German lexical personality factors: relations with the HEXACO model

Abstract

We correlated the scales of the HEXACO Personality Inventory (HEXACO‐PI) with adjective scale markers of factors previously obtained in indigenous lexical studies of personality structure in the German language. Self‐ratings obtained from a sample of 323 German participants showed a pattern of strong convergent and weak discriminant correlations, supporting the content‐based interpretation of the German lexical factors in terms of the HEXACO dimensions. Notably, convergent correlations were strong for both the broader and the narrower variants of the Honesty‐Humility factor as observed in German lexical studies. Also, convergent correlations for HEXACO Openness to Experience were, as expected, stronger for German adjectives describing a creative and intellectual orientation than for German adjectives describing intellectual ability. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.