A Measure of the Six Major Dimensions of Personality

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Abstract

The HEXACO Personality Inventory-Revised (HEXACO-PI-R) is a widely recognized psychometric instrument consisting of 100 items, developed by Dr. Kibeom Lee and Dr. Michael C. Ashton. Its primary function is to assess the comprehensive structure of human personality dimensions as defined by the Six-Factor Model (HEXACO). This model systematically measures six fundamental dimensions: Honesty-Humility, Emotionality, eXtraversion, Agreeableness (versus Anger), Conscientiousness, and Openness to Experience. The HEXACO-PI-R is utilized globally as a standard tool in academic research, clinical assessment, and organizational psychology due to its robust factor structure and enhanced predictive validity.

Keywords

HEXACO Personality Inventory-Revised, Six-Factor Model, Dimensions of Personality, Honesty-Humility, Personality Assessment, Psychometric Testing, Trait Theory, Lexical Approach, Lee and Ashton, Integrity, Five-Factor Model Extension.

Authors

Kibeom Lee, Ph.D., Michael C. Ashton, Ph.D.

Purpose

The central objective of the HEXACO-PI-R is to offer a highly reliable and comprehensive instrument for measuring the six major dimensions of personality structure. These dimensions were consistently identified through large-scale, cross-cultural studies rooted in the Lexical Hypothesis. A key distinguishing feature of the HEXACO-PI-R, compared to instruments based solely on the Five-Factor Model (FFM), is the inclusion of the Honesty-Humility factor.

The integration of the Honesty-Humility factor significantly enhances the scale’s predictive validity, particularly concerning socially relevant outcomes such as ethical behavior, altruistic tendencies, manipulative behavior, and integrity. Consequently, the instrument is highly valued in various applied fields, including academic research for theoretical investigations, clinical settings for detailed individual profiling, and organizational psychology for selection and development purposes. The revised 100-item format balances the need for comprehensive coverage of the facets within each major dimension with the practical requirement for efficient administration time.

Construct

The core psychological construct measured by the inventory is the Six-Factor Model of Personality, abbreviated as HEXACO. This model represents a refinement and expansion of earlier models, distinguished by its six broad, orthogonal (independent) factors. These factors were empirically derived primarily through the application of the Lexical Hypothesis across multiple languages, which postulates that the most important individual differences in personality become encoded in language.

The six dimensions measured by the HEXACO-PI-R are defined by specific facet traits:

  • Honesty-Humility (H): Characterized by sincerity, fairness, greed avoidance, and modesty. This factor is crucial for predicting ethical and pro-social behavior.
  • Emotionality (E): Encompasses sentimentality, anxiety, dependence, and fearfulness.
  • eXtraversion (X): Measures the tendency toward social boldness, social self-esteem, liveliness, and sociability.
  • Agreeableness (A) (versus Anger): Reflects traits such as forgiveness, gentleness, flexibility, and patience, contrasting sharply with anger and hostility.
  • Conscientiousness (C): Assesses high levels of organization, diligence, perfectionism, and prudence.
  • Openness to Experience (O): Relates to aesthetic appreciation, inquisitiveness, unconventionality, and creativity.

By including the Honesty-Humility dimension, the HEXACO model provides a more nuanced and comprehensive framework for understanding socially relevant traits, particularly those related to integrity and ethical decision-making, offering considerable advantage over traditional Five-Factor Models.

Validity

The HEXACO Personality Inventory-Revised provides substantial empirical evidence supporting both its construct and criterion validity. Construct validity is firmly established through numerous factor analyses (both exploratory and confirmatory) that consistently confirm the stable six-factor structure across diverse linguistic and cultural samples, verifying that the scale measures the intended theoretical framework.

Critically, the unique contribution of the Honesty-Humility factor has demonstrated significant incremental validity. This factor is exceptionally effective in predicting socially detrimental outcomes, such as unethical workplace behavior, academic cheating, and criminal intent, extending the predictive power beyond what the traditional Big Five factors alone can account for. Furthermore, criterion validity is confirmed by consistent correlations with various real-world behavioral outcomes. For instance, high scores on Honesty-Humility are linked to lower materialistic values and increased cooperation, while high Conscientiousness scores reliably predict success in academic and professional domains. These findings underscore the scale’s effectiveness in measuring theoretical constructs and predicting meaningful behaviors.

Reliability

The HEXACO-PI-R is recognized for its high psychometric reliability. The inventory consistently exhibits high internal consistency reliability across all six major scales and their constituent facets, typically quantified using coefficient alpha. The meticulous 100-item structure is designed to ensure adequate item sampling, which contributes to the stability and precision of the resulting scale scores.

Furthermore, test-retest reliability studies have confirmed the temporal stability of the scores over varying periods. This temporal consistency is a fundamental requirement for any robust measure of personality, confirming that the traits assessed by the HEXACO-PI-R represent enduring and stable characteristics of the individual rather than transient emotional states.

Factor Analysis

The rigorous development of the HEXACO-PI-R is underpinned by extensive Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) and Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA). These methodological analyses consistently validate the structural integrity of the six-factor model. The analyses confirm that the six dimensions are largely orthogonal—meaning they are statistically independent of one another—and robust across a wide range of diverse samples, reinforcing the scale’s strong foundation.

The emergence of the Honesty-Humility factor was an empirical discovery, resulting from the cross-cultural application of the Lexical Hypothesis. Researchers observed that trait adjectives relating to sincerity, modesty, and fairness consistently clustered together, forming a distinct dimension separate from both Agreeableness and Conscientiousness. This robust, empirically supported factor structure is a cornerstone of the scale’s superior psychometric properties.

Instrument

Test Type: Self-report or Observer-report Personality Inventory

Format: 100 items utilizing a 5-point Likert scale (1 = strongly disagree to 5 = strongly agree)

Language Available: English, with numerous validated translations available (e.g., French, German, Dutch, Korean, etc.).

Population Group: General population (Adults and adolescents)

Age Group: Typically 16 years and older

Population Details: Applicable to individuals from diverse cultural and educational backgrounds; widely used in non-clinical research and assessment settings.

Test Methodology: Respondents are asked to rate the degree to which they agree or disagree with statements describing their typical behavior, thoughts, and feelings. The scale is flexible and can be administered as a self-report or as a proxy rating instrument, where the respondent rates the person that they are rating now.

Keywords

Personality Structure, Honesty-Humility, Lee and Ashton, Five-Factor Model Extension, Integrity, Trait Assessment, Psychometric properties, Multi-Dimensional Scaling, Cross-Cultural Research, Behavioral Prediction.

Authors

Author ORCID Identifier: Not provided in source. (Refer to academic databases for Kibeom Lee and Michael C. Ashton)

Affiliation Email addresses: Not provided in source. (Official scale information is hosted at HEXACO.org)

Correspondence Address: Not provided in source.

Permissions & Fee and Test Year

The HEXACO-PI-R materials, including the 100-item version and various short forms, are generally available for non-commercial academic research use free of charge. However, formal permission is often required and should be requested directly from the authors or through the official website: http://hexaco.org/index.html. The foundational HEXACO model was introduced around 2004, and the revised inventory (HEXACO-PI-R) and its short forms have undergone continuous refinement and publication in the years following, reflecting ongoing scale development efforts.

Reference’s

The primary reference point for the scale development, administration guidelines, and validation data is the official project website: http://hexaco.org/index.html. Researchers utilizing the scale are advised to cite the foundational works by Lee and Ashton that meticulously detail the development, theoretical grounding, and psychometric properties of the instrument.

Items of the A Measure of the Six Major Dimensions of Personality

IMPORTANT: The following scale items must be preserved in their original language and must not be changed in any way.

The instructions for the rating scale are:

  • 5 = strongly agree
  • 4 = agree
  • 3 = neutral (neither agree nor disagree)
  • 2 = disagree
  • 1 = strongly disagree

The user is asked to provide the following background information about the person being rated: Number of years acquainted, Sex, and Age.

1
I would be quite bored by a visit to an art gallery.
2
I clean my office or home quite frequently.
3
I rarely hold a grudge‚ even against people who have badly wronged me.
4
I feel reasonably satisfied with myself overall.
5
I would feel afraid if I had to travel in bad weather conditions.
6
If I want something from a person I dislike‚ I will act very nicely toward that person in order to get it.
7
I’m interested in learning about the history and politics of other countries.
8
When working‚ I often set ambitious goals for myself.
9
People sometimes tell me that I am too critical of others.
10
I rarely express my opinions in group meetings.
11
I sometimes can’t help worrying about little things.
12
If I knew that I could never get caught‚ I would be willing to steal a million dollars.
13
I would like a job that requires following a routine rather than being creative.
14
I often check my work over repeatedly to find any mistakes.
15
People sometimes tell me that I’m too stubborn.
16
I avoid making “small talk” with people.
17
When I suffer from a painful experience‚ I need someone to make me feel comfortable.
18
ha‎ving a lot of money is not especially important to me.
19
I think that paying attention to radical ideas is a waste of time.
20
I make decisions based on the feeling of the moment rather than on careful thought.
21
People think of me as someone who has a quick temper.
22
I am energetic nearly all the time.
23
I feel like crying when I see other people crying.
24
I am an ordinary person who is no better than others.
25
I wouldn’t spend my time reading a book of poetry.
26
I plan ahead and organize things‚ to avoid scrambling at the last minute.
27
My attitude toward people who have treated me badly is “forgive and forget”.
28
I think that most people like some aspects of my personality.
29
I don’t mind doing jobs that involve dangerous work.
30
I wouldn’t use flattery to get a raise or promotion at work‚ even if I thought it would succeed.
31
I enjoy looking at maps of different places.
32
I often push myself very hard when trying to achieve a goal.
33
I generally accept people’s faults without complaining about them.
34
In social situations‚ I’m usually the one who makes the first move.
35
I worry a lot less than most people do.
36
I would be tempted to buy stolen property if I were financially tight.
37
I would enjoy creating a work of art‚ such as a novel‚ a song‚ or a painting.
38
When working on something‚ I don’t pay much attention to small details.
39
I am usually quite flexible in my opinions when people disagree with me.
40
I enjoy ha‎ving lots of people around to talk with.
41
I can handle difficult situations without needing emotional support from anyone else.
42
I would like to live in a very expensive‚ high-class neighborhood.
43
I like people who have unconventional views.
44
I make a lot of mistakes because I don’t think before I act.
45
I rarely feel anger‚ even when people treat me quite badly.
46
On most days‚ I feel cheerful and optimistic.
47
When someone I know well is unhappy‚ I can almost feel that person’s pain myself.
48
I wouldn’t want people to treat me as though I were superior to them.
49
If I had the opportunity‚ I would like to attend a classical music concert.
50
People often joke with me about the messiness of my room or desk.
51
If someone has cheated me once‚ I will always feel suspicious of that person.
52
I feel that I am an unpopular person.
53
When it comes to physical danger‚ I am very fearful.
54
If I want something from someone‚ I will laugh at that person’s worst jokes.
55
I would be very bored by a book about the history of science and technology.
56
Often when I set a goal‚ I end up quitting without ha‎ving reached it.
57
I tend to be lenient in judging other people.
58
When I’m in a group of people‚ I’m often the one who speaks on behalf of the group.
59
I rarely‚ if ever‚ have trouble sleeping due to stress or anxiety.
60
I would never accept a bribe‚ even if it were very large.
61
People have often told me that I have a good imagination.
62
I always try to be accurate in my work‚ even at the expense of time.
63
When people tell me that I’m wrong‚ my first reaction is to argue with them.
64
I prefer jobs that involve active social interaction to those that involve working alone.
65
Whenever I feel worried about something‚ I want to share my concern with another person.
66
I would like to be seen driving around in a very expensive car.
67
I think of myself as a somewhat eccentric person.
68
I don’t allow my impulses to govern my behavior.
69
Most people tend to get angry more quickly than I do.
70
People often tell me that I should try to cheer up.
71
I feel strong emotions when someone close to me is going away for a long time.
72
I think that I am entitled to more respect than the average person is.
73
Sometimes I like to just watch the wind as it blows through the trees.
74
When working‚ I sometimes have difficulties due to being disorganized.
75
I find it hard to fully forgive someone who has done something mean to me.
76
I sometimes feel that I am a worthless person.
77
Even in an emergency I wouldn’t feel like panicking.
78
I wouldn’t pretend to like someone just to get that person to do favors for me.
79
I’ve never really enjoyed looking through an encyclopedia.
80
I do only the minimum amount of work needed to get by.
81
Even when people make a lot of mistakes‚ I rarely say anything negative.
82
I tend to feel quite self-conscious when speaking in front of a group of people.
83
I get very anxious when waiting to hear about an important decision.
84
I’d be tempted to use counterfeit money‚ if I were sure I could get away with it.
85
I don’t think of myself as the artistic or creative type.
86
People often call me a perfectionist.
87
I find it hard to compromise with people when I really think I’m right.
88
The first thing that I always do in a new place is to make friends.
89
I rarely discuss my problems with other people.
90
I would get a lot of pleasure from owning expensive luxury goods.
91
I find it boring to discuss philosophy.
92
I prefer to do whatever comes to mind‚ rather than stick to a plan.
93
I find it hard to keep my temper when people insult me.
94
Most people are more upbeat and dynamic than I generally am.
95
I remain unemotional even in situations where most people get very sentimental.
96
I want people to know that I am an important person of high status.
97
I have sympathy for people who are less fortunate than I am.
98
I try to give generously to those in need.
99
It wouldn’t bother me to harm someone I didn’t like.
100
People see me as a hard-hearted person.

Cite this article

Mohammed looti (2025). A Measure of the Six Major Dimensions of Personality. Psychological Scales & Instruments Database. Retrieved from https://db.arabpsychology.com/scales/a-measure-of-the-six-major-dimensions-of-personality/

Mohammed looti. "A Measure of the Six Major Dimensions of Personality." Psychological Scales & Instruments Database, 3 Nov. 2025, https://db.arabpsychology.com/scales/a-measure-of-the-six-major-dimensions-of-personality/.

Mohammed looti. "A Measure of the Six Major Dimensions of Personality." Psychological Scales & Instruments Database, 2025. https://db.arabpsychology.com/scales/a-measure-of-the-six-major-dimensions-of-personality/.

Mohammed looti (2025) 'A Measure of the Six Major Dimensions of Personality', Psychological Scales & Instruments Database. Available at: https://db.arabpsychology.com/scales/a-measure-of-the-six-major-dimensions-of-personality/.

[1] Mohammed looti, "A Measure of the Six Major Dimensions of Personality," Psychological Scales & Instruments Database, vol. X, no. Y, ص Z-Z, November, 2025.

Mohammed looti. A Measure of the Six Major Dimensions of Personality. Psychological Scales & Instruments Database. 2025;vol(issue):pages.

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