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

The NEO Five Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI) was given to 1025 British subjects as part of three independent research studies. Data from these studies were pooled and subjected to item-level analyses. Using standard scoring criteria from the measure provisional British norms were produced which were broa...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inPersonality and individual differences Vol. 29; no. 5; pp. 907 - 920
Main Authors Egan, Vincent, Deary, Ian, Austin, Elizabeth
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Oxford Elsevier Ltd 01.11.2000
Elsevier
Subjects
Big Five
Biological and medical sciences
Five factor model NEO Five Factor Inventory
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Item-analysis
NEO-FFI
Norms
Personality
Personality. Affectivity
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
Psychometric properties
Psychometrics
United Kingdom
Great Britain
Europe
Norms
Big Five
Psychometrics
Personality
Item-analysis
NEO-FFI
Item analysis
Human
Test validation
Personality test
Confirmatory factor analysis
Standards
Online AccessGet full text
ISSN0191-8869
1873-3549
DOI10.1016/S0191-8869(99)00242-1

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Summary:The NEO Five Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI) was given to 1025 British subjects as part of three independent research studies. Data from these studies were pooled and subjected to item-level analyses. Using standard scoring criteria from the measure provisional British norms were produced which were broadly equivalent to those obtained in the USA. The individual subscales showed good internal consistency. However, the item-level principal components analysis using varimax and oblique rotation and confirmatory factor analysis revealed that only the Neuroticism, Agreeableness and Conscientiousness traits were coherently represented in the main factors derived by the analysis. Openness and Extraversion factors did not show such stability or consistency. It is argued that as a result of these difficulties, thoughtlessly embracing the NEO-FFI as a quick and efficient instrument for measuring the ‘Big Five’ personality traits is perhaps premature, as the instrument requires modification and improvement before it can truly be regarded as measuring five independent personality traits.
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ISSN:0191-8869
1873-3549
DOI:10.1016/S0191-8869(99)00242-1