Neuroticism-Extroversion-Openness-Five Factor Inventory

Abstract

The Neuroticism-Extroversion-Openness-Five Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI) is a widely utilized, brief, 60-item personality inventory designed to measure the five major domains of personality defined by the Five Factor Model (FFM), often referred to as the Big Five. Developed by Paul T. Costa, Jr. and Robert R. McCrae, the NEO-FFI serves as an abbreviated version of the comprehensive NEO Personality Inventory-Revised (NEO PI-R). This instrument provides a rapid yet reliable assessment across the dimensions of Neuroticism, Extraversion, Openness to Experience, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness, making it highly valuable for research screening and clinical contexts where time constraints are a factor.

Keywords

Personality Assessment, Five Factor Model, Neuroticism, Extraversion, Openness to Experience, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, NEO-FFI, Psychometrics, Costa and McCrae.

Authors

Paul T. Costa, Jr., Robert R. McCrae.

Purpose

The primary purpose of the NEO-FFI is to provide a time-efficient and psychometrically sound measure of the five core dimensions of human personality structure. It was specifically created to offer researchers and practitioners a concise alternative to the longer, 240-item NEO PI-R, allowing for the assessment of broad personality traits in studies involving large sample sizes or limited respondent time.

The scale assists in mapping an individual’s global standing on the Big Five traits, facilitating comparisons with normative data, and aiding in clinical formulation or vocational guidance based on established personality profiles.

Construct

The NEO-FFI measures the robust structure known as the Five Factor Model (FFM). This model posits that personality can be comprehensively described by five broad, relatively independent domains:

• Neuroticism (N): Measures the tendency toward emotional instability, anxiety, hostility, depression, and vulnerability to stress.
• Extraversion (E): Measures sociability, assertiveness, activity level, and positive emotionality.
• Openness to Experience (O): Measures imagination, aesthetic sensitivity, intellectual curiosity, and unconventionality.
• Agreeableness (A): Measures the quality of interpersonal orientation, ranging from compassion and cooperation to skepticism and antagonism.
• Conscientiousness (C): Measures self-control, organization, persistence, and motivation in goal-directed behavior.

Validity

The validity of the NEO-FFI is fundamentally derived from the extensive validation studies conducted on the full NEO PI-R instrument. Because the 60 items of the FFI are a subset of the most factor-pure items from the longer inventory, the FFI retains strong structural validity, consistently replicating the five-factor structure across diverse populations.

Research confirms that the NEO-FFI possesses adequate convergent and discriminant validity, correlating highly with the corresponding domain scores of the NEO PI-R and demonstrating expected relationships with external criteria, supporting its utility in clinical and research settings as a measure of stable personality traits.

Reliability

The NEO-FFI exhibits acceptable to good internal consistency, particularly considering its brevity (12 items per factor). The scale’s reliability statistics confirm its utility for measuring the five domains:

Internal Consistency (NEO-FFI):

• Neuroticism (N): Cronbach’s Alpha = 0.79
• Extraversion (E): Cronbach’s Alpha = 0.79
• Openness (O): Cronbach’s Alpha = 0.80
• Agreeableness (A): Cronbach’s Alpha = 0.75
• Conscientiousness (C): Cronbach’s Alpha = 0.83

For comparison, the full NEO PI-R demonstrates higher internal consistency (e.g., N=0.92, E=0.89, C=0.90). Furthermore, long-term test-retest reliability studies using the NEO PI-R show high stability for the traits measured, with coefficients remaining strong even after six years (e.g., N=0.83, E=0.82, O=0.83), validating the measure’s focus on enduring personality dispositions.

Factor Analysis

Extensive factor analytic studies, including those leading to the development and refinement of both the NEO PI-R and the NEO-FFI, consistently confirm a stable, five-factor structure. The 60 items included in the NEO-FFI were specifically chosen because they showed high factor loadings on their intended domain (Neuroticism, Extraversion, Openness, Agreeableness, or Conscientiousness) and minimal cross-loadings onto other factors.

This empirical evidence supports the use of the NEO-FFI as a measure of the five independent factors of the FFM. The reliability data provided in the source also mentions figures related to “Omnipresence (Cronbach’s Alpha 0.91)” and “Duality (Cronbach’s Alpha 0.81),” though these concepts are typically explored in advanced applications of the scale rather than being core components of the standard FFM structure.

Instrument

Test Type: Self-report personality inventory

Format: 60 items administered using a Five-point Likert scale, ranging from strongly disagree to strongly agree.

Language Available: English (Original); numerous translations are available globally.

Population Group: General population.

Age Group: Typically 12 years and older (adolescents and adults).

Population Details: Norms are provided for diverse age and demographic groups, allowing for standardized comparison across the lifespan.

Test Methodology: Respondents rate the extent to which they agree or disagree with each of the 60 statements describing their typical behaviors and attitudes. Scores are summed to generate five domain scores.

Keywords

Personality Inventory, Psychological Assessment Resources (PAR), Likert scale, Self-Report, Psychometrics, NEO PI-R, Five Factor Model.

Authors

Author ORCID Identifier: Not provided in source content.

Affiliation Email addresses: Not provided in source content.

Correspondence Address: Psychological Assessment Resources (PAR), Odessa, FL.

Permissions & Fee and Test Year

The NEO-FFI is a proprietary psychological instrument published and distributed by Psychological Assessment Resources, Inc. (PAR). Professional manuals detailing its development were published in 1985 (for the earlier NEO PI) and 1992 (for the NEO PI-R and NEO-FFI). The use of the instrument for clinical or research purposes typically requires purchase of the official materials and adherence to professional assessment guidelines.

The original PDF documents related to the instrument can be found via these links: http://etd.fcla.edu/UF/UFE0021248/batia_a.pdf and http://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1229&context=dissertations.

Reference’s

• Costa, P. T.; McCrae, R. R. (1976). “Age differences in personality structure: A cluster analytic approach”. Journal of Gerontology. 31 (5): 564–570.
• Costa, Paul T.; McCrae, Robert R. (1985). “The NEO personality inventory manual”. Odessa, FL: Psychological Assessment Resources.
• Costa, P. T., Jr., & McCrae, R. R. (1992). NEO PI-R professional manual. Odessa, FL: Psychological Assessment Resources, Inc.
• Costa, P T. & McCrae, R. (1992). Revised NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-PI-R) and NEO Five Factor Model (NEO-FFI) Professional manual. Odesa, FL; Psychological Assesment Center.
• McCrae R. R.; Costa P. T.; Martin T. A. (2005). “The NEO PI-3: A more readable revised NEO personality inventory”. Journal of Personality Assessment. 84 (3): 261–270.
• McCrae, Robert R.; Martin, Thomas A.; Costa, Paul T. (2005-12-01). “Age Trends and Age Norms for the NEO Personality Inventory-3 in Adolescents and Adults”. Assessment. 12 (4): 363–373.
• Paul T. Costa, Jr. & Robert R. McCrae (2006). “Age Changes in Personality and Their Origins: Comment on Roberts, Walton, and Viechtbauer (2006)” (PDF). Psychological Bulletin. 132 (1): 26–28.
• McCrae, R. R., & Costa, P. T., Jr., (2010). NEO Inventories: Professional manual. Lutz, FL: Psychological Assessment Resources, Inc.
• McCrae R. R.; Kurtz J. E.; Yamagata S.; Terracciano A. (2011). “Internal consistency, retest reliability, and their implications for personality scale validity”. Pers Soc Psychol Rev. 15 (1): 28–50.

Items of the Neuroticism-Extroversion-Openness-Five Factor Inventory

IMPORTANT: The following scale items must be preserved in their original language and must not be changed in any way.

1. I am not a worrier.

2. I like to have a lot of people around me.

3. I don’t like to waste my time daydreaming.

4. I try to be courteous to everyone I meet.

5. I keep my belonging neat and clean.

6. I often feel inferior to others.

7. I laugh easily

8. Once I find the right way to do something, I stick to it.

9. I often get into argument with my family and co-workers.

10. I’m pretty good about pacing myself so as to get things done on time.

11. When I’m under a great deal of stress, sometimes I feel like I’m going to pieces.

12. I don’t consider myself especially “light-hearted”.

13. I am intrigued by the patterns I find in art and nature.

14. Some people think I’m selfish and egotistical.

15. I am not a very methodical person.

16. I rarely feel lonely or blue.

17. I really enjoy talking to people.

18. I believe letting students hear controversial speakers can only confuse and mislead them.

19. I would rather cooperate with others than compete with them.

20. I try to perform all the tasks assigned to me conscientiously.

21. I often feel tense and jittery.

22. I like to be where the action is.

23. Poetry has little or no effect on me.

24. I tend to be cynical of skeptical of others’ intentions.

25. I have a clear set of goals and work toward them in an orderly fashion.

26. Sometimes I feel completely worthless.

27. I usually prefer to do things alone.

28. I often try new and foreign foods.

29. I believe that most people will take advantage of you if you let them.

30. I waste a lot of time before settling down to work.

31. I rarely feel fearful or anxious.

32. I often feel as if I’m bursting with energy.

33. I seldom notice the moods of feelings that different environments produce.

34. Most people I know like me.

35. I work hard to accomplish my goals.

36. I often get angry at the way people treat me.

37. I am a cheerful, high-spirited person.

38. I believe we should look to our religious authorities for decisions on moral issues.

39. Some people think of me as cold and calculating.

40. When I make a commitment, I can always be counted on to follow through.

41. Too often, when things go wrong, I get discourage and feel like giving up.

42. I am not a cheerful optimist.

43. Sometimes when I am reading poetry or looking at a work of art, I feel a chill or wave of excitement.

44. I’m hard-headed and tough-minded in my attitudes.

45. Sometimes I’m not as dependable or reliable as I should be.

46. I am seldom sad or depressed.

47. My life is fast-paced.

48. I have little interest in speculating on the nature of the universe of the human condition.

49. I generally try to be thoughtful and considerate.

50. I am a productive person who always gets the job done.

51. I often feel helpless and want someone else to solve my problems.

52. I am a very active person.

53. I have a lot of intellectual curiosity.

54. If I don’t like people, I let them know it.

55. I never seem to be able to get organized.

56. At times I have been so ashamed I just wanted to hide.

57. I would rather go my own way than be a leader of others.

58. I often enjoy playing with theories or abstract ideas.

59. If necessary, I am willing to manipulate people to get what I want.

60. I strive for excellence in everything I do.