PSYCHOLOGY MASTER'S THESIS ABSTRACT

Leah Behl

MA-Research
August 1997

The Five-Factor Model and Conscientiousness

    The modern day Five-Factor Model claims that the personality is comprised of five basic and universal factors: Neuroticism (N), Extroversion (E), Conscientiousness (C), Agreeableness (A), and Openness to Experience (O).  This study attempted to explore the Conscientiousness factor from an evolutionary perspective.  While the hypotheses of this study were not validated, exploratory analyses brought a few interesting possibilities to light.  The pattern of loadings of the four following scales, the Fear of Negative Evaluation, the Obsessive Compulsive Scale, the Fear Survey Schedule-II (FSS-II), and Goldberg’s Big-Five Factor Structure, seems to indicate that extroverts are less concerned about social evaluation than their introverted counterparts.  In addition, the results of the factor analysis of just the FSS-II suggest two independent fear mechanisms, fears of social evaluation and fears of personal safety, which fit very well with the evolutionary model.

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