Adjective Check List Scales and the Five-Factor Model

Correlations of Adjective Check List (ACL; Gough & Heilbrun, 1965, 1983) scales with measures of the five-factor model of personality provide a basis for reinterpreting earlier studies and construing new ACL scales in terms of a common conceptual framework. In Study 1, 414 undergraduate students (264 women, 150 men) completed the ACL, and scales were factored together with John's (1990) ACL markers of the five factors. In Study 2, 445 (198 women, 247 men) adult volunteers from the Augmented Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging completed the ACL. Self-report, spouse, and peer ratings on the NEO Personality Inventory, which measures the five factors, were available for subsets of these Ss. When appropriate markers are used, the five factors can be recovered from the ACL, although most ACL scales are themselves multifactorial.