Over the last 60 years, advances in test construction, and greater sophistication in the creation and analysis of test items by which individuals might rate themselves, have been dramatic. Such advances have yielded a variety of basic personality traits. Particular personality traits, in turn, have been linked with aggression and violent behaviors in adolescence. However, efforts to reduce personality to a fundamental set of traits also has depended on which particular test items were provided for self-description purposes (Zuckerman et al., 1993). The resulting associations between trait measures of personality and aggression and violence also have depended on which basic personality traits have been measured.

One important attempt to define the structure of personality was dubbed the “Alternative Five.” The measure consisted of five dimensions that take into account the psychobiological components of personality, and was designed so that traits would be replicable for both gender and various age groups (Zuckerman et al., 1993). The results of this empirical work were the following five personality traits: (1) impulsive sensation-seeking. “ … lack of planning and the tendency to act impulsively … experience seeking, or the willingness to take risks for the sake of excitement or novel experience”; (2) neuroticism-anxiety. “items describe emotional upset, tension, worry, fearfulness, obsessive indecision, lack of self-confidence, and sensitivity to criticism”; (3) aggression-hostility. “ … a readiness to express verbal aggression … rude, thoughtless, or antisocial behavior, vengefulness, and spitefulness”; (4) activity.