The overlap of sense of coherence and the Big Five personality traits: A confirmatory study

Abstract

Sense of coherence is the perception of the world as coherent. Its conceptual similarities to the Big Five personality traits have been demonstrated. We therefore investigated the relationship between sense of coherence and the Big Five. In total, 1088 Japanese youths completed the 29-item Sense of Coherence Scale and the Ten-Item Personality Inventory. Neuroticism was negatively correlated and extraversion was positively correlated with comprehensibility ( r = −.47, .35), manageability ( r = −.44, .26), and meaningfulness ( r = −.28, .30). These correlations were strong, and the overlap between the two scales was about 36 percent. While the Big Five are related to sense of coherence, their differences cannot be ignored.