Validation of an Adjective Q-Sort as a Measure of the Big Five Personality Structure

Abstract

This study provides a strategy for examining the traits of the Five Factor Model in a situation where no direct measure is available. Big Five wcales were rationally created from the 43-item Adjective Q-Sort adapted from Block 's Self-Descriptive Q-Set (Block & Block 1980). In the first study, expert judges evaluated each of the Q-Sort items on the five personality dimensions to provide conceptual measures of the five factors. Preliminary sets of items were honed using internal consistency criteria. The second study employed these scales in a sample of 112 African American 1Oth-grade students. Results indicated thatfour ofthefive scales demonstrated predictable relations to subscales of a self-concept measure, and allfive exhibited empirical relations to several parent socialization items of the Black Family Process Q-Sort. Theoretical suppositions relating personality traits to parental socialization practices are discussed.