The HEXACO personality model: what it is, and components

Understanding personality has been, and is, one of the elementary purposes of Psychology as a scientific discipline; since behind this phenomenon lies the key to discovering how human beings think, feel and behave in our natural environment.

That is why it has always been considered as one of the basic substrates of behavior or emotion, and for many years years have been postulating theoretical models of different origin and structure, through which to approach their study and analysis.

In this article we will address the most recent of all of them, more specifically the HEXACO personality model (Ashton and Lee, 2001). This is one of the proposals that has received the most scientific coverage in the last two decades, as it successfully integrates the roots that precede it and provides substantial innovations regarding these.

Next we will make a brief tour of the epistemological context from which the model arises, its valuable proposals (both in terms of form and content) and the areas in which it is currently beginning to be applied. This will also evoke the similarities and differences with respect to previous models.

• Related article: "The main theories of personality"

HEXACO personality model

The first thing that calls the "attention" of the HEXACO personality model is that it has 6 basic factors, one for each letter of his name, which allude to the different traits or factors that are included in it. In this way, he proposes: honesty-humility (H), emotionality (E), extraversion (X), cordiality (A), conscientiousness (C) and openness to experience (O); forming the acronym by which it has become popular and tracing a series of dimensions in which any human being can be located. It is, then, about a spectrum of intensity that includes "normal" and "pathological" personality (which predisposes to mental health problems).

As appreciated, this theoretical model supposes an increase in the number of factors with respect to the classic three-dimensional Eysenck postulate (neuroticism, extraversion and psychoticism) and the fifth-dimensional of Costa and McCrae, which became known as the Big Five (neuroticism, extraversion, openness to experience, agreeableness, and responsibility). The latter undoubtedly became the most used by the entire scientific community; although in recent years it has been receiving much criticism for its inability to explain the full variance of human diversity.

The HEXACO model, like the "Big Five", was built from an analysis of the lexicon with which people described the forms that personality could take. That is, a sample of multiple languages ​​was used, and from its analysis the words that served to define the behavior were extracted. of human beings, observing a consensus between cultures that could be summarized in the 6 factors finally included in HEXAC. Among all of them, the most relevant were neuroticism and extraversion, which also emerged as those with the greatest predictive power regarding emotional difficulties.

And it is that one of the great purposes of personality models is to find, at least, protective and risk factors for the appearance of various psychopathologies. Underlying all this is the interest in knowing the way in which human beings act and think when relating to other people. their environment or with themselves, since from there it would be possible to predict and explain the nuances of their affective and intimate. All of this is very important when designing intervention programs that consider individuality and adjust to the idiosyncrasies of the patient.

The most important contribution of HEXACO is the honesty-humility factor, for which there was no analogue up to now in previous personality models. In addition, it renames neuroticism (labeling it as emotionality) and incorporates sentimentality as a facet of it (formerly included in agreeableness). The redistribution of the facets of each factor also extends to anger control, which was traditionally part of neuroticism and with HEXACO it is reassigned to kindness. The rest of the factors (both extraversion and openness to experience and conscientiousness) are maintained in a very similar way in their formulation.

Currently, there is a questionnaire designed on purpose to explore the factors reviewed and which receives the name of HEXACO-PI (whose revision was carried out in 2006). It has three different versions, depending on the total number of items included; being able to consist of 200, 100 or 60 reagents. The latter two are the most widely used, as they have similar reliability (very good/excellent) and are less expensive to manage. In addition, they have an additional advantage: can be answered by the person himself or by a family member or close friend who knows him well.

• You may be interested in: "The Big 5 Personality Traits: Sociability, Responsibility, Openness, Kindness, and Neuroticism"

The 6 factors of the HEXACO model

Let's go into more detail to see what each of the factors included in the HEXACO personality model means and how it is expressed. It should be taken into consideration that neither can be interpreted in negative terms, and that all people score more or less high in all of them. Yet it is known that the combination of strong neuroticism and low extraversion constitutes a risk profile for the development of clinically significant depression and anxiety.

1. Honesty-humility

The honesty-humility factor is, without a doubt, the most relevant contribution made by the HEXACO personality model to understand how personality works. It is an original contribution of the same, which expands the number of basic dimensions and the perspective of analysis of the phenomenon.

This factor refers to sincerity, in which a preference for telling the truth and omitting any interested distortion of the facts is contemplated. In addition, it implies an adjusted perception of oneself, which flees from extolling one's own worth and chooses to emphasize what one really is. Those who score high on this variable display a balanced sense of justice in their relationships with others and are able to renounce pride when it interferes with the vision of a conflict relational. In short, they opt for a persuasion based on authenticity.

This factor is at the base of many power dynamics, in the private sphere (love life) and in the public sphere (economy and politics, for example). It is also related to an absence of material greed and a lower assumption of risky behaviors.

2. emotionality

The emotional factor equivalent to what other authors coined as neuroticism. In this case, it refers to a persistent pattern of behavior and thought, the fundamental consequence of which is vulnerability to suffer from depressive or anxious disorders. Without any doubt, it is the dimension that has been most closely related to psychopathology, therefore that has been described (in one way or another) in all of the preceding theoretical models of personality.

People who score high on this trait feel anxious most of the time, worrying excessively about what has already happened or what could happen. The emotion of fear becomes the most common in the scenario of his affective life, conditioning his actions and thoughts in an extraordinary way.

all of it also applies to social interactions, where a cerval fear of independence or an excessive tendency to avoidance prevails. In any case, the negative affect is more intense and lasts much longer, which is why it is present for a very significant part of the time.

Sentimentality is also a very important part of emotionality. It translates into the subjective experience of hypersensitivity to emotional fluctuations, so that their intensity and consequences are exacerbated.

3. extraversion

Extraversion is a trait that is related, above all, to the social image that the subject has of himself and the way in which this is projected on the stage of relationships with others. People who score high on this trait enjoy making friends, meeting with other people and even championed a proactive position in the group tasks of which participate. This tendency is increased by the optimistic perception of their social skills.

Many studies have also found that extraversion is related to "positive" emotions, such as enthusiasm and/or joy. In addition to all this, extroverts take better advantage of social networks (family or friends) in times of need, which is associated with a reduced risk of affective disorders secondary to stress.

4. openness to experience

Openness to experience describes the subject who is willing to accept what is new and different as one more part of what defines him. Curiosity is, therefore, the engine that fuels their behavior and their emotions. This profile is also associated with the preference for everything that is not conventional, for interests that are alien to the current of social preferences and for "creativity" in art and/or literature.

People with high scores on this trait are interested in experiencing all kinds of emotions, about entering a varied or diverse life, and have little fear of the changes that accompany at time. They maintain the capacity for wonder at beauty, in which they usually delight (visiting museums, for example). Some research on her finds a direct relationship between this trait and the cultural level.

5. Cordiality

Cordiality is a factor that has been associated with kindness and the willingness to seek that social relationships bring well-being. Those who score high on this factor forgive others when they are wronged, they are very friendly in their relationships and flexible in the face of imperfection.

However, in some cases it degenerates into an unreal need to avoid all conflict, which deprives people of the opportunity to respond to the frictions that are an inevitable part of everyday life (since they prefer to avoid this type of encounters).

Finally, patience is an indivisible part of the factor. It is characterized by the ability to delay the impulse when it is perceived that the interactions are not being favourable, in order to issue the most "positive" response among all possible. It is at this point where anger control is relocated, which belonged to the dimension of neuroticism in previous models.

6. Conscientiousness

The conscientiousness dimension refers to the tendency to act in an organized manner and with a plan of action, rather than from thoughtlessness or impulsiveness. It also reflects the preference to intervene diligently, facing obligations and responding to the demands of the environment quickly and correctly. Those who score high on this trait are prudent when it comes to choosing the most efficient course of action, although they may sometimes display excessive perfectionism. In extreme cases it is associated with what we now know as obsessive compulsive disorder.

Lines of investigation

The HEXACO personality model currently enjoys a large volume of research; as it is considered very accurate when describing patterns of behavior, thought and affect. In addition, the effect of the opposite poles is being studied for each of the factors that compose it, given that due to their dimensional nature they can be valued as spectrums with their own extremes dichotomous.

In this way, the model allows exploring the impact of arrogance, stability of affections, introversion, irresponsibility, irritability, etc. (specular factors of each of the large dimensions). Its use is spreading to contexts as varied as self-care for health, addictive behavior, general psychopathology and any other conceivable area in which personality may have a potential role. relevance. It is, therefore, a valuable contribution to psychological science whose fruits will allow progress towards a greater understanding of human beings.

Bibliographic references:

• Anglim, J., Knowles, E., Dunlop, P. and Marty, A. (2017). HEXACO Personality and Schwartz's Personal Values: A Facet-Level Analysis. Journal of Research in Personality, 68, 17-24.
• Roncero, M., Fornés, G., Garcia-Soriano, G. and Belloch, A. (2014). The HEXACO personality model: Relationships with emotional psychopathology in a Spanish sample. Journal of Psychopathology and Clinical Psychology, 19(1), 1-14.