ABSTRACT
The purpose of this chapter is twofold. First, we describe how personality factors, traits, and behaviors have been conceptualized to exist in a hierarchical structure based on the breadth of the variables involved. Second, we examine how measures of these broad and narrow behavior domains can lead to different research outcomes as far as the understanding and prediction of human behavior is concerned. Based in large part on the literature of industrial and organizational (I/O) psychology, we conclude that an intermediate option is generally the best one. To paraphrase Goldilocks, personality factor measures are too broad, personality behavior measures are too narrow, but personality trait measures are just right. But first, we review some structural models that have been proposed as representing the organization of personality.
