Beyond Agreeableness: Social–relational personality concepts from an indigenous and cross-cultural perspective

• Social–relational personality concepts identified in South Africa were examined.
• A positive and a negative factor beyond the Big Five were found.
• Social–relational scales predicted prosocialness beyond the Big Five factors.
• The studied concepts were replicated in a multicultural sample in the Netherlands.
• Big Five expansion is suggested to cover social–relational personality aspects.

The links of social–relational concepts (SRC) of personality identified in South Africa with the Five Factor Model (FFM), Interpersonal Relatedness (IR), social desirability, and prosocialness were examined. In Study 1 (N = 1483), the SRC defined two factors (positive and negative) distinct from the FFM, more strongly linked to relational than to tradition-focused IR aspects and to impression management than to deception. Links to tradition-focused concepts were stronger, and scores on positive SRC higher in Blacks than in Whites. In Study 2 (N = 325), SRC explained substantial variance in prosocialness above the FFM. In Study 3 (N = 1283), the SRC were replicated in a Dutch multicultural sample. The findings suggest expanding the FFM with respect to social–relational functioning.