Interpersonal Lexicon: Structural Evidence from Two Independently Constructed Verb-Based Taxonomies
Abstract
Summary: In this study the structure of interpersonal behavior is investigated according to the principles of the so-called psycholexical approach. As bases for this study, we used the data from a taxonomy of interpersonal behavior verbs and a subset of data from a taxonomy of interpersonal trait verbs. The interpersonal trait verbs were selected from a set of 543 personality descriptive verbs constructed by De Raad, Mulder, Kloosterman, and Hofstee (1988). Self- and peer-ratings from 200 subjects on a subset of 303 interpersonal trait verbs were subjected to principal components analysis. The interpersonal behavior verbs taxonomy started with a pool of 986 interpersonal behavior verbs. Two methods were used to arrive at a description of interpersonal structure, the semantic interaction method and the synonymity groups method. Judgmental data were subjected to principal components analyses. In all studies, the main results centered around a two-factor solution, approximately reflecting the axis of the traditional interpersonal circumplex, Dominance and Nurturance. In addition, other factor solutions were used to identify clusters of interpersonal meaning, not present in the traditional circumplex. The relationship of the two interpersonal factors with the Big Five is discussed.
References
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