Big Five or Big Two? Superordinate factors in the NEO Five Factor Inventory and the Antisocial Personality Questionnaire

Although it is claimed that the Big Five dimensions of Neuroticism, Extraversion, Openness, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness represent the highest level in the hierarchical structure of personality, there is consistent evidence that they are not independent and that two higher order factors underlie them. Two higher order factors also underlie the scales of the Antisocial Personality Questionnaire (APQ). Structural equation modelling was used in a sample of male forensic psychiatric patients (N=164) to test the hypotheses that the scales of the NEO Five Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI) support two higher order factors as found in other Big Five measures, and that these are equivalent to the dimensions of the APQ. Good support was found for the model and a confirmatory factor analysis indicated that the Impulsivity and Withdrawal factor scales of the APQ provide reasonable markers of the NEO-FFI latent factors. The two factors can be interpreted in terms of the metaconcepts of agency and communion, and it is suggested that the Impulsivity and Withdrawal dimensions reflect basic motivational concerns about power, status, and intimacy.