The polymath Francis Galton (1887) implied that even though personality
may consist of many different facets, there may also exist a
common personality factor that exerts a broad and general influence
on behavior. Although a relatively novel idea at the time, Galton did
not test it statistically. It was Webb (1915) who conducted one of the
first factor-analytic studies on this topic, revealing the presence of a
general factor. In the following century, the notion of a General Factor
of Personality (henceforward GFP) faded into the background and instead
several personality models were developed under the assumption
of multiple, and conceptually independent dimensions, such as the Big
Five or Eysenk's Giant Three. Yet, despite the focus on multiple personality
dimensions, the general factor continued to resurface in the literature
throughout the past decades. For example, in the early lexicon
studies on personality, a strong general factor emerged that was labeled
social desirability (e.g., Saucier, 1994). Other examples of earlier studies
reporting or discussing a general factor in personality are Edwards
(1957), and Peabody and Goldberg (1989). Thus, the notion of a general
factor in personality was never really denied, it just did not receive
much attention because researchers often assumed it may largely re-
flect response bias.