The Big Five model sustains that human personality is composed by dozens of specific factors. Despite of diversity, specific factors are integrated in five broad traits that are in the same hierarchical level. The current study presents an alternative hypothesis arguing that there are hierarchical levels between the broad traits of the model. Six hundred and eighty-four junior and high school level students from 10 to 18 years old (M = 13.71 and SD= 2.11) of a private school in the city of Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil participated in the study. The Big Five was measured by an Inventory of Personality Traits, initially named as Personality Adjective Inventory, elaborated by Pinheiro, Gomes and Braga (2009). This instrument measures eight polarities of the ten presented in the Big Five Model. Two models were compared through path analysis: a four-level hierarchical model and a non-hierarchical one. The hierarchical model showed adequate data fit, pointing to its superiority in relation to the non-hierarchical model, which did not present it. Implications to the Big Five Model are discussed.
Personality; factor five model; big five
