The Role Of Personality And The Neo Personality Inventory Essay

Guilford (1959) defines personality traits as being ‘any distinguishable, relatively enduring way in which one individual varies from another’. Subsequently, trait theory can be identified as an approach to the study of human personality. The aim of psychologists, specifically trait theorists, is to explain similarities and differences between individuals based on traits. Although numerous psychologists differ on the amount of traits that are significant, each theorist categorizes personality traits along several broad type spectrums. This assignment will focus on comparing and contrasting Eysenck’s Hierarchical Theory of Personality and Costa and McRae’s Five Factor Model (FFM), two different trait theories of personality.

Personality theories, or models, are metaphors for describing something which is intrinsically indescribable, the human personality. Currently, one of the most popular approaches among psychologists for studying personality theory is the Five-Factor Model (FFM) or Big Five dimensions of personality. This essay will explore the 'Big Five ' personality constructs and seek to explain how useful they are to understanding how people are likely to perform in a work situation. In conclusion, this essay will also discuss some of the arguments against the relevance and accuracy of personality testing within the employment context.

the five personality factor theory, as well as the theories on which it is based.

The five-factor model (FFM) is a contemporary construct describing personality. It incorporates five traits – openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness and neuroticism also referred to as OCEAN. Within each dimension, there are specific personality attributes, for example, openness includes subcategories of feelings and actions. The FFM was influenced by Cattell’s 16-factor model (1957) and shares traits with many other personality theories such as Eysenck’s PEN model. There has been an ongoing debate discussing how many factors appropriately represent the brain structure of personality, suggestions have varied from 2-7, recently Almagor et al. (1995) advocated that a 7-factor model unfolds when evaluative traits are involved. Costa & Mcrae (1992) claim that the FFM is the best theory of personality, however, the model has received much criticism. Through examining different aspects of the model its credibility can be explored.

I found the test results of the Big Five personality assessment to be an interesting and very accurate description of myself. After completing this assessment, I was able to analyze my personality in depth. I found this information to be helpful knowledge and provide insight about myself, as well as being crucial in examining my personality traits. The big five is also referred to the OCEAN model of personality, and stands for the main traits used to describe personalities. This acronym stands for openness to experience/intellect, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism. After taking the test I was then given percentile scores that allowed me to compare myself with other people who have taken the test online as well, therefore making it a more meaningful comparison.

Costs & McCrae, (1995) supported the development that each of the Five Factor Model (FFM) further split into six facets, (Widiger & Costa, 2012). The five factor model and their six facets are explained as: “Extraversion (E) – gregariousness, sociability, affiliation, dominance, boldness and forcefulness, Agreeableness (A) - generous, cooperative, altruistic and warm, Conscientiousness (C) – responsible, efficiency, dependability, carefulness and organization, Neuroticism (low ES) – anxiousness, insecurity, indecisiveness and being tense /Emotional Stability (ES) - self-reliant and stable and Openness to Experience (O) – imaginative, unconventional, curious, original and independent minded” (Ehrhart et. al., 2008) allowing the five factor model to be effective in developing cross-cultural questionnaires (Costs & McCrae, 1995).

The use of assessment tools is an intricate part of the counseling process. Instruments are not only used by clinical counselors, but they can also be utilized by career counselors and school counselors for a variety of reasons. Counselors employ assessment testing to determine factors such aptitude, achievement, stress level, personality domain, and to assess a client’s issue or level or functioning. Assessment instruments within counseling can also be used to provide the necessary treatment plans or academic help that is needed by the individuals who are being tested. For the purposes of this paper the NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-PI-3) will be examined. The NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-PI-3) is a personality inventory that has been used to test the big five factors of personality which include the areas of neuroticism, extraversion, openness to experience, agreeableness, and conscientiousness. Other factors such as the NEO-PI-3 test description, reliability, and ease of administration will also be discussed.

The NEO- PI-R is a self -administered questionnaire based on the Five Factor Model. The NEO PI-R is considered to be a concise measure of the five factor domains of personality (Costa & McCrae, 19921). It contains six traits or facets in each of the five domains. The domains are Neuroticism, Extraversion, Openness, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness (Costa & McCrae, 19921). These domains help to provide an assessment of a normal adult personality. The test consists of 240 items and three validity items (Costa & McCrae, 19921). The test requires at least a sixth grade reading level. Included in the NEO PI-R test manual is the NEO Five Factor Inventory. This inventory was validated in the four studies conducted by Holden, Wasylkiw, Starzyk, Book and Edwards (2006) in their article about the construct validity of the big four personality clusters.

The Analysis of the Five Factor Model In this essay, first the Five Factor Model (FFM) will be described. Secondly, psychologists for and against the model will be looked at. Following this, the stability of traits will be looked at, both longitudinal and cross situational. Finally, the application of the model within and outside psychology will be evaluated to show support that the FFM provides a solid foundation for an adequate personality psychology.

My preference of personality assessment method would be objective tests, such as the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) or the NEO Personality-Inventory Revised. My reasoning for choosing objective tests are that they can be assessed in a standardized manner, have various validity scales, and the criticisms of objective tests can be relatively easy to avoid. The criticisms of objective tests, deliberate deception, diagnostic difficulties, and cultural bias, can be avoided because it would only take a little extra awareness of the making of the test to not be deliberately deceptive or culturally bias. Due to the diagnostic difficulties of objective tests I would not use this type of test to make diagnoses. I would not use interviews

McCrae and Costa developed a personality test, the NEO Personality Inventory (Schultz, 2015, p. 231). According to this model, a “factor” is large and biologically based; is stable over your lifetime; appears in many cultures; are valid predictors of emotions and behaviors in many situations and can influence many aspects of our behavior (Schultz, 2015, p. 243)

The study was conducted using the IPIP measure scales; (Extraversion, Neuroticism, Openness, Agreeableness & Conscientiousness), (Goldberg, 1999) and the Big Five Factor Model which measure the personality factors of the Big Five (Costa & McCrae, 1992). The four goals of Psychology was taken into consideration using the 25-item translated questionnaire with a 5 point Likert scale.

To understand personality there are three main aspects that must be looked at: LArsen and Buss Definition of personality, The Six Domains of knowledge of personality, and Costa and McCrae's Five Factor Theory. In this essay I will first break down larsen and Buss definition and connect it to the domains, then connect the domains to the five factor thoery (FFT).

“Personality refers to individual differences in characteristic patterns of thinking, feeling and behaving” (American Psychology Association). Personality is an often debated topic, and in the modern world, many people have an interest in finding out more about themselves. With a variety of theories and tests to determine what composes an individual, from MBTI to Rorschach 's Inkblot test, there are many ways of quantifying seemingly qualitative traits. One of these testing methods is called the Revised NEO Personality Inventory (NEO PI-R), which is based on the Five-Factor model, a theory that relies on five traits, that encompass the human personality.

Psychological tests or psychological assessments are an important asset in the field of psychology. These tests are designed to measure people’s characteristics which pertain to behavior. There are a variety of different types of tests that can be used to assess different types of behaviors. According to the specific behavior or behaviors being assessed, tests are