The NEO-FFI: emerging British norms and an item-level analysis suggest N, A and C are more reliable than O and E

Early Motor Developmental Milestones and Personality Traits in Midlife: A 50-Year Follow-Up Study

Background The purpose of this study was to investigate if infants' age at attaining motor developmental milestones is associated with the big five personality traits 50 years later. Methods Mothers of 8395 infants from the Copenhagen Perinatal Cohort recorded a total of 12 motor developmental milestones during the first year of their infant's life. Information on at least one milestone was available for 1307 singletons with adult follow-up scores on the NEO-Five-Factor Inventory. The mean age at personality testing was 50.1 years. Results Slower attainment of motor milestones was associated with increased neuroticism and lower conscientiousness in midlife. All 12 motor developmental milestones explained a total of 2.4% of the variance in neuroticism, while they explained 3.2% of the variance in conscientiousness. These results remained significant after adjustment for the included family and perinatal covariates, as well as adult intelligence. Discussion The personality trait of neuroticism is a general risk factor for psychopathology and has in young adulthood been found to be associated with early motor development. However, evidence on associations of motor developmental milestones with other personality traits has been non-existent. These findings suggest that delays in early motor development may not only characterise individuals with later psychopathology, including schizophrenia, but may also be associated with personality traits such as neuroticism and conscientiousness through the life course.

Cross-cohort replicability and generalizability of connectivity-based psychometric prediction patterns

An increasing number of studies have investigated the relationships between inter-individual variability in brain regions' connectivity and behavioral phenotypes, making use of large population neuroimaging datasets. However, the replicability of brain-behavior associations identified by these approaches remains an open question. In this study, we examined the cross-dataset replicability of brain-behavior association patterns for fluid cognition and openness predictions using a previously developed region-wise approach, as well as using a standard whole-brain approach. Overall, we found moderate similarity in patterns for fluid cognition predictions across cohorts, especially in the Human Connectome Project Young Adult, Human Connectome Project Aging, and Enhanced Nathan Kline Institute Rockland Sample cohorts, but low similarity in patterns for openness predictions. In addition, we assessed the generalizability of prediction models in cross-dataset predictions, by training the model in one dataset and testing in another. Making use of the region-wise prediction approach, we showed that first, a moderate extent of generalizability could be achieved with fluid cognition prediction, and that, second, a set of common brain regions related to fluid cognition across cohorts could be identified. Nevertheless, the moderate replicability and generalizability could only be achieved in specific contexts. Thus, we argue that replicability and generalizability in connectivity-based prediction remain limited and deserve greater attention in future studies.

Personality in Soccer: Investigation of the Five-Factor Model of Personality in High-Level Athletes

Background

In high-level sports, rapid screening and diagnostic instruments are necessary considering limited access that researchers have to these athletes. In the area of sport psychological diagnostics, the NEO-FFI is a promising tool to gain information about an athlete's personality traits. The current study investigated the NEO-FFI's scientific quality criteria and general application to elite-level soccer.

Methods

Personality traits of 378 elite-level soccer athletes were assessed using the NEO-FFI. Analysis focused on internal consistency, factor structure and gender differences. Additionally, a second measurement with a 6-week interval was conducted with a sub-sample of 86 athletes to analyse test-retest reliability.

Results

Overall, the results are in line with previous findings outside high-level sports. For the total sample, alpha-levels from 0.68 to 0.84 and intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC) for test-retest measures from 0.86 to 0.91 could be found. Item-level principal component analysis using both oblimin and oblique rotation showed better stability in neuroticism (N) and conscientiousness (C) than in extraversion (E), openness (O), and agreeableness (A). Gender differences could be found in values of internal consistency, ICC and NEO-FFI traits.

Conclusion

The results of this study demonstrate good transferability of the NEO-FFI from settings outside high-level sports into this specific niche of sport psychological assessment. However, the same weaknesses of the applied instrument in general populations were also replicated in the sporting population.

Exploring the stability of HEXACO-60 structure and the association of gender, age, and social position with personality traits across 18 countries

OBJECTIVES

The present paper tests the cross-national stability of the HEXACO-60 structure across 18 countries from four continents. Gender and age differences across countries will be examined. Finally, this is the first study to explicitly analyze the relationships between the HEXACO and social position.

METHOD

Ten thousand two hundred and ninety eight subjects (5,410 women and 4,888 men) from 18 countries and 13 languages were analyzed. Confirmatory factor analysis techniques were used to test configural, metric and scalar invariance models. Congruence coefficients with the original structure of the HEXACO-60 were computed for every culture. Effect sizes of gender, age, and social position factors across countries were also computed.

RESULTS

HEXACO-60 demonstrates configural and metric invariance, but not scalar invariance. Congruence coefficients show a great equivalence in almost all countries and factors. Only Emotionality presents a large gender difference across countries. No relevant effect of age is observed. A profile of high scores on Honesty-Humility, Extraversion, Conscientiousness, and Openness to Experience, and low scores on Emotionality increases the likelihood of achieving a higher social position, although the effect sizes are small.

CONCLUSIONS

HEXACO-60 is a useful instrument to conduct personality trait research and practice around the world. Implications of gender, social position, and country differences are discussed.

Personality and intelligence as predictors of economic behaviour in Scottish farmers

The effects of personality and intelligence on economic behaviour in a sample of 207 Scottish farmers were investigated. Data were available on the farmers' attitudes, objectives, and business‐related behaviours, together with personality trait and cognitive test scores. Structural equation models of production‐oriented business behaviour and environmentally oriented behaviour were constructed. It was found that farmers who score highly on Extraversion (E), Openness to Experience (O), Conscientiousness (C), and cognitive ability are more likely to show production‐oriented behaviour and that the effects of personality and cognitive ability are mediated by a more open attitude towards farming. For environmentally oriented behaviour, high scores on E, O, C, and cognitive ability were associated with this behaviour, with mediation by an achievement‐oriented attitude to farming, chemical use attitude, and off‐farm/diversification objectives; there was also a positive effect of Neuroticism, mediated by pessimistic attitudes to farming and off‐farm/diversification objectives. These results show that that personality and intelligence have substantial and measurable effects on farmers' economic behaviour. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Beliefs about sharing illness experiences in chronic fatigue syndrome: the role of interpersonal trust and personality

Background

Disclosure of illness and illness experiences can be complicated for patients diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome due to the stigma associated with the illness. In this study, we evaluate the psychometric properties of the Beliefs about Sharing Illness Experiences (BASIE) scale in chronic fatigue patients. In addition, we inves-tigate whether interpersonal trust and personality characteristics predict self-disclosure in chronic fatigue pa-tients.

Participants and procedure

The research was carried out in Rasht City, Iran. Participants were patients with chronic fatigue syndrome (N = 280) who were referred to Rasht pain management clinics in 2019. The psychometric properties of the BASIE scale were evaluated using content validity (CVI and CVR), exploratory factor analysis (EFA), confirma-tory factor analysis (CFA), and Cronbach’s α. In addition, Pearson’s correlation and multiple regression were used to test the roles of interpersonal trust and personality in predicting willingness to share illness experiences in chronic fatigue syndrome patients.

Results

A CVI of .91 and CVR of .92 showed strong content validly for the BASIE scale. EFA and CFA supported a two-factor structure of the instrument. The Cronbach’s α of .94 confirmed strong reliability. Multiple regression anal-ysis revealed that positive beliefs about sharing illness experiences were predicted by higher interpersonal trust, higher extraversion, and lower neuroticism.

Conclusions

The BASIE scale appears to be an appropriate tool for measuring chronic fatigue syndrome patients’ beliefs about sharing illness experiences. Also, interpersonal trust, extraversion, and neuroticism play important roles in sharing illness experiences. These findings may be helpful in the management of chronic fatigue syndrome and other stigmatized illnesses.

Openness to Experience, Extraversion, and Subjective Well-Being Among Chinese College Students: The Mediating Role of Dispositional Awe

Awe is the emotion experienced when people confront stimuli so vast and novel that they require accommodation. Dispositional awe, in contrast, captures individual differences in the tendency to experience awe. Previous research has found that state awe could predict life satisfaction; however, no study has focused on the indirect effects of dispositional awe on the relationship between personality traits and subjective well-being. Previous studies have found that both openness to experience and extraversion were significant predictors of subjective well-being. Both openness to experience and awe involve cognitive flexibility. Awe can also arise from engaging in social events. Previous research has found that those who are higher in dispositional awe tend to be more extraverted and open to experience. Therefore, the main purpose of this study is to test the mediating role of dispositional awe among openness to experience, extraversion, and subjective well-being. To test this hypothesis, a total of 332 Chinese college students were invited to complete an anonymous survey using a cross-sectional design. The results of structural equation modeling showed that openness to experience and extraversion predicted higher levels of dispositional awe, while dispositional awe predicted higher levels of subjective well-being. Moreover, dispositional awe mediated the effects of openness to experience and extraversion on subjective well-being. The findings of this study suggest that openness to experience and extraversion may invite more experiences of awe and thus promote subjective well-being.

Investigating associations between personality and the efficacy of interventions for cognitive ageing: A systematic review

The personal and societal impact of age-related cognitive decline supports the development of effective interventions. While some strategies, such as cognitive training, exercise or socio-intellectual engagement, appear beneficial, few studies have examined the association between personality and intervention efficacy. A systematic review was therefore conducted to summarise and synthesise the literature regarding the influence of personality traits on the effectiveness of non-pharmacological interventions for cognitive ageing. A systematic search of PubMed, PsycINFO and Web of Science was carried out. Of the 2100 papers identified by the search strategy, 10 studies were retained that met the relevant criteria (e.g., intervention studies with one or more cognitive outcomes and a measure of personality). Of these, two studies reported that higher levels of Openness to Experience were associated with greater improvement in memory performance after cognitive training interventions. Another found a positive association between Openness and improvement in divergent thinking following a novel group-based problem solving programme. One social intervention study reported positive moderating effects of Conscientiousness and Agreeableness, and mixed effects of Extraversion. Mixed evidence was also found regarding Need for Cognition, with one study reporting a positive association with memory improvement and another reporting less improvement in divergent thinking. Others found no evidence of personality influencing intervention outcomes. Due to the relatively small and heterogeneous sample of studies identified, any conclusions should currently be considered preliminary. These findings highlight the need for further research exploring the role of personality in intervention efficacy, so that interventions might be better tailored to individuals.

Intersubject similarity of personality is associated with intersubject similarity of brain connectivity patterns

Personality is a central high-level psychological concept that defines individual human beings and has been associated with a variety of real-world outcomes (e.g., mental health and academic performance). Using 2 h, high resolution, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) resting state data of 984 (primary dataset N = 801, hold-out dataset N = 183) participants from the Human Connectome Project (HCP), we investigated the relationship between personality (five-factor model, FFM) and intrinsic whole-brain functional connectome. We found a pattern of functional brain connectivity ("global personality network") related to personality traits. Consistent with the heritability of personality traits, the connectivity strength of this global personality network is also heritable (more similar between monozygotic twin pairs compared to the dizygotic twin pairs). Validated by both the repeated family-based 10-fold cross-validation and hold-out dataset, our intersubject network similarity analysis allowed us to identify participants' pairs with similar personality profiles. Across all the identified pairs of participants, we found a positive correlation between the network similarity and personality similarity, supporting our "similar brain, similar personality" hypothesis. Furthermore, the global personality network can be used to predict the individual subject's responses in the personality questionnaire on an item level. In sum, based on individual brain connectivity pattern, we could predict different facets of personality, and this prediction is not based on localized regions, but rather relies on the individual connectivity pattern in large-scale brain networks.

Resting-state functional brain connectivity best predicts the personality dimension of openness to experience

Personality neuroscience aims to find associations between brain measures and personality traits. Findings to date have been severely limited by a number of factors, including small sample size and omission of out-of-sample prediction. We capitalized on the recent availability of a large database, together with the emergence of specific criteria for best practices in neuroimaging studies of individual differences. We analyzed resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging data from 884 young healthy adults in the Human Connectome Project (HCP) database. We attempted to predict personality traits from the "Big Five", as assessed with the NEO-FFI test, using individual functional connectivity matrices. After regressing out potential confounds (such as age, sex, handedness and fluid intelligence), we used a cross-validated framework, together with test-retest replication (across two sessions of resting-state fMRI for each subject), to quantify how well the neuroimaging data could predict each of the five personality factors. We tested three different (published) denoising strategies for the fMRI data, two inter-subject alignment and brain parcellation schemes, and three different linear models for prediction. As measurement noise is known to moderate statistical relationships, we performed final prediction analyses using average connectivity across both imaging sessions (1 h of data), with the analysis pipeline that yielded the highest predictability overall. Across all results (test/retest; 3 denoising strategies; 2 alignment schemes; 3 models), Openness to experience emerged as the only reliably predicted personality factor. Using the full hour of resting-state data and the best pipeline, we could predict Openness to experience (NEOFAC_O: r=0.24, R2=0.024) almost as well as we could predict the score on a 24-item intelligence test (PMAT24_A_CR: r=0.26, R2=0.044). Other factors (Extraversion, Neuroticism, Agreeableness and Conscientiousness) yielded weaker predictions across results that were not statistically significant under permutation testing. We also derived two superordinate personality factors ("α" and "β") from a principal components analysis of the NEO-FFI factor scores, thereby reducing noise and enhancing the precision of these measures of personality. We could account for 5% of the variance in the β superordinate factor (r=0.27, R2=0.050), which loads highly on Openness to experience. We conclude with a discussion of the potential for predicting personality from neuroimaging data and make specific recommendations for the field.

Correlations Between Personality and Brain Structure: A Crucial Role of Gender

Previous studies have shown that males and females differ in personality and gender differences have also been reported in brain structure. However, effects of gender on this "personality-brain" relationship are yet unknown. We therefore investigated if the neural correlates of personality differ between males and females. Whole brain voxel-based morphometry was used to investigate the influence of gender on associations between NEO FFI personality traits and gray matter volume (GMV) in a matched sample of 182 males and 182 females. In order to assess associations independent of and dependent on gender, personality-GMV relationships were tested across the entire sample and separately for males and females. There were no significant correlations between any personality scale and GMV in the analyses across the entire sample. In contrast, significant associations with GMV were detected for neuroticism, extraversion, and conscientiousness only in males. Interestingly, GMV in left precuneus/parieto-occipital sulcus correlated with all 3 traits. Thus, our results indicate that brain structure-personality relationships are highly dependent on gender, which might be attributable to hormonal interplays or differences in brain organization between males and females. Our results thus provide possible neural substrates of personality-behavior relationships and underline the important role of gender in these associations.

Association between Neuroticism and Emotional Face Processing

Neuroticism is one of the “Big Five” personality factors and is characterized by a tendency to experience negative affect. We aimed to investigate how neuroticism influences the neural correlates for processing of emotional facial expressions. 68 healthy participants were presented with emotional dynamic facial stimuli, i.e. happy, neutral or angry, during functional MRI. Brain activations for the contrasts emotional vs. neutral, happy vs. neutral and angry vs. neutral were correlated with individuals’ neuroticism scores as obtained by the NEO Five Factor Inventory questionnaire and additionally investigated for gender differences. The bilateral medial temporal gyrus (MTG) was identified as key region in the processing of emotional faces and activations within this region correlated with individual neuroticism scores. Although female participants showed significantly stronger activation differences between emotional and neutral facial expressions in the left MTG, the correlation between activation and neuroticism scores did not show any significant gender differences. Our results offer for the first time a biological correlate within the face processing network for enhanced reactivity of neurotic individuals to emotional facial expressions which occurs similarly for both male and female participants.

Modeling General, Specific, and Method Variance in Personality Measures: Results for ZKA-PQ and NEO-PI-R

Contemporary models of personality assume a hierarchical structure in which broader traits contain narrower traits. Individual differences in response styles also constitute a source of score variance. In this study, the bifactor model is applied to separate these sources of variance for personality subscores. The procedure is illustrated using data for two personality inventories-NEO Personality Inventory-Revised and Zuckerman-Kuhlman-Aluja Personality Questionnaire. The inclusion of the acquiescence method factor generally improved the fit to acceptable levels for the Zuckerman-Kuhlman-Aluja Personality Questionnaire, but not for the NEO Personality Inventory-Revised. This effect was higher in subscales where the number of direct and reverse items is not balanced. Loadings on the specific factors were usually smaller than the loadings on the general factor. In some cases, part of the variance was due to domains being different from the main one. This information is of particular interest to researchers as they can identify which subscale scores have more potential to increase predictive validity.

Defence styles in a sample of forensic patients with personality disorder

BACKGROUND

Ego defences, often considered central to clinical work, have received surprisingly little attention in the forensic literature.

METHOD

In this exploratory study, 114 male inpatients completed the Defence Style Questionnaire (DSQ) following their admission to a specialist personality disorder (PD) service. Change in DSQ scores over time was examined using mixed effects models for those (n = 48) remaining in treatment for at least 18 months.

RESULTS

Defensive functioning at baseline was less mature in comparison with non-clinical norms, with two other non-forensic PD samples, and with a male paedophile sample, but was unrelated to criminal history. Axis II severity was negatively associated with overall defensive functioning (ODF). Antisocial PD was positively associated with a maladaptive defence style. Borderline PD was negatively associated with self-sacrificing defences. Avoidant PD was negatively associated with both self-sacrificing and adaptive styles. Non-completion of treatment was predicted by low ODF scores and high maladaptive defence style scores at baseline. ODF improved significantly over time in treatment and was predicted by strong antisocial and weak schizotypal PD pathologies.

CONCLUSIONS

Defence style, as measured by the DSQ, appears to have the potential to inform assessment and measure change in this group of offenders.

Brain correlates of pro-social personality traits: a voxel-based morphometry study

Of the five personality dimensions described by the Big Five Personality Model (Costa and McCrae 1992), Extraversion and Agreeableness are the traits most commonly associated with a pro-social orientation. In this study we tested whether a pro-social orientation, as expressed in terms of Extraversion and Agreeableness, is associated with a specific grey matter phenotype. Fifty-two healthy participants underwent magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and completed the NEO-Five Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI), a self-report measure of the Big Five personality traits. Voxel-based morphometry (VBM) was used to investigate the correlation between brain structure and the personality traits of Agreeableness and Extraversion. We found that Extraversion was negatively correlated with grey matter density in the middle frontal and orbitofrontal gyri while Agreeableness was negatively correlated with grey matter density in the inferior parietal, middle occipital and posterior cingulate gyri. No positive correlations were found. These results suggest that pro-social personality traits seem to be associated with decreases in grey matter density in more frontal regions for Extraversion, and more posterior regions for Agreeableness.

Psychometric properties of the Icelandic NEO-FFI in a general population sample compared to a sample recruited for a study on the genetics of addiction

Personality traits are major determinants of social behavior influencing various diseases including addiction. Twin and family studies suggest personality and addiction to be under genetic influence. Identification of DNA susceptibility variants relies on valid and reliable phenotyping approaches. We present results of psychometric testing of the Icelandic NEO-FFI in a population sample (N=657) and a sample recruited for a study on addiction genetics (N=3,804). The Icelandic NEO-FFI demonstrated internal consistency and temporal stability. Factor analyses supported the five-factor structure. Icelandic norms were compared to American norms and language translations selected for geographical and cultural proximity to Iceland. Multiple discriminant function analysis using NEO-FFI trait scores and gender as independent variables predicted membership in recruitment groups for 47.3% of addiction study cases (N=3,804), with accurate predictions made for 69.5% of individuals with treated addiction and 43.3% of their first-degree relatives. Correlations between NEO-FFI scores and the discriminant function suggested a combination of high neuroticism, low conscientiousness and low agreeableness predicted membership in the Treated group.

Neuroticism and Extraversion in Youth Predict Mental Wellbeing and Life Satisfaction 40 Years Later

Neuroticism and Extraversion are linked with current wellbeing, but it is unclear whether these traits in youth predict wellbeing decades later. We applied structural equation modelling to data from 4583 people from the MRC National Survey of Health and Development. We examined the effects of Neuroticism and Extraversion at ages 16 and 26 years on mental wellbeing and life satisfaction at age 60-64 and explored the mediating roles of psychological and physical health. Extraversion had direct, positive effects on both measures of wellbeing. The impact of Neuroticism on both wellbeing and life satisfaction was largely indirect through susceptibility to psychological distress and physical health problems. Personality dispositions in youth have enduring influence on wellbeing assessed about forty years later.

Dirty habits? Online pornography use, personality, obsessionality, and compulsivity

Internet pornography use can be compulsive, but evaluation of pathology underlying this is difficult to assess. The present study aimed to distinguish individual differences in personality and psychopathology that predict pornography consumption in an individual, and whether this reflected more general compulsive processes, assessing 226 male participants. Neuroticism, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and obsessional checking all significantly correlated with a latent measure of compulsive behavior upon which use of Internet pornography use also loaded. The authors suggest the greater use of pornography on the Internet may reflect a general vulnerability to compulsive problems related to basic disposition, and that problems associated with this behavior can be managed with generic clinical approaches to obsessional and compulsive disorders.

Personality traits of British hospice volunteers

In total, 120 British female hospice volunteers completed the NEO five-factor inventory (NEO-FFI) of Costa Jr and McCrae. The NEO-FFI measures the so-called big 5 personality traits of neuroticism, extraversion, openness, agreeableness, and conscientiousness. Compared to both American NEO-FFI norms for adult females and emerging British NEO-FFI norms for adult females, the hospice volunteers scored significantly lower, on average, in neuroticism and significantly higher, on average, in agreeableness and conscientiousness. No significant differences were found on any of the 5 traits between the British female hospice volunteers' scores and the NEO-FFI scores previously collected from a sample of Canadian female hospice palliative care volunteers. Implications for the recruitment of British hospice volunteers are discussed.

The NEO Personality Inventory–Revised

This study presents new analyses of NEO Personality Inventory–Revised (NEO-PI-R) responses collected from a large British sample in a high-stakes setting. The authors show the appropriateness of the five-factor model underpinning these responses in a variety of new ways. Using the recently developed exploratory structural equation modeling (ESEM) technique, the authors show that model fits improve markedly over conventional confirmatory factor analyses (CFA) of the same data set, but that (a) factor interpretations do not change under ESEM analyses, (b) ESEM factor scores, just like CFA factors scores, correlate at near unity with sums of observed scores, (c) NEO-PI-R facets under ESEM analyses are invariant across gender, and (d) ESEM highlights the inappropriateness of alpha and beta as a higher order representation of NEO-PI-R facets, whereas a CFA approach might lead researchers to believe in the appropriateness of these higher order factors. These results, coupled with the existing validity evidence for the NEO-PI-R, suggest that the five-factor structure is the most parsimonious structure for summarizing NEO-PI-R responses from high-stakes settings in the United Kingdom.

The NEO Five-Factor Inventory: latent structure and relationships with dimensions of anxiety and depressive disorders in a large clinical sample

The present study evaluated the latent structure of the NEO Five-Factor Inventory (NEO FFI) and relations between the five-factor model (FFM) of personality and dimensions of DSM-IV anxiety and depressive disorders (panic disorder, generalized anxiety disorder [GAD], obsessive-compulsive disorder, social phobia [SOC], major depressive disorder [MDD]) in a large sample of outpatients (N = 1,980). Exploratory structural equation modeling (ESEM) was used to show that a five-factor solution provided acceptable model fit, albeit with some poorly functioning items. Neuroticism demonstrated significant positive associations with all but one of the disorder constructs whereas Extraversion was inversely related to SOC and MDD. Conscientiousness was inversely related to MDD but demonstrated a positive relationship with GAD. Results are discussed in regard to potential revisions to the NEO FFI, the evaluation of other NEO instruments using ESEM, and clinical implications of structural paths between FFM domains and specific emotional disorders.

Psychometrics of a self-report version of the Child and Adolescent Dispositions Scale

Lahey and Waldman (2003, 2005) proposed a model in which three dispositions-sympathetic response to others; negative emotional response to threat, frustration, and loss; and positive response to novelty and risk-transact with the environment to influence risk for conduct disorder (CD). To test this model, the Child and Adolescent Dispositions Scale (CADS) was developed to measure these dispositions using parent ratings of the child. Here we report psychometric evaluations of a parallel youth self-report version (CADS-Y). Exploratory factor analysis of CADS-Y items among 832 9- to 17-year-olds yielded a 3-factor structure that was consistent with the model and invariant across sex and informants. In 1,582 pairs of 9- to 17-year-old twins, confirmatory factor analyses supported the CADS-Y 3-factor model. Each CADS-Y dimension was associated with CD and related personality dimensions as predicted.

PT. Brief Versions of the NEO-PI-3

Abstract. Self-report (Form S) and observer rating (Form R) versions of two short forms of the NEO Personality Inventory-3 (NEO-PI-3) were evaluated. The NEO Five-Factor Inventory-3 is a 60-item instrument that assesses the five factors. The NEO-PI-3 First Half consists of the first 120 items of the NEO-PI-3, selected to optimally assess its 30 facet scales. Internal consistencies were systematically lower for the brief scales than for the parent scales, but both brief instruments replicated the factor structure and showed cross-observer validity. They appeared to work well in both adolescent and adult samples, and adequately in a middle school-age sample. Norms for the NEO-FFI-3 are provided and it was shown that NEO-PI-3 norms can be used for NEO-PI-3 First Half scores if they are simply doubled. Uses of the NEO-PI-3 First Half are discussed.

Higher-Order Factors in a Five-Factor Personality Inventory and its Relation to Social Desirability

Abstract. This paper compared two higher-order factor models using a 100-item, five-factor personality inventory originating from the IPIP database. The sample consisted of 2,019 subjects tested on the Internet. The two models were compared using confirmatory factor analysis. The two-factor model showed a similar fit to the data. The criteria for parsimony favored a hierarchical model with one higher-order factor at the top and five personality factors beneath. The single higher-order factor was found to be related to social desirability in a subsample of 196 subjects.

Assessing the Big Five

Abstract. A new measure of the Big Five personality constructs, the Openness Conscientiousness Extraversion Agreeableness Neuroticism Index Condensed (OCEANIC), was developed and validated. In Study 1 (N = 166), the convergent validity with the Big Five as assessed by the NEO-FFI was established. Study 2 (N = 3 808) served to investigate the structure of the instrument with stepwise exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis. The incremental predictive validity with respect to objective university grades was examined in Study 3 (N = 145). The results show that a) the scales of the initial item pool converge with those of an established measure of the Big Five, b) the Big Five factor model fits the data both at the item and facet level and both for subsamples of students and workers, and c) consistent with previous research, the Conscientiousness factor of the OCEANIC predicts university grades beyond intelligence measures.

Sexual offenders against children: the influence of personality and obsessionality on cognitive distortions

Sexual offenders against children are generally inadequate in their social functioning and diverse in their psychopathology. The degree to which this inadequate functioning and psychopathology influences therapeutic interventions brings into question the belief that generic nonclinical programmatic treatment work is always appropriate for such a cohort. The Sex Offenders Assessment Package (SOAP) measures inadequate social functioning and sexual deviance, but has not been linked to broader individual differences and generic psychopathology. We collected information examining the relationship between the SOAP and standard measures of personality (the NEO-FFI) and obsessive-compulsiveness (MOCI) in a sample of 200 sexual offenders against children seen by the Probation Service. Factor analysis was used to reduce the SOAP to three reliable factors: emotional distress, cognitions supporting sex with children, and concern for others. These factors correlated respectively with higher Neuroticism and lower Extroversion; greater obsessive-compulsiveness on the MOCI, and trait Agreeableness, irrespective of whether or not one corrected for socially desirable responding. When partial correlation controlled for the influence of Neuroticism on the correlation between cognitions supporting sex with children and the MOCI, there was no change in the association between these variables. These results show that negative affect and obsessional tendencies are important underlying influences on the feelings and behavior of sexual offenders, that the obsessionality of the group is not attributable to Neuroticism, and suggest useful additional foci to enhance the treatment of this diverse clinical group.

Delineating the structure of normal and abnormal personality: an integrative hierarchical approach

Increasing evidence indicates that normal and abnormal personality can be treated within a single structural framework. However, identification of a single integrated structure of normal and abnormal personality has remained elusive. Here, a constructive replication approach was used to delineate an integrative hierarchical account of the structure of normal and abnormal personality. This hierarchical structure, which integrates many Big Trait models proposed in the literature, replicated across a meta-analysis as well as an empirical study, and across samples of participants as well as measures. The proposed structure resembles previously suggested accounts of personality hierarchy and provides insight into the nature of personality hierarchy more generally. Potential directions for future research on personality and psychopathology are discussed.