AB5C

Generalities

The AB5C (Abridged Big Five Dimensional Circumplex) was developed by Hofstee, de Raad, and Goldberg in 1992. While Hofstee is well-known for his work in cultural dimensions, the AB5C is a personality assessment, not a measure of cultural values.

Assessment

The AB5C is a 90-facet inventory that assesses the Big Five personality dimensions, also known as the OCEAN model. It extends beyond these primary factors to measure 30 bipolar facets within each of the Big Five dimensions. For instance, within Openness, the AB5C might assess facets like imagination, intellect, and aesthetic sensitivity. The five dimensions are the following:

AB5C table

Dimension	Description	GRI a priori
Openness to experience	Openness to new ideas, experiences, and values	Not Applicable
Conscientiousness	Being organized, efficient, and detail-oriented	High 4
Extraversion	Outgoingness, sociability, and talkativeness	High 2, high 1
Agreeableness	Kindness, cooperativeness, and trust	Very low 1
Neuroticism	Emotional reactivity, anxiety, and mood swings	Extremely low 3

The AB5C uses a circumplex approach to present personality adjectives in a multidimensional space. The AB5C partitions the space into 10 two-factor combinations formed by the five dimensions of the Big Five. The adjectives are then classified according to which factor they are most strongly associated with and placed within this two-factor space.

The multidimensional approach of the AB5C can better regroup semantically related adjectives in clusters, an approach different than the hierarchical structure typically adopted with the Five Factor Model.

Usage

The AB5C is primarily used by researchers and professionals in psychology and related fields. Some universities and research institutions may have access to it for research purposes.

Comments

The circumplex approach helps visualize and connect the personality attributes with their underlying factors.

Subsequently, the attributes, adjective or noun descriptors, can be located at the intersection of two axes in a two-dimensional space, or of four (in the case of GRI) or five axes (in the case of the FFM) in a four or five-dimensional space, as the factor analysis approach suggests.

References

See in Wikipedia about the hierarchical structure of the Big Five: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hierarchical_structure_of_the_Big_Five

Hofstee, W., De Raad, B., & Goldberg, L. R. (1992). An abridged five-factorial circumplex structure for the assessment of personality. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 62(2), 126-140.

Hofstee, W., & De Raad, B. (1991). International personality item pool: AB5C. Journal of Personality Assessment, 57(3), 596-602.

Goldberg, L. R. (1993). The structure of phenotypic personality traits. American Psychologist, 48(1), 26.