Using metaphorical items for describing personality constructs

Our research perspective can be seen as an extension of standard linguistic hypothesis, focusing on the metaphorical expressions used in spoken language and their potential to describe personality. The aim of the study was to demonstrate that metaphorical expressions can be used as descriptors of personality. The subsequent objective was to develop personality measures using metaphorical items. In the first phase we focused on developing a metaphorical anxiety scale and in the second one on assembling a large list of metaphors used to describe personality traits. The studies demonstrated reasonable psychometric properties of the metaphorical anxiety scale and also a number of significant correlations between metaphors and personality constructs, so, as collected data suggest, metaphorical expressions can be used to describe personality traits and to formulate items for personality assessment instruments.