The limitations of extracting typologies from trait measures of personality

Vollrath and Torgerson (2000) recently recommended a typology based on the Neuroticism, Extraversion, and Conscientiousness personality dimensions as a means to study individuals’ reactions to distressing conditions. Although there may be potential advantages to using personality types, there are also conceptual and statistical limitations to dichotomizing continuously scaled personality scales. To demonstrate these limitations, I repeated a portion of Vollrath and Torgerson’s study. A sample of 313 college students completed a common measure of the Big Five personality dimensions and a measure of coping strategy. The current data replicate Vollrath and Torgerson’s findings, but suggest that converting the scaled scores to dichotomous categories produces a considerable loss of information. Moreover, the data indicate that ignoring the contribution of Agreeableness and Openness to Experience personality dimensions as predictor of coping strategy is premature.