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Genetic and Environmental Architecture of Five Factor Model and Super-Factors: An Italian Twin Study

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 December 2021

Antonella Gigantesco Open the ORCID record for Antonella Gigantesco [Opens in a new window] ,
Corrado Fagnani Open the ORCID record for Corrado Fagnani [Opens in a new window] ,
Guido Alessandri Open the ORCID record for Guido Alessandri [Opens in a new window] ,
Enrica Carluccio Open the ORCID record for Enrica Carluccio [Opens in a new window] ,
Maria Antonietta Stazi Open the ORCID record for Maria Antonietta Stazi [Opens in a new window]  and
Emanuela Medda Open the ORCID record for Emanuela Medda [Opens in a new window]
Antonella Gigantesco*
Affiliation:
Istituto Superiore di Sanità (Italy)
Corrado Fagnani
Affiliation:
Istituto Superiore di Sanità (Italy)
Guido Alessandri
Affiliation:
Istituto Superiore di Sanità (Italy)
Enrica Carluccio
Affiliation:
Istituto Superiore di Sanità (Italy)
Maria Antonietta Stazi
Affiliation:
Istituto Superiore di Sanità (Italy)
Emanuela Medda
Affiliation:
Istituto Superiore di Sanità (Italy)
*
Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Antonella Gigantesco. Istituto Superiore di Sanità. 00161Roma (Italy). E-mail: antonella.gigantesco@iss.it
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Abstract

No previous research explored the genetic and environmental structure of Big Five dimensions of personality and higher-order factors in a single twin study, except, in part, for just one study. We used the twin design to estimate the effects of genes and environment on both Five Factor model and related second- and third-order factors (i.e., Alpha [stability], Beta [plasticity], and GFP [general factor of personality]). We analyzed data from 314 adult twins (157 pairs: 83 monozygotic, 74 dizygotic; mean age: 52 years) enrolled in the Italian Twin Register. Participants underwent clinical and instrumental evaluations, and completed a 25-adjective list drawn from the Short Adjectives Checklist to Measure Big Five (SACBIF). We applied quantitative genetic models to unravel the sources of variation and covariation for the Big Five and higher-order factors. We found a similar etiological architecture across the different levels of analysis, with moderate to substantial non-additive genetic and unique environmental influences on all the personality traits, and no shared environmental contribution for any of them. We also detected significant genetic correlations for the Big Five dimensions and the Alpha and Beta super-factors. With some limitations, our results suggest that the etiological architecture of personality may be invariant to the factor level of analysis.

Keywords

Big Fiveenvironmentgenespersonality super-factorstwin study
Type
Research Article
Information
The Spanish Journal of Psychology , Volume 25 , 2022 , e2
Copyright
© Universidad Complutense de Madrid and Colegio Oficial de Psicólogos de Madrid 2022

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Footnotes

Funding Statement: This research received no specific grant from any funding agency, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.

Conflicts of Interest: None.

Author note: Antonella Gigantesco and Corrado Fagnani have contributed equally to this work.

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