We experienced a similar failure to find strong evidence for the GFP when we examined the matrices of inter-factor correlations that emerge from a joint analysis of the scales from multiple inventories. This approach was based on the strategy used by Markon and colleagues (2005) to evaluate the hierarchical nature of pathological personality traits. However, here we used oblique rotations so that we could uncover correlated dimensions of personality rather than assuming that factors were uncorrelated as would be the case with orthogonal rotations. Using this approach, we replicated previous evidence for the robustness of Big Five domains but we noted that these five dimensions were reasonably uncorrelated. This finding undermines the case for the GFP, as second-order factors can only be obtained from correlated first-order factors.
