A Comparison of Agreeableness Scores From the Big Five Inventory and the NEO PI-R: Consequences for the Study of Narcissism and Psychopathy

Abstract

Despite being significantly correlated, there is evidence to suggest that the scales measuring Agreeableness from the Big Five Inventory (BFI) and the Revised NEO Personality Inventory (NEO PI-R) do not capture identical constructs. More specifically, NEO PI-R Agreeableness contains content related to “honesty and humility” that is not contained by the BFI. In a sample of undergraduates (N = 290), the authors compared the correlations between these two measures of Agreeableness with traits from the HEXACO-PI-R as well as measures of narcissism, narcissistic personality disorder, and psychopathy. As expected, the two scores were significantly correlated but NEO PI-R Agreeableness manifested stronger correlations with the domains/facets of Honesty-Humility, narcissism/NPD, and aspects of psychopathy; these differences appear to be due primarily to the inclusion of the NEO PI-R facets of Straightforwardness and Modesty. These differences have important implications for the assessment and conceptualization of personality and personality disorder.

Keywords

Agreeableness Big Five Five Factor Model psychopathy narcissism assessment

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Ashton, M.C. , & Lee, K. ( 2005). Honesty-Humility, the Big Five, and the Five-Factor Model . Journal of Personality, 73, 1321-1353.

Ashton, M.C. , & Lee, K. ( 2007). Empirical, theoretical, and practical advantages of the HEXACO model of personality structure. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 11, 150-166.

Cattell, R.B. , Eber, H.W. , & Tatsuoka, M.M. (1970). Handbook for the Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire (16PF). Champaign, IL : IPAT.

Corry, N. , Merritt, R.D. , Mrug, S. , & Pamp, B. ( 2008). The factor structure of the Narcissistic Personality Inventory. Journal of Personality Assessment, 90, 593-560.

Costa, P.T. , & McCrae, R.R. (1992). Revised NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-PI-R) and NEO Five-Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI) professional manual. Lutz, FL: PAR, Inc.

Decupyer, M. , De Pauw, S. , De Fruyt, F. , De Bolle, M. , & De Clercq, B. J. (2009). A meta-analysis of psychopathy-, antisocial PD- and FFM associations. European Journal of Personality , 23, 531-565.

Gaughan, E.T. , Miller, J.D. , & Lynam, D.R. (in press). Examining the utility of general models of personality in the study of psychopathy: Comparing the HEXACO-PI-R and NEO PI-R. Journal of Personality Disorders.

Hyler, S.E. ( 1994). PDQ-4+ personality questionnaire. New York, NY: NYSPI.

John, O.P. , Donahue, E.M. , & Kentle, R.L. ( 1991). The Big Five Inventory-Versions 4a and 54. Berkeley: University of California, Berkeley, Institute of Personality and Social Research.

10.

John, O.P. , & Srivastava, S. (1999). The big five trait taxonomy: History, measurement, and theoretical perspectives. In L. A. Pervin & O. P. John (Eds.), Handbook of personality (2nd ed., pp. 102-138). New York, NY: Guilford Press.

11.

Lee, K. , & Ashton, M.C. ( 2006). Further assessment of the HEXACO Personality Inventory: Two new facet scales and an observer report form. Psychological Assessment, 18, 182-191.

12.

Miller, J.D. , & Campbell, W.K. (2008). Comparing clinical and social-personality conceptualizations of narcissism. Journal of Personality, 76, 449-476.

13.

Miller, J.D. , Lynam, D.R. , Widiger, T.A. , & Leukefeld, C. ( 2001). Personality disorders as an extreme variant of common personality dimensions: Can the five-factor model represent psychopathy. Journal of Personality, 69, 253-276.

14.

Miller, J.D. , & Maples, J. (in press). Trait personality models of narcissistic personality disorder, grandiose narcissism, and vulnerable narcissism. In W. K. Campbell & J. D. Miller (Eds.), Handbook of Narcissism and Narcissistic Personality Disorder: Theoretical approaches, empirical findings, and treatments. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.

15.

Raskin, R. , & Terry, H. ( 1988). A principal-components analysis of the Narcissistic Personality Inventory and further evidence of its construct validity. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 54, 890-902.

16.

Spearman, C. ( 1904). The proof and measurement of association between two things. American Journal of Psychology, 15, 72-101.

17.

Williams, K. , Paulhus, D. , & Hare, R. ( 2007). Capturing the four-factor structure of psychopathy in college students via self-report. Journal of Personality Assessment , 88, 205-219.