. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2009 Feb 1.

Published in final edited form as: J Res Pers. 2008 Feb;42(1):96–132. doi: 10.1016/j.jrp.2007.04.006

Table 7.

Psychometric Properties of Personality Dimensions Based on Content Words in Open-Ended Self-Descriptions

Factors	Mean Word Usage	SD	Percent > 0	Test-Retest Reliability
Appearance	1.18	1.53	87.0	.07^*
Education	2.74	1.66	99.0	.21^***
Evaluation	5.35	1.96	99.9	.29^***
Sociability	2.39	1.05	99.7	.07^*
Relationships	1.40	1.13	94.4	.26^***
Daily Activities	1.20	.80	96.7	.06^#
Ambition	.83	.67	91.8	.07^*
Existentialism	.36	.42	74.4	.13^***
Reflection	1.95	1.56	98.0	.02 ^ns
Interests	.68	.53	90.5	.10^***

Note. Mean Word Usage reflects the mean percentage of words in a given text that load onto a personality dimension. SD = standard deviation. Percent > 0 = percentage of people who use words in a given personality dimension. Test-Retest Reliability = Pearson correlation between personality dimension word use in self-descriptions and in stream of consciousness essays written two months earlier

^***

p ≤ .001

p ≤ .05

p =.06

^ns

=not significant. [Reflection and Interests are not separate dimensions, but were separated because their component words were negatively loaded onto the same factor].