The NEO–PI–3: A More Readable Revised NEO Personality Inventory

Use of the Revised NEO Personality Inventory (NEO–PI–R; Costa & McCrae, 1992) in adolescent samples has shown that a few respondents have difficulty with a subset of items. We identified 30 items that were not understood by at least 2% of adolescent respondents and 18 additional items with low item-total correlations, and we wrote 2 trial replacement items for each. We used self-report and observer rating data from 500 respondents aged 14 to 20 to select replacement items. The modified instrument retained the intended factor structure and showed slightly better internal consistency, cross-observer agreement, and readability (Flesch–Kincaid grade level = 5.3). The NEO–PI–3 appears to be useful in high school and college samples and may have wider applicability to adults as well.

[1]  R. Stewart Longman,et al.  Comparing Different Methods for Implementing Parallel Analysis: A Practical Index of Accuracy , 1993 .

[2]  P. Costa,et al.  Evaluating replicability of factors in the Revised NEO Personality Inventory: Confirmatory factor analysis versus Procrustes rotation. , 1996 .

[3]  P. Costa,et al.  Gender differences in personality traits across cultures: robust and surprising findings. , 2001, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[4]  N. Bradburn.  The structure of psychological well-being , 1969 .

[5]  K. Trzesniewski,et al.  A longitudinal study of personality change in young adulthood. , 2001, Journal of personality.

[6]  Filip Lievens,et al.  Medical students' personality characteristics and academic performance: a five‐factor model perspective , 2002, Medical education.

[7]  Antonio Terracciano,et al.  Personality trait development from age 12 to age 18: longitudinal, cross-sectional, and cross-cultural analyses. , 2002, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[8]  R. Brooner,et al.  Short-term stability of NEO-PI-R personality trait scores in opioid-dependent outpatients. , 2001, Psychology of addictive behaviors : journal of the Society of Psychologists in Addictive Behaviors.

[9]  R. Larsen,et al.  The Satisfaction with Life Scale , 1985, Journal of personality assessment.

[10]  Frank M. Andrews,et al.  Social Indicators of Well-Being: Americans' Perceptions of Life Quality , 1976 .

[11]  Readability of Normal Personality Inventories , 1994 .

[12]  Frank M. Andrews,et al.  Social Indicators of Well-Being , 1976 .

[13]  C. Markey,et al.  A preliminary validation of preadolescents' self-reports using the Five-Factor Model of personality , 2002 .

[14]  A. Furnham,et al.  Personality predicts academic performance: Evidence from two longitudinal university samples , 2003 .

[15]  J. Allik,et al.  Personality development from 12 to 18 years of age: changes in mean levels and structure of traits , 2004 .

[16]  P. Costa,et al.  Looking backward: Changes in the mean levels of personality traits from 80 to 12. , 2002 .

[17]  J. Rolland,et al.  Assessing Adolescents' Personality with the NEO PI-R , 2000, Assessment.

[18]  P. Costa,et al.  Adding Liebe und Arbeit: The Full Five-Factor Model and Well-Being , 1991 .

[19]  P. Costa,et al.  A contemplated revision of the NEO Five-Factor Inventory , 2004 .

[20]  Martina Hřebíčková,et al.  Consensual validation of personality traits across cultures , 2004 .

[21]  P. Costa,et al.  Revised NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-PI-R) and NEO-Five-Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI) , 1992 .