A BRIEF HISTORY

NEO Five-Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI) first published by Paul Costa and Robert McCrae
in 1989, NEO-FFI is a shortened version of the NEO Personality Inventory-Revised, an
implementation of a successful, and extensively empirically-validated five-factor model of
human personality. Originally intended to provide a quick measure for screening and
introductory purposes, NEO-FFI gained a position in a number of applied and research fields,
including Industrial / Organizational psychology.

The development of NEO-FFI: McCrae and Costa developed their model of personality, which
initially included only three factors, Neuroticism, Extraversion, and Openness to Experience,
measured by the NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-PI; Costa & McCrae, 1985). Later, the
authors extended the model by two factors, Agreeableness and Conscientiousness, to account for
more recent developments and already well replicated findings in factor-analytic personality
research. The revised and short-form instruments developed by Costa and McCrae to assess the
five factors are the NEO Five-Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI; Costa & McCrae, 1989) and the
Revised NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-PI-R; Costa & McCrae, 1989). Note that the NEO-
FFI is a briefer instrument; it incorporates only marker variables of the primary trait or facet
scales, which are fully represented in the NEO-PI-R.

Brief descriptions of high and low super trait or domain scorers as they are measured by
the NEOs are presented next.

Neuroticism: Persons scoring high on Neuroticism (emotionally labile) tend to experience

negative affect such as being nervous, sad, hostile, insecure, and selfconscious. They are
constantly worried about their health, chase unrealistic ideas, may be unable to control their
impulses, and adapt poorly to stressful situations.

Extraversion: Individuals scoring high on Extraversion usually are sociable, talkative, and open
toward other people. They tend to be adventurous and outgoing. Introverts, on the other hand,
describe themselves as withdrawn, calm, discreet, and rather cautious.

Openness to Experience: This dimension relates to characteristics such as appreciation for new
experiences, preference for variety and change. Persons with high scores on Openness report to
be curious, creative, imaginative, and independent in their judgment (Costa & McCrae, 1989).

Conscientiousness: It has been identified as the opposite pole of undirectedness. Individuals

high on Conscientiousness are characterized as having the tendency to be habitually reliable,
careful, hard-working, well-organized, and purposeful.

Agreeableness: It is proposed to be the opposite pole of antagonism. It describes persons who

report to be friendly, understanding, caring, empathic, altruistic, and good-natured. High scorers
report a high degree of interpersonal trust, willingness to cooperate, and compliance. They also
report a great need for harmony.

THEORETICAL BACKGROUND:

McCrae and Costa (1996, 1999) also recognize that there is a need in personality research
to have a system in which different levels of generality are addressed. In their Five-Factor
Theory (FFT) of personality that specifically highlights the distinction between biologically
based basic tendencies and culturally conditioned characteristic adaptations, they assume
different aggregational levels of traits. Basic tendencies in this model comprise abstract
potentials and dispositions whereas characteristic adaptations include acquired skills, habits,
beliefs, roles, and relationships. According to FFT, both broad personality factors and the
specific traits that define them belong to the category of basic tendencies, which are proposed to
be of genetic origin. The authors thus suggest that a hierarchy of traits and supertraits is located
in a personality system that has a very strong biological basis. McCrae and Costa's proposed
hierarchical structure is also represented in the long version of the instrument they designed to
assess the five personality factors, the Revised NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-PI-R, Costa &
McCrae, 1989).

PSYCHOMETRIC PROPERTIES:

The 60-item NEO Five-Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI) was developed to provide a concise
measure of the five basic personality factors (Costa & McCrae, 1989). For each scale, 12 items
were selected from the pool of 180 NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-PI) items, chiefly on the
basis of their correlations with validimax factor scores (McCrae & Costa, 1989). The instrument
uses a five-point Likert response format. Two-week retest reliability was uniformly high, ranging
from 0.86 to 0.90 for the five scales (Robins, Fraley, Roberts, & Trzesniewski, 2001), and
internal consistency ranges from 0.68 to 0.86 (Costa & McCrae, 1992). The NEO-FFI has been
translated into several different languages and shown validity and utility in a number of different
contexts; it is one of the most widely used measures of the Five-Factor Model.

RESEARCH EVIDENCE:

Podolska MZ, Bidzan M, Majkowicz M, et al. in 21016 conducted a study to analyze the
relationship between personality traits and the risk of perinatal depression in pregnant and
postpartum women. The sample includes 229 patients (pregnant and postpartum women)
admitted to an obstetric hospital in Poland were recruited. Two self-report questionnaires were
used, the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) as a screening tool for depressive
symptoms and the NEO Five-Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI) for the evaluation of five personality
traits in the studied patients. Results shows that Neuroticism significantly increased the risk of
perinatal depressive symptoms in both pregnant and postpartum women. Personality traits related
to a lower risk of perinatal depression in the group of pregnant women included extraversion,
openness to experience, high degree of agreeableness and conscientiousness. However, among
at-risk postpartum women no additional factors, except neuroticism, affected the prevalence of
depressive symptoms. Personality trait like neuroticism as measured by the NEO-FFI is
associated with a greater risk of perinatal depression. The NEO-FFI is a useful tool, potentially
adding significant value to the program of perinatal depression screening.

REFERENCES:

Chadyuk, Oleksiy (Alex). (2015). NEO Five-Factor Inventory and its Applications in Industrial /
Organizational Psychology. 10.13140/RG.2.1.2126.8648.

Podolska MZ, Bidzan M, Majkowicz M, et al. Personality traits assessed by the NEO Five-
Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI) as part of the perinatal depression screening program. Medical
Science Monitor : International Medical Journal of Experimental and Clinical Research. 2010
Sep;16(9):PH77-81.

Theoretical background of NEO FFI. Retrieved from,

http://webdoc.sub.gwdg.de/ebook/diss/2003/fu-berlin/2002/108/TheoreticalBackground.pdf