Empirical identification of the major facets of Conscientiousness

a r t i c l e i n f o Conscientiousness is often found to predict academic outcomes, but is defined differently by different models of personality. High school students (N = 291) completed a large number of Conscientiousness items from different models and the Big Five Inventory (BFI). Exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis of the items uncovered Correlations between these facets and the BFI revealed that all facets related strongly to Conscientiousness. Criterion-related validity was demonstrated by relationships between facets and academic outcomes such as grade-point-average, disciplinary infractions, and attainment of academic honors. Compared to BFI Conscientiousness, Industriousness and Perfectionism showed significantly stronger prediction of absenteeism and cognitive test scores, respectively. Results are discussed in terms of the usefulness of facet scores, the interpretation of personality scores for selection, and the development of intervention programs. Conscientiousness has been linked to a myriad of positive outcomes across educational, health, and personnel psychology, and appears to be the personality trait with the most predictive utility (e. Meta-analyses demonstrate that Conscientiousness correlates from .23 to .27 with college grades, and .21 with academic achievement at high school, with these relationships holding after accounting for general cognitive ability However, different models of personality define and measure Conscientiousness differently, and also propose different facet-level structures (e.g., Costa & McCrae, 1992; Lee & Ashton, 2004). Some aspects of Conscientiousness may correlate more highly with academic achievement than others; i.e., narrow facets of personality sometimes show higher criterion correlations than broad dimensions with outcome variables aims to clarify the underlying facets of Conscientiousness when many different personality models are considered, as well as to examine the relationship of different facets of Conscientiousness to academic achievement in a high school sample. Table 1 summarizes existing empirical research on the structure of Conscientiousness. This research primarily used a psycho-lexical approach (i.e., adjectives), a circumplex model of personality, and undergraduate and workplace samples Three facets were common to all five studies (Orderliness, Industriousness, and Responsibility/Reliability), a Control facet emerged in four studies, and Decisiveness and Conventionality facets emerged in two studies. The remaining facets of Persistence, Punctuality, Formality, and Virtue uniquely emerged in different studies. Since the circumplex model allows factor overlap, some Conscientiousness-facets were blends of Conscien-tiousness and another broad dimension (e.g., Responsibility/Reliability was a blend of Conscientiousness and Agreeableness). Thus, only three exclusively-Conscientiousness facets emerged from these analyses: Or-derliness, Industriousness, and Control. Results from the current …