1

NEO Five-Factor Inventory

AIM: - To assess the personality of the participant using NEO Five-Factor Inventory
developed by D. Costa and Robert McCrae's.

Introduction to personality

Personality is a characteristic way of thinking, feeling, and behaving. Personality

embraces moods, attitudes, and opinions and is most clearly expressed in interactions with
other people. It includes behavioural characteristics, both inherent and acquired, that
distinguish one person from another and that can be observed in people’s relations to the
environment and to the social group. The English word ‘Personality' has been derived from the
Latin word 'Persona'. The word 'Persona' was first used in Greek to mean of a theatrical mask
which the Greek actors commonly used to wear on their faces before coming to the stage for
acting. In this sense, in the olden days, personality meant a person's outward appearance. There
are different journals and psychologists who gave definitions of personality based on their
research and theories.

Definitions of personality by psychologists: -

● Freud proposed that the mind is divided into three components: id, ego, and
superego, and that the interactions and conflicts among the components create
personality (Freud, 1896)
● “Personality is the sum of activities that can be discovered by actual
observations over a long enough period of time to give reliable information.”
(Watson, 1913)
● "Personality is the dynamic organisation within the individual of those
psychophysical systems that determine his characteristics, behaviour and
thought" (Allport, 1937).
● "Personality is that which permits a prediction of what a person will do in a
given situation." (R.B.Cattell, 1957)
● “Personality is more or less stable and enduring organication of a person”s
character, temperament, intellect and physique, which determine his unique
adjustment to the environment” (Eysenk, 1971)

Theories of personality: -

Type Approach: -

Personality types are used to represent and communicate a set of expected behaviours
based on similarities. Efforts to categorise people into personality types have been
made since ancient times. The Greek physician Hippocrates (370 BCE) had proposed
a typology of personality based on fluid or humour. He classified people into four
types (i.e., sanguine, phlegmatic, melancholic and choleric); each characterised by
specific behavioural features.
Personality types given by Sheldon (1954) are fairly well- known. Using body build
and temperament as the main basis, Sheldon proposed the Endomorphic,
Mesomorphic, and Ectomorphic typology.
 2

● The endomorphs are fat, soft and round. By temperament they are relaxed and
sociable.
● The mesomorphs have strong musculature, are rectangular with a strong body
build. They are energetic and courageous.
● The ectomorphs are thin, long and fragile in body build. They are brainy,
artistic and introverted.

Jung (1933) has proposed another important typology by grouping people into
introverts and extraverts. This is widely recognised. According to this typology,
introverts are people who prefer to be alone, tend to avoid others, withdraw
themselves in the face of emotional conflicts, and are shy. Extraverts, on the other
hand, are sociable, outgoing, drawn to occupations that allow dealing directly with
people, and react to stress by trying to lose themselves among people and social
activity.

Friedman and Rosenman (1976) have classified individuals into Type-A and Type-B
personalities. The two researchers were trying to identify psychosocial risk factors
when they discovered these types.
People characterized by Type-A personality seem to possess high motivation, lack
patience, feel short of time, be in a great hurry, and feel like they are always burdened
with work. Such people find it difficult to slow down and relax. People with Type-A
personality are more susceptible to problems like hypertension and coronary heart
disease (CHD).
Opposite to this is the Type-B personality, which can be understood as the absence of
Type-A traits. This typology has been further extended.
Morris has suggested a Type-C personality, which is prone to cancer. Individuals
characterised by this personality are cooperative, unassertive and patient. They
suppress their negative emotions (e.g., anger), and show compliance to authority.
More recently, a Type-D personality has been suggested, which is characterised by
proneness to depression.

Psychodynamic theory

Freud’s theory is at least partly autobiographical in that he based some of his major
concepts on his childhood experiences, dreams, and sexual conflicts. Instincts are
mental representations of stimuli that originate within the body. Life instincts serve the
purpose of survival and are manifested in a form of psychic energy called libido. Death
instincts are an unconscious drive toward decay, destruction, and aggression.

The three structures of the personality are the id, ego, and superego. The id, the biological
component of personality, is the storehouse of instincts and libido. It operates in
accordance with the pleasure principle. The ego, the rational component of personality,
operates in accordance with the reality principle. The superego, the moral side of
personality, consists of the conscience (behaviours for which the child is punished) and
the ego-ideal (behaviours for which the child is praised). The ego mediates among the
demands of the id, the pressures of reality, and the dictates of the superego. Anxiety
develops when the ego is pressured too greatly. Reality anxiety is a fear of dangers in the
real world. Neurotic anxiety is a conflict between instinctual gratification and reality.
Moral anxiety is a conflict between the id and the superego. Défense mechanisms operate
 3

unconsciously. They are distortions of reality that protect the ego from the threat of
anxiety. Défense mechanisms include repression, reaction formation, projection,
regression, rationalization, displacement, and sublimation.

Further, he added children pass through psychosexual stages of development defined by

the erogenous zones of the body. The oral stage involves two modes of behaviour: oral
incorporative and oral aggressive. The anal stage involves the first interference with the
gratification of an instinctual impulse. The phallic stage involves the Oedipus complex,
the child’s unconscious sexual longings for the parent of the opposite sex and feelings of
rivalry and fear toward the parent of the same sex.

Social Cognition Perspective of Personality

The social cognitive perspective of personality theories that human personality is an ever-
changing amalgamation of the choices we make based on how we think about and judge the
actions of others. The social cognitive perspective definition of personality is distinct in that
it assumes that personality is a result of choice and reaction to the environment.
Albert Bandura (1977) agreed with Skinner that personality develops through learning. He
disagreed, however, with Skinner’s strict behaviourist approach to personality development
because he felt that thinking and reasoning are important components of learning. He
presented a social-cognitive theory of personality that emphasises both learning and cognition
as sources of individual differences in personality. In social-cognitive theory, the concepts of
reciprocal determinism, observational learning, and self-efficacy all play a part in personality
development.
Humanistic Approach
The most important idea proposed by Rogers (1959) is that of a fully functioning person.
Rogers’ theory grew out of his experiences of listening to patients in his clinic. He noted that
self was an important element in the experience of his clients. Thus, his theory is structured
around the concept of self. The theory assumes that people are constantly engaged in the
process of actualising their true self. Rogers suggests that each person also has a concept of
an ideal self. An ideal self is the self that a person would like to be. When there is a
correspondence between the real self and ideal self, a person is generally happy. Discrepancy
between the real self and ideal self often results in unhappiness and dissatisfaction. Rogers’
basic principle is that people have a tendency to maximise self-concept through self-
actualisation. In this process, the self grows, expands and becomes more social. Rogers views
personality development as a continuous process. It involves learning to evaluate oneself and
mastering the process of self- actualisation. He recognises the role of social influences in the
development of self-concept. When social conditions are positive, the self-concept and self-
esteem are high. In contrast, when the conditions are negative, the self-concept and self-
esteem are low. People with high self- concept and self-esteem are generally flexible and
open to new experiences, so that they can continue to grow and self-actualise.This situation
warrants that an atmosphere of unconditional positive regard must be created in order to
ensure enhancement of people’s self-concept.
Trait Theories
The goals of trait theorists are to describe the basic classes of behaviour that define
personality, to devise ways of measuring individual differences in personality traits, and to
use these measures to understand and predict a person’s behaviour. Trait theories are less
 4

concerned with the explanation for personality development and changing personality than
they are with describing personality and predicting behaviour based on the description. They
focus on identifying key dimensions of personality—the most important ways in which
people differ and are mainly concerned with identifying primary characteristics of people.
A trait is a consistent, enduring way of thinking, feeling, or behaving, and trait theories
attempt to describe personality in terms of a person’s traits. Personality traits are relatively
stable cognitive, emotional, and behavioural characteristics of people that help establish their
individual identities and distinguish them from others. They include a range of possible
behaviours that are activated according to the demands of the situation.
Allport's Trait theories (1937)
One of the first efforts to identify key human traits was the work of Gordon Allport. He
proposed that personality traits could be divided into several categories that varied in their
importance.
● Cardinal Traits: Allport noted that a few people are dominated by single all-
important cardinal trait Cardinal traits are highly generalised dispositions. They
indicate the goal around which a person’s entire life seems to revolve. For example:
Mahatma Gandhi’s non-violence and Hitler’s Nazism. Such traits often get associated
with the name of the person so strongly that they derive such identities as the
‘Gandhian’ or ‘Hitlerian’ trait
● Central traits: Less pervasive in effect, but still quite generalised dispositions, are
called central traits—five to ten traits that together account for the uniqueness of an
individual’s personality. Such traits are stronger and more resistant to situational
forces. These traits (e.g., warm, sincere, diligent, etc.) are often used in writing a
testimonial for job recommendation for a person.
● Secondary Traits: The least important are secondary traits; these are traits that exert
relatively weak and limited effects on behaviour. They are the least generalised
characteristics of a person. For Example: Traits such as ‘likes mangoes’ or ‘prefers
ethnic clothes’
Allport believed (with no scientific evidence, however) that these traits were literally wired
into the nervous system to guide one’s behaviour across many different situations and that
each person’s “constellation” of traits was unique.

Cattell's 16PF
Raymond Cattell (1949) Raymond Cattell believed that there is a structure on which people
differ from each other and this structure could be determined empirically. His analysis
defined two types of traits as surface traits and source traits.
● Surface traits are like those found by Allport, representing the personality
characteristics easily seen by other people.
● Source traits are those more basic traits that underlie the surface traits.
For example, shyness, being quiet, and disliking crowds might all be surface traits related to
the more basic source trait of introversion, a tendency to withdraw from excessive
stimulation. He applied a statistical technique, called factor analysis, to discover the common
structures and found 16 primary or source traits. He also developed a test, called Sixteen
Personality Factor Questionnaire (16PF), for the assessment of personality.
 5

Eysenck's Theory of Personality

H.J Eysenck (1952, 1967, 1982) proposed that personality could be reduced into two broad
dimensions. These are biologically and genetically based and subsume a number of specific
traits.
1. Neuroticism vs. emotional stability- It refers to the degree to which people have
control over their feelings. At one extreme are people who are neurotic i.e. they are
anxious, moody, touchy, restless and quickly lose control while at the other end are
calm, even tempered and reliable people.
2. Extraversion vs introversion- It refers to the degree to which people are socially
outgoing or socially withdrawn. At one extreme are people who are active,
gregarious, impulsive, and thrill seeking while at the other end are passive, quiet,
cautious and reserved people.
Later Eysenck proposed a third dimension which is considered to interact with the other two
dimensions.
3. Psychoticism vs. sociability- A person who scores high on psychoticism tends to be
hostile, egocentric, and antisocial while on the other end are friendly, outgoing and
talkative people.

Five Factor Model of Personality

Paul Costa and Robert McCrae (1980-1990) examined all possible personality traits. These
findings indicate a set of five factors and are often called Big Five Factors. These factors
include:
c. Openness- A dimension ranging from imaginative, witty, and having broad
interests at one end to down-to-earth, simple, and having narrow interests at
the other.
d. Conscientiousness- It refers to a person's organisation and motivation. This
dimension ranges from well-organised, careful and responsible at one end to
disorganised, careless and unscrupulous at the other.
e. Extraversion- It's a dimension ranging from energetic, enthusiastic, sociable,
and talkative at one end to retiring, sober, reserved, silent, and cautious at the
other.
f. Agreeableness- It refers to the basic emotional style of a person. People who
score high on this are good-natured, cooperative, easy-going and helpful while
those who score low on this tend to be irritable, suspicious and uncooperative.
g. Neuroticism- It refers to emotional instability or stability. People who are
excessive worriers, overanxious, and moody would score high on this
dimension, whereas those who are more even-tempered and calmer would
score low.

Culture and personality: -

 6

Personality is a product of interacting biological and environmental influence. Children

inherit different biologies that influence how their environment, including culture, affects
them. Among the most important, yet unappreciated, environmental influence is the culture in
which we develop. Culture encompasses unstated assumptions (including assumptions about
the very nature of reality), norms, values, sex roles, and habitual ways of behaving that are
shared by members of a social group. It influences what we perceive, how we perceive, how
we relate to ourselves and others, and how we behave. Ecologies shape cultures; cultures
influence the development of personalities. There are both universal and culture-specific
aspects of variation in personality. Some culture-specific aspects correspond to cultural
syndromes such as complexity, tightness, individualism, and collectivism. A large body of
literature suggests that the Big Five personality factors emerge in various cultures.

Cultural Differences in Personalities

Cultures differ along a number of dimensions that can affect personality development
(Triandis & Suh, 2002). One is complexity. Consider how much more complex a Western
information-age culture is than a hunter-gatherer culture in a remote region of an
undeveloped country. A second cultural dimension is tightness. In tight cultures, there are
many rules about behaviour, and those who deviate from the cultural norms, even in minor
ways, are likely to be punished. As a result of explicit norms, people tend to differ less from
one another in tight cultures than they do in loose cultures, where diversity in beliefs, values,
and “doing your own thing” is permitted or even encouraged. Loose cultures are most likely
to occur where people within a social group are not highly dependent on another and where
diversity is tolerated or even encouraged. Important personality differences have been found
between people in individualistic and collectivistic cultures, although we should emphasise
that significant variation can be found within any given culture because, on average, only
about 40 percent of people within a particular culture strongly embrace individualistic or
collectivistic goals (Triandis & Suh, 2002). Self-enhancement needs are equally strong in
individualistic and collectivistic cultures, but they are satisfied in different ways.
Individualists enhance the self through personal successes, whereas collectivists feel better
about themselves when their group succeeds (Sedikides et al.,2003). In a study of cultural
differences in experienced emotions, Americans reported more self-oriented positive
emotions, such as self-pride and personal happiness, whereas Japanese reported more
interpersonally oriented positive emotions, such as closeness, friendliness, and respect
(Kitayama et al., 2000).
Major components of culture affecting Personality
● Religion
Without knowing the religion of a given culture or group - their systems of ultimate
values - one cannot understand their basic traits and social movements (Sorokin,
1947). The essential importance of religion was also recognized by Abram Kardiner
and Robert LeVine, both of whom, as noted above, studied anthropology and
psychoanalysis (Kardiner, et al., 1945; LeVine, 1973). The recognized founder of
psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud, also placed great emphasis on the influence of
religion and religious symbolism (though he did not believe in God), religion and
spirituality are also recognized as potentially favorable aspects of psychological
development in general, and personality development in particular, in the field of
positive psychology (Compton, 2005; Peterson, 2006; Peterson & Seligman,
 7

● Age
Age is used as routinely as sex to divide the people in a society. All societies
recognize at least three age groups: child, adult, and old. Childhood is typically
further divided into young childhood and adolescence. Each group has different
rights, responsibilities, roles, and status (Linton, 1936; Sorokin, 1947). Sometimes,
these can come into conflict. For example, among the Comanche, as with most Plains
tribes in North America, the adult male was expected to be a warrior, whereas the old
man was respected for his wisdom and gentleness. Transitioning from being a warrior
to being an old man was very difficult, and Comanche men often hoped to die in
battle in order to avoid the transition. Those who were forced to make the transition
became very dangerous adversaries for the young men transitioning from childhood to
adulthood, and often the old men would kill the young men when they could (out of
sheer envy).
● Gender
Gender Schemas are organized mental structures that contain our understanding of the
attributes and behaviors that are appropriate and expected for males and females
(Bem, 1981).Within a given culture, gender schemas tell us what the typical man or
woman should be like. In Western cultures, men tend to prize attributes related to
achievement, emotional strength, athleticism, and self-sufficiency, whereas women
prize interpersonal competencies, kindness, and helpfulness to others (Beyer, 1990;
Marsh, 1990). In this sense, men in Western cultures tend to develop more of an
individualistic self-concept, emphasising achievement and separateness from others,
whereas women’s self-concepts tend to be more collectivistic, emphasising their
social connectedness with others (Kashima et al., 1995). Nonetheless, we should keep
in mind that significant individual differences exist within each gender group, with
many women being individualists and many men collectivists (Triandis & Suh, 2002).

Factors related to development of personality:-

Internal Factors

● Hereditary:

The constitutional make-up—which is also largely determined by heredity—influences a

person’s personality characteristics and influences his personality development in an indirect
way. The children reliably classified as active, moderately active or quiet are actually the
differences attributable to hereditary endowments, although training and learning may
produce noticeable modifications. Here, the environment and culture provide a decisive role.

● Physical feature:

Physical appearance is also amongst the integral determinants of personality. How one
appears physically actually plays an important role in how they are perceived by others.
Whether one is short, tall, slim, fat, black or white will obviously have an impression on
 8

others and this will have an influence on the self-conception of the individual. Physical
characters include but are not limited to height, skin tone, weight, hair color, and beauty.

● The rate of maturing:

Rate of maturing is another important factor in causing striking variations at various ages at
which the child reaches due to chronological development. The differences in behaviour is
noticeable in the relatively mature or immature adolescents of the same age. This difference
may be due to the adolescent’s exposure to different social-psychological environments. A
late maturing boy looks younger than his age and is likely to be regarded and treated as
immature by others, while the early maturing boy is likely to be credited with being more
grown-up socially and emotionally.

● Health Conditions:

A good or a poor health is an important determinant of personality development. There is

sufficient proof of the fact that good health is an asset when it comes to the personality of all
people, male or female, young or old. After an illness or poor health conditions, people still
tend to feel changes in personality even after they have been cured. In the developing years of
a person, if he is affected by some severe illness or disease, the after effects on personality
are visible till much later in life. Many personality changes in individuals have their source in
such childhood illnesses.

II. External Factors:-

● Family: The family environment that children grow up in certainly has some impact
on what type of personality characteristics they develop. If families are in high
conflict, and the children are drawn into many arguments and disagreements, they are
much more likely to become withdrawn or have a personality that is conflict-driven as
they grow older. In addition, if a family does not have any sort of structure within the
household, children will be much more impulsive and may get into trouble more often
than children who come from structured households.

● Peer Groups: Peers are a pervasive aspect of people’s lives and it is shocking that
their role is rarely considered in personality development. These are people who have
similar interests, background age or social status and serve as an important source of
information, feedback and support for individuals as they develop a sense of self.
Peers help socialise an individual by reinforcing or punishing behaviours or
interpersonal interactions. Peers are essential throughout one’s personality
development, but research suggests this is particularly true during adolescence.

● Socio-economic Environment: Socioeconomic status can encompass quality of life

attributes as well as the opportunities and privileges afforded to people within society.
People with lower SES experience higher levels of emotional and behavioural
difficulties, including social problems, delinquent behaviour, deficit/hyperactivity
disorder; whereas people with higher SES are more likely to achieve success in life
which makes them less susceptible to behavioural problems. Thus, there is a direct
correlation between higher SES and positive personality development and vice versa.
 9

● Geography: There are three main ideas about how the locality a person lives in can
affect their life. This involves social influence, ecological influence, and selective
migration.
○ Social influence is the concept of how traditions, customs, lifestyles, and daily
practices in a locality can directly impact societal norms. These aspects of
society can affect people’s attitudes and behaviours.
○ Ecological influence is the idea that features of the physical environment
affect people’s thoughts, feelings, and behaviours. For example, people who
have access to clean, running water lead drastically different lives than people
who have no running water.
○ Selective migration is when people carefully choose where to move to. They
could be considering many factors such as climate, friends and family, jobs,
and their security when making this decision

● Mass Media: Nowadays, the internet and mass media are deeply integrated in almost
everyone’s lives, especially adolescents. The media can have both a negative and
positive impact on personality development. While on one hand, mass media may
help an individual have updated knowledge on current affairs and other relevant
topics which in turn positively affects personality development. On the other hand, an
excessive addiction to media can cause disconnection from the world, egocentrism,
anti-social behaviour, loneliness etc. which adversely affects personality development
of an individual.

Methods of assessment of personality :-

Assessment refers to the procedure used to evaluate or differentiate people on the basis of
certain characteristics. The main goal is to be able to understand and predict behaviour with
minimum error and maximum accuracy.
Personality assessment is the evaluation of a person's personality make up, which includes
the person's distinctive behaviour patterns and enduring traits. It is a formal effort aimed at
understanding the personality of an individual. It is an essential prerequisite for identifying
the various constituents of personality. Over these many years, psychologists have devised
several techniques to assess personality. They are categorized as projective and non-
projective techniques.

Projective techniques are indirect and unstructured methods of investigation which have
been developed by the psychologists and use projection of respondents for inferring about
underlying motives, urges or intentions which cannot be secure through direct questioning as
the respondent either resists to reveal them or is unable to figure out himself. These
techniques are useful in giving respondents opportunities to express their attitudes without
personal embarrassment. Deeply held attitudes and motivations are often not verbalised by
respondents when questioned directly. Indeed, respondents may not even be aware that they
hold these particular attitudes, or may feel that their motivations reflect badly on them.
Projective tests are intended to uncover feelings, desires, and conflicts that are hidden
from conscious awareness. By interpreting responses to ambiguous cues, psychoanalysts
 10

hope to uncover unconscious feelings that might be causing problems in a person's life.
Projective techniques allow respondents to project their subjective or true opinions and
beliefs onto other people or even objects. The respondent's real feelings are then inferred
from what s/he says about others. Projective techniques are normally used during individual
or small group interviews. They incorporate a number of different research methods. Among
the most commonly used are: Rorschach inkblot test, Thematic apperception test,
Rosenzweig picture frustration (p-f) study test, Sentence Completion Test, Sentence
completion tests, Word Association Test.

Non-prpjective Techniques

Interview:
It is a method of personality assessment in which the professional asks questions to
the client and allows the client to answer. It is one of the oldest methods of
assessments. Interview as an assessment method is especially famous among
psychodynamic and phenomenological-humanistic workers. An interview is either
structured or unstructured in nature.
● Structured interviews – consists of a set of specific sets of questions that are
administered to every participant. An attempt is made to create a standardised
situation so that the responses to more or less identical stimuli can be compared
and interpreted.
● Unstructured interviews – in an unstructured interview, the interviewers can tailor
the questions to the particular individual and situation.
Interview is considered to be an important method for the direct personal contact it
provides, but it also has certain limitations –
● Characteristics of the interviewer may influence the responses of the interviewee
and thus the validity of the information obtained.
● Validity of the information obtained from an interview completely depends on the
interviewee’s desire to cooperate.
Thus, the main challenge in the method of interviewing is to design and conduct
interviews in ways that aim at maximising the validity of the data obtained from the
respondent.
2. Behavioural Assessment:
Personality psychologists can sometimes observe behaviours they are interested in
rather than asking people about them. In a behaviour assessment, the psychologists
devise an explicit coding system that contains the behavioural categories of interest.
Behaviourists assume that personality is merely habitually learned response to the
stimuli in the environment, thus the preferred method of a behaviourist would be to
watch the behaviour unfold in the real world. Techniques under behavioural
assessment are as follows:
● Direct observation – it is a form of observation in which the professional observes
the client engage in ordinary, day-to-day behaviour in either a clinical setting or a
natural setting of home, school, workplace etc. Direct observation demands a
carefully trained observer and a detailed guideline about analysis of behaviour in
order to assess the personality of a given person. The method however has certain
limitations; the method is quite time-consuming and demanding added to which is
the fact that the mere presence of the psychologist can contaminate the results of
the observation as the presence of a stranger in the setting tends to influence the
behaviour of the person being observed.
 11

● Rating scale – it is a method of assessment in which a numerical value is assigned

either by the assessor or by the client, for specific behaviour (Nadeau et al., 2001).
● Frequency count – the assessors literally count the frequency of certain behaviour
within a specified time limit.

3. Personality Inventories:
Personality scales or inventories are widely used for assessing personality int both
research and clinical work. They are considered objective measures as they include
the standard sets of questions, usually in a true-false or rating-scale format, that are
scored using an agreed-on scoring key (Nezami & Butcher, 2000). Several advantages
of the method are; ability to collect data from many people at the same time, the fact
that all the people respond to the same items and ease of scoring. The major
disadvantage of the method is that many people might not choose to answer the
questions correctly which in turn results into invalidity of the information obtained.
Several personality inventories are as follows:
● Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory – 2 - RF (MMPI – 2-RF) – it is a
widely used test for personality assessment which is based on the empirical
approach. It specifically tests for abnormal behaviour and thinking patterns in
personality and psychopathology (Ben-Porath & Tellegen, 2011; Butcher &
Rouse, 1996; Butcher et.al, 2000, 2001). The current questionnaire consists of
3338 statements to which the person taking the test will have to answer in the
form of “yes”, “no” or “cannot say”. The MMPI-2-RF has 12 higher-order
thinking and clinical scales, 10 validity scales and numerous for specific problems
(e.g., family problems, aggression, anxiety, etc). Each scale tests for a particular
kind of behaviour or way of thinking.
● Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ) – developed by Eysenck this test
initially assessed two dimensions of personality called introverted-extraverted and
emotionally stable-emotionally unstable. These dimensions are characterised by
32 personality traits. Later on, a third dimension was added, called psychoticism.

NEO Five Factor Personality Inventory

NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-PI) – it measures the Big Five personality traits
of Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness and Neuroticism
(Cota & McCrae, 1992). It was further revised by Costa & McCrae (NEO-PI-R)
and the version which is currently being used is the NEO-PI-3, which has been
made easier to read for the adolescents and has new norms (McCrae et.al., 2005;
McCrae, Martin, et.al., 2005).
The NEO-FFI is a 60-item version of the NEO-PI-3 that provides a quick, reliable,
and accurate measure of the five domains of personality (Neuroticism,
Extraversion, Openness, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness). All updates
made in the NEO-PI-3 are reflected in this instrument.

Researches based on NEO-PI R and NEO FFI

 12

Costa et.al. (2001) conducted an analysis of Revised NEO Personality

inventory data from 26 cultures. Their findings suggest that gender differences
are small relative to the individual variation within genders. Moreover,
differences were replicated across cultures for both college-age and adult
samples, and differences were broadly consistent with gender stereotypes.
Women reported themselves to be higher in Neuroticism, Agreeableness,
Warmth, and Openness to Feelings, whereas men were higher in Assertiveness
and Openness to Ideas. Contrary to the predictions, gender differences were
most pronounced in European and American cultures in which traditional sex
roles are minimized.

Fruyt et. al. (2000) had reported the suitability of the Revised NEO
Personality Inventory (NEO PI-R) to assess adolescents' personality traits was
investigated in an unselected heterogeneous sample of 469 adolescents aged
12 to 17 years. Further, in general, adolescents reported few difficulties with
the comprehensibility of the items, they tend to report more problems with the
Openness to Ideas and Openness to Values items. It was concluded that the
NEO PI-R in its present form is useful for assessing adolescents' traits at the
primary level, but additional research is necessary to infer the most
appropriate facet level structure.

A study conducted by Ruiz et. al. (2010) investigated relationships between

the NEO PI-R Five-factor model domains and facets and drinking and alcohol-
related problems. Two hundred students (99 men and 101 women) who had
consumed alcohol in the past year completed self-report and interview
assessments. Results revealed only some of the characteristics from the
domains of Neuroticism and Conscientiousness exhibited significant
correlations to drinking in the analyses that accounted for gender. Drinking
was linked to facets of Extraversion and Agreeableness but not to these
domains. Neuroticism, Conscientiousness, and the majority of their facets
were linked to alcohol-related issues.

Jafri et. al. (2014) aimed to examine the influence of personality (Five-Factor
Model) on Psychological Contract Breach. Results and findings showed that
Extraversion and Neuroticism dimensions of the personality model have been
found to be positively associated with the perception of breach. Employees
who are by nature Agreeable and Conscientiousness are less likely to perceive
breach in their psychological contract.