Psychological Foundations: Modeling Personality

The NeoThymos system is grounded in four categories of psychological model -

Category	Model Represents…
cognitive appraisal theory	emotional responses to stimuli
emotional state models	continuous affective internal states
personality psychology	structure of individual differences
models of moral judgement	moral cognition, standards and norms

Here we are concerned with personality psychology. Psychological research has produced psychometric models of human personality dating back to the 1940s (Cattell’s 16PF). Today the most often cited model of personality is referred to as the Big Five or Five-Factor Model (aka OCEAN). It replicates across dozens of languages and has been used to successfully predict job performance, health, and mortality.

In the early 2000s, Ashton & Lee conducted lexical studies across multiple languages. The studies kept yielding six factors rather than five. These findings resulted in the production of the HEXACO model.

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HEXACO - A Model of Personality

Developed by psychologists Kibeom Lee of the University of Calgary and Michael C. Ashton of Brock University, the HEXACO model of personality is an influential framework that refines and expands upon the traditional Big Five model. Based on extensive lexical studies across multiple languages including English, Dutch, Korean, Italian, Hungarian and others, the model describes six major dimensions of personality: Honesty-Humility, Emotionality, Xtraversion,  Agreeableness,  Conscientiousness and Openness to Experience.

The model’s most significant contribution over similar models (e.g. OCEAN, Big Five) is the refactoring of the five domains used in those models and the addition of the Honesty-Humility domain, which captures traits like sincerity, fairness, greed-avoidance, and modesty, and has proven crucial for predicting ethical behavior, cooperation, and various forms of counterproductive conduct.

The HEXACO model’s empirical case rests on outperforming the Big Five at predicting exploitative and antisocial behavior — the Dark Triad variance which the Big Five model is less effective at representing. Each of the six domains contains four specific facets, plus a 25th interstitial facet, Altruism (versus Antagonism). This interstitial facet was added because altruistic characteristics related to compassion and kindness overlap with multiple domains—particularly Honesty-Humility, Agreeableness, and Emotionality - this allows for more precise measurement of altruistic behaviors that play key roles in social relationships.

HEXACO Domains and Facets:

HEXACO Domain	HEXACO Facets
Honesty-Humility	Sincerity, Fairness, Greed Avoidance, Modesty
Emotionality	Fearfulness, Anxiety, Dependence, Sentimentality
eXtraversion	Social Self-Esteem, Social Boldness, Sociability, Liveliness
Agreeableness	Forgivingness, Gentleness, Flexibility, Patience
Conscientiousness	Organization, Diligence, Perfectionism, Prudence
Openness to Experience	Aesthetic Appreciation, Inquisitiveness, Creativity, Unconventionality
Interstitial Facet	Altruism (versus Antagonism)

You can read about the detailed definitions of the HEXACO domains and facets or use a concise in app overview by clicking the NT logo in the upper left of every screen.

The HEXACO model’s robust empirical foundation and superior predictive validity in moral and prosocial domains were formally established in Lee and Ashton’s foundational 2004 paper published in Multivariate Behavioral Research, making it the preferred choice over Big Five for applications requiring nuanced assessment of ethical and cooperative behaviors.

Note: NeoThymos uses the label Integrity in place of Honesty-Humility and Curiosity in place of Openness to Experience. The definition and internal use of these terms however is entirely consistent with the HEXACO model.