A broad trait has several facets
Explore how broad personality domains can contain more specific tendencies.
The picture in words
- Domain
- A broad grouping of related tendencies.
- Facet
- A narrower tendency within a domain.
- Inventory
- Different measures may use different facet sets.
Reading the illustration
Read from the broad domain to its narrower tendencies. The named examples come from the BFI-2 Extraversion scale; inventories can organize facets differently.
Try a question
Why can two people with similar broad trait descriptions still differ in everyday behavior?
Show the explanation
Their narrower tendencies can differ within that broad domain. The facet structure used also depends on the personality model and inventory.
Read the sources
- Irwing, P., Hughes, D. J., Tokarev, A., & Booth, T. (2023). Towards a taxonomy of personality facets. European Journal of Personality, 38(3), 494–515. https://doi.org/10.1177/08902070231200919Rendered abstract and introduction: Irwing et al., abstract and hierarchical facets paragraphs.
- Soto and John: Optimizing the length, width, and balance of a personality scale (2019). (n.d.). https://www.colby.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Soto_John_2019.pdfSelected PDF extracted text: Title/abstract, BFI2 measure description printed447/PDFpage4 and self/peer-report context.