The HEXACO Personality Model: What It Is, And Components
Understanding personality has been, and is, one of the elementary purposes of Psychology as a scientific discipline; since behind this phenomenon lies the key to discovering how human beings think, feel and behave in our natural environment.
That is why it has always been considered one of the basic substrates of behavior or emotion, and for many years theoretical models of different origin and structure have been postulated to me, through which to approach its study and analysis.
In this article we will address the most recent of all of them, more specifically the HEXACO personality model (Ashton and Lee, 2001). It is one of the proposals that has received the most scientific coverage in the last two decades, as it successfully integrates the roots that precede it and provides substantial new developments regarding them.
Next we will take a brief tour of the epistemological context from which the model emerges, its valuable proposals (both in terms of form and content) and the areas in which it is currently beginning to be applied. This will also evoke the similarities and differences with respect to previous models.
The first thing that draws “attention” about the HEXACO personality model is that it has 6 basic factors, one for each letter of your name, which refer to the different traits or factors that are included in it. In this way, it proposes: honesty-humility (H), emotionality (E), extraversion (X), cordiality (A), conscientiousness (C) and openness to experience (O); forming the acronym by which it has been popularized and outlining a series of dimensions in which any human being can be located. It is, therefore, about a spectrum of intensity that includes “normal” and “pathological” personality (which predisposes to mental health problems).
As can be seen, This theoretical model represents an increase in the number of factors compared to Eysenck’s classic three-dimensional postulate (neuroticism, extraversion and psychoticism) and Costa and McCrae’s five-dimensional, which became known as the Big Five (neuroticism, extraversion, openness to experience, agreeableness and responsibility). The latter became, without a doubt, the most used by the entire scientific community; although in recent years it has been receiving numerous criticisms for its inability to explain the complete variance of human diversity.
The HEXACO model, like the “Big Five”, was built from an analysis of the lexicon with which people described the forms that personality could take. That is, a sample of multiple languages was used, and from its analysis the words that served to define the behavior of human beings were extracted, observing a consensus between cultures that could be summarized in the 6 factors finally included in HEXACO. Of all of them, the most relevant were neuroticism and extraversion, which also emerged as those with the greatest predictive power regarding emotional difficulties.
And one of the great purposes of personality models is to find, at least, Protective and risk factors for the emergence of various psychopathologies Underlying all of this would be the interest in knowing the way in which human beings act and think when relating to other people in their environment or with themselves, since from there it would be possible to predict and explain the nuances of their emotional and intimate life. . All of this is very important when designing intervention programs that take into account individuality and adjust to the idiosyncrasy of the patient.
The most important contribution of HEXACO is the honesty-humility factor, for which there was no analogue until now in previous personality models. Furthermore, it renames neuroticism (labeling it as emotionality) and incorporates sentimentality as a facet of it (previously included in agreeableness). The redistribution of the facets of each factor also extends to anger control, which was traditionally part of neuroticism and with HEXACO is reassigned to agreeableness. The rest of the factors (both extraversion, openness to experience and conscientiousness) remain very similar in their formulation.
There is currently a questionnaire purposely designed to explore the factors outlined and called HEXACO-PI (whose review was carried out in 2006). It has three different versions, depending on the total number of items included; It may consist of 200, 100 or 60 reagents. The last two are the most widely used, since they have similar reliability (very good/excellent) and are less expensive to administer. In addition, they have an additional advantage: They can be answered by the person themselves or by a family member or friend who knows them well
The 6 factors of the HEXACO model
Let’s go into more detail to see what each of the factors included in the HEXACO personality model means and how it is expressed. It must be taken into consideration that none can be interpreted in negative terms, and that all people score more or less high in all of them. Even so, it is known that the combination of intense neuroticism and low extraversion constitutes a risk profile for the development of clinically significant depression and anxiety.
1. Honesty-humility
The honesty-humility factor is, without a doubt, the most relevant contribution that the HEXACO personality model makes to understanding how personality works. It is his original contribution, which expands the number of basic dimensions and the perspective of analysis of the phenomenon.
This factor refers to sincerity, which includes a preference for telling the truth and omitting any interested distortion of the facts Furthermore, it implies an adjusted perception of oneself, which avoids extolling one’s own worth and chooses to emphasize what one really is. Those who score high on this variable wield a balanced sense of justice in their relationships with others and are capable of renouncing pride when it interferes with the vision of a relational conflict. In short, they opt for a persuasion based on authenticity.
This factor is at the base of many power dynamics, in the private sphere (sentimental life) and the public sphere (economy and politics, for example). It is also related to an absence of material greed and a lower assumption of risky behaviors.
2. Emotionality
The emotionality factor equivalent to what other authors coined as neuroticism In this case, it refers to a persistent pattern of behavior and thinking, whose fundamental consequence is vulnerability to suffering from depressive or anxious disorders. Without a doubt, it is the dimension that has been most closely related to psychopathology, which is why it has been described (in one way or another) in all previous theoretical models of personality.
People who score high on this trait feel anxious most of the time, and worry excessively about what has already happened or might happen. The emotion of fear becomes the most common in the scenario of your emotional life, conditioning your actions and thoughts in an extraordinary way.
All of this It also carries over to social interactions, where a deathly fear of independence or an excessive tendency to avoid prevails. In any case, negative affect is more intense and lasts much longer, so it is present for a very significant part of the time.
Sentimentality is also a very important part of emotionality. It translates into the subjective experience of hypersensitivity to emotional fluctuations, so that their intensity and consequences become more acute.
3. Extraversion
Extraversion is a trait that is related, above all, to the social image that the subject has of himself and the way in which this is projected in the scenario of relationships with others People who have high scores in this trait enjoy making friends, meeting with other people and even taking a proactive position in the group tasks in which they participate. This tendency is increased by the optimistic perception of their social skills.
Many studies have also found that extraversion is related to “positive” type emotions, such as enthusiasm and/or joy. In addition to all this, extroverts make better use of social networks (family or friends) in times of need, which is related to a reduced risk of affective disorders secondary to stress.
4. Openness to experience
Openness to experience describes the subject who is willing to accept what is new and different as another part of what defines him or her. Curiosity is, therefore, the driving force that fuels his behavior and his emotions. This profile is also associated with the preference for everything that is unconventional, for interests that are foreign to the current of social preferences and for “creativity” in art and/or literature.
People with high scores in this trait are interested in experiencing all types of emotions, in entering into a varied or diverse life, and have little fear of the changes that accompany time. They maintain the capacity for wonder at beauty, in which they usually delight (visiting museums, for example). Some research on it finds a direct relationship between this trait and the cultural level.
Cordiality is a factor that has been associated with kindness and the willingness to ensure that social relationships provide well-being. Those who have high scores on this factor forgive others when they are victims of wrongs, They are very kind in their relationships and flexible in the face of imperfection
However, in some cases it degenerates into an unrealistic need to avoid all conflict, which deprives people of the opportunity to respond to the frictions that are an inevitable part of everyday life (since they prefer to avoid these types of encounters).
Finally, patience is an indivisible part of the factor. It is characterized by the ability to delay the impulse when it is perceived that the interactions are not being favorable, in order to give the most “positive” response among all the possible ones It is at this point where anger control is relocated, which belonged to the neuroticism dimension in previous models.
6. Conscientiousness
The dimension of conscientiousness refers to the tendency to act in an organized manner and with a plan of action, rather than thoughtlessly or impulsively It also reflects the preference for intervening diligently, facing obligations and responding to the demands of the environment quickly and correctly. Those who have high scores in this trait are cautious when choosing the most efficient alternative action, although sometimes they can show excessive perfectionism. In extreme cases it is associated with what we know today as obsessive-compulsive disorder.
Lines of investigation
The HEXACO personality model currently enjoys a large volume of research; as it is considered very precise in describing patterns of behavior, thought and affect. In addition, the effect of the opposite poles is being studied for each of the factors that compose it, given that due to their dimensional nature they can be evaluated as spectra with their own dichotomous extremes.
In this way, the model allows you to explore the impact of arrogance, stability of emotions, introversion, irresponsibility, irritability, etc (specular factors of each of the large dimensions). Its use is extending to contexts as varied as health self-care, addictive behavior, general psychopathology and any other imaginable area in which personality may play a potentially relevant role. It is, therefore, a valuable contribution to psychological science whose fruits will allow progress towards a greater understanding of human beings.
