Testing the Lexical Hypothesis: Are Socially Important Traits More Densely Reflected in the English Lexicon?
Using a set of 498 English words identified by Saucier (1997) as common person-descriptor adjectives or trait terms, I tested 3 instantiations of the lexical hypothesis, which posit that more socially important person descriptors show greater density in the lexicon. Specifically, 1 explored whether...
| Publicado en: | Journal of Personality & Social Psychology Vol. 108; no. 2; pp. 317 - 336 |
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| Formato: | Artículo |
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American Psychological Association
Feb2015
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| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ssf&AN=100834110&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: ssf uiTerm: 100834110 longDbName: Social Sciences Full Text (H.W. Wilson) uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 00223514 JSS jtl: Journal of Personality & Social Psychology issn: 00223514 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Feb2015 vid: 108 iid: 2 pid: 34 pub: American Psychological Association artinfo: ui: 100834110 10.1037/a0038343 ppf: 317 ppct: 19 formats: tig: atl: Testing the Lexical Hypothesis: Are Socially Important Traits More Densely Reflected in the English Lexicon? aug: au: Wood, Dustin affil: Wake Forest University su: Personality studies Terms & phrases Five-factor model of personality Psychology Lexicon English language terms & phrases Adjectives Trait intercorrelations Hypothesis sug: subj: Personality studies Terms & phrases Five-factor model of personality Psychology Lexicon English language terms & phrases Adjectives Trait intercorrelations Hypothesis keyword: Big Five lexical hypothesis personality traits social desirability trait structure Big Five lexical hypothesis personality traits social desirability trait structure ab: Using a set of 498 English words identified by Saucier (1997) as common person-descriptor adjectives or trait terms, I tested 3 instantiations of the lexical hypothesis, which posit that more socially important person descriptors show greater density in the lexicon. Specifically, 1 explored whether trait terms that have greater relational impact (i.e., more greatly influence how others respond to a person) have more synonyms, are more frequently used, and are more strongly correlated with other trait terms. I found little evidence to suggest that trait terms rated as having greater relational impact were more frequently used or had more synonyms. However, these terms correlated more strongly with other trait terms in the set. Conversely, a trait term's loadings on structural factors (e.g., the Big Five, HEXACO) were extremely good predictors of the term's relational impact. The findings suggest that the lexical hypothesis may not be strongly supported in some ways it is commonly understood but is supported in the manner most important to investigations of trait structure. Specifically, trait terms with greater relational impact tend to more strongly correlate with other terms in lexical sets and thus have a greater role in driving the location of factors in analyses of trait structure. Implications for understanding the meaning of lexical factors such as the Big Five are discussed. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: N holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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