A recent higher-order factor analysis of the Cattell, Comrey and Eysenck personality scales by Noller, Law and Comrey (1987) in the J. Person. Soc. Psychol. 53, 775–782 provided a useful account of the number and nature of normal personality-type dimensions measured within the questionnaire, self-report domain. The analyses reported were based on an exemplary sample of Australian adults, matched carefully across sex, age, and social class, thereby providing a sound basis for investigating personality structure. Noller et al. extracted and rotated seven separate factors using procedures suggested by Comrey (A First Course in Factor Analysis. Academic Press, New York, 1973), thereby attaining moderate approximation of the final rotated solution to maximum simple structure. In an attempt to improve on the approximation to simple structure criteria, the present study reanalysed the Noller et al. data set and presents the results of a 6-factor oblique solution derived from the intercorrelations of all 33 variables included in the Noller et al. study, as well as a 5-factor solution based on the intercorrelations of the 25 personality scales alone. The present findings agree strongly with the conclusions of Noller et al. that there are indeed five major personality-type dimensions within the normal trait sphere, but suggest a slightly different interpretation of these structural dimensions.
