However, higher order factors, developed as summaries or other mathematical combinations of homogeneous constructs, cannot refer to single, meaningful psychological entities and hence cannot refer to causally active constructs (McGrath, 2005). An overall score on Neuroticism does not provide information about the specific psychological processes in place. As Saucier (1998) put it, “Broad factors have the disadvantage of being in effect composed of many variables, and thus possessing some definitional ambiguity” (p. 264).
