A General Factor of Personality (GFP) from the Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire

The hypothesis that a General Factor of Personality (GFP) occupies the apex of the hierarchical structure of personality was examined in the validation sample of the Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire. A maximum likelihood estimation model that went from the 11 primary traits to five higher-order traits resembling the Big Five, and from there to the Big Two (Plasticity, Stability), and from there to the Big One, provided a good fit to the data, explaining 25% of the variance in the two second-order factors. We consider the GFP from the perspective of evolutionary life-history theory.