is an average score. The other has a score of 43, 56 on this trait, which means a low score. By the trait extraversion, the self has a T-score of 61, 61, which is a high score. The other has also a T-score of 62, 61. On the trait agreeableness, the self has a T-score of 58, 58, which is a high score. The other has a T-score of 65, 04, which means a very high score. On the trait conscientiousness, the self has a score of 47, 72 which means an average score and the other has a score of 38, 79 which means a low score. The last trait is openness to experience. The self has a T-score of 60, 35 which means a high score. The other has a T-score of 40, 90 which means a low score.

Personality Description

As mentioned before, the HEXACO model contains six dimensions: honesty/humility, emotionality, extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness and openness to experience. Honesty-humility has traits which include sincerity, fairness, modesty and lack of greed. These traits seem to have in common a tendency not to exploit or benefit from others. The general standing on this dimension is from perspective of the participant ratings is low, compared with the perspective of the other ratings which is average. An explanation could be that the participant acts better than he is when the other is around.

Emotionally has traits that include fearfulness, anxiety, dependence and sentimentality. The general standing on this dimension is from perspective of the participant ratings is average, compared with the perspective of the other ratings which is low. There is no explanation for this little difference between the participant and the other. Extraversion has traits that include social self-esteem, social boldness, sociability and liveliness. The general standing on this dimension is from perspective of the participant ratings is high, compared with the perspective of the other ratings which is also high. Extraversion is a trait which is often clearly visible and therefore it could be that the participant and the rather saw this the same way.

Agreeableness has traits that include forgiveness, gentleness, flexibility and patience. The general standing on this dimension is from perspective of the participant ratings is high, compared with the perspective of the other ratings which is very high. Agreeableness is a trait which is visible in close relationships. For this reason, the participant and rater could have the same view on this. Conscientiousness has traits that include organization, diligence, perfectionism and prudence or caution.

The general standing on this dimension is from perspective of the participant ratings is average, compared with the perspective of the other ratings which is low. An explanation could be that the other is scoring herself high on this trait, whereby the participant is scoring low on this trait in comparison with the other. Other and self-ratings are very different from each other, but it is not clear why this might be Openness to experience has traits that include aesthetic appreciation, inquisitiveness, creativity and unconventionality.

The last trait is openness to experience. The general standing on this dimension is from perspective of the participant ratings is high, compared with the perspective of the other ratings which is low. An explanation could be that the participant is more open to experience when the other is not there. Another reason for this difference in rating is maybe that the other is very open to experience in comparison to the participant, whereby she rates the participant low.