The Eysenckian personality structure: a 'Giant Three' or 'Big Five' model in Hong Kong?

In the last decade, the area of personality measurement has been dominated by three major systems: the

Eysenckian Giant Three, the Cattellian sixteen factors and the Big Five. While many of the Cattellian

second-stratum factors have been shown to fit the Big Five system, can the factors measured by the Eysenck

Personality Questionnaire also be described by the five-factor model? The study reported in this article was

designed to determine whether the dimensions measured by a revised Chinese version of the Junior Eysenck

Personality Questionnaire would, in a Hong Kong population\ replicate the Giant Three or the Big Five

and whether there is evidence to support the suggested dual nature of the Extraversion dimension and the

Lie scale in this Cantonese-speaking group. A four-factor solution indicated that the data did not support

the notion of a Giant Three model plus a Lie scale and lacks clarity. A five-factor solution produced

factors that can clearly be labelled Neuroticism, Conscientiousness, Sociability, Excitement-Seeking and

Agreeableness. Sociability, focusing on meeting people and Excitement-Seeking, which consists of Impul-

sivity and Liveliness, derive from items in Eysenck's Extraversion dimension. The Openness factor of the

Big Five system is absent in this population.