Higher Order Structure of Personality and Mental Health: Does General Affectivity Matter?

Abstract

The higher order personality model, namely the Big Two, was tested in 2 studies (Ns = 878 and 467, respectively) by controlling for the effects of both general affectivity and common method variance. Study 2 also examined the associations of the metatraits with different mental health indicators through regression analyses. The results consistently provided support for the validity of the Big Two model in the latent space, with and without the effects of general affectivity and the common method variance. Moreover, in both studies, the high correlation between stability and plasticity decreased when these 2 method effects were controlled statistically. The regression analyses also showed that the associations of plasticity and stability with the indicators of both subjective and psychological well-being, as well as psychopathology, were consistent with the theoretical arguments behind the Big Two.