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A Lexical Approach to Personality in Japanese

Research Project

Project/Area Number 10610151
Research Category

Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)

Allocation TypeSingle-year Grants
Section一般
Research Field 教育・社会系心理学
Research InstitutionKonan Women's University

Principal Investigator

TSUJI Heijiro  Konan Women's University, Psychology, Professor, 文学部, 教授 (60098457)

Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha) 辻 斉  京都大学, 総合情報メディアセンター, 助手 (50207362)
Project Period (FY) 1998 – 2000
Project Status Completed (Fiscal Year 2000)
Budget Amount *help
¥2,300,000 (Direct Cost: ¥2,300,000)
Fiscal Year 2000: ¥500,000 (Direct Cost: ¥500,000)
Fiscal Year 1999: ¥500,000 (Direct Cost: ¥500,000)
Fiscal Year 1998: ¥1,300,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,300,000)
Keywordspersonality traits / lexical approach / Big Five / emic study / indigenous factors / パーソナリティ特性 / 日本語 / 性格特性 / 特性語 / 5因子
Research Abstract

Recent lexical studies of traits in English and other European languages, have consistently found 5 robust factors (Big Five). However, we don't have yet emic studies but only etic ones in Japan. So, we examined whether or not the same 5 factors could be confirmed in Japanese lexical studies.
Twenty-three psychologists including graduate students collected personality descriptive words from the Kojien (5^<th> ed., 1998), the most authorized dictionary in Japan. There 13,198 personality words (the 1^<st> database) were found. Then, 18 psychologists rated currency of the words by a 3-point scale and 11,145 words (the 2^<nd> database) were selected as understandable (mean ratings over 1.5) ; these include 8,134 nouns, 1,099 verbs, 646 adjectives, 77 adverbs, 4 rentaishi (adjectival words), and 1,185 idiomatic phrases. Next, 3,779 words (the 3^<rd> database) were selected, based on the mean ratings over 2.5 on currency, clarity, and utility as ordinarily used. We also have got 400 popular words, rated as 3 on each scale by each rater. So, we asked 490 student subjects to rate themselves on these 400 word items. Factor-analysis of the ratings yielded 11 factors ; i.e. irritability, sociability, malignity, self-centeredness, social maturity, shyness, eccentricity, persistence, dullness, genuineness, and optimism. These factors seem to share little features with the Big Five. This may mean that indigenous factors of the personality descriptors in Japanese are somewhat different from those in English (Big Five), or that non-trait words (representing temporal states etc.) contaminated the result.

Report

(4 results)
  • 2000 Annual Research Report   Final Research Report Summary
  • 1999 Annual Research Report
  • 1998 Annual Research Report

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Published: 1998-04-01   Modified: 2016-04-21  

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