Number and content of personality types across methods and samples: Empirically filling the theoretically developed map of RUNO typology

: Personality types are currently understood as basic configurations of personality traits from the Big Five model. However, to date, research has provided inconsistent results as to the number and content of personality types. The broadest support was found for the three-type RUO (Resilient-Undercontrolled-Overcontrolled) typology, but many studies indicate the existence of four or five basic personality types. The prevalence of an exploratory orientation in research on personality types was identified as the main cause of these inconsistencies, and the need for a well-justified theoretical basis for the personality typology was observed. The current study examines the predictions resulting from the four-type RUNO (Resilient-Undercontrolled-Nonresilient-Overcontrolled) typology – a proposal built on the Two Factor Model of personality and its extension: the Circumplex of Personality Metatraits. We used various measurement instruments (11 questionnaires to measure Big Five traits), samples (five samples with a total of 4430 respondents) and statistical procedures (cluster analyses on row and standardized data) testing the three-type, four-type and five-type solutions. We expected that although the robustness of the empirically derived type-solutions across different research conditions will be limited (in accordance with the previous studies), the configurations of each type found in the Big Five data will be in a concordance with the RUNO typology. Obtained results roughly confirmed our expectations. We conclude that a renewed focus on the theoretical basis of personality typology seems to be necessary to further advance this field of research and the Circumplex of Personality Metatraits enables the essential turn from an exploratory approach (usually used in the previous studies) to a theoretically driven approach (proposed by us in the current study) to personality typology.