Introduction

The NEO PI-R is one of the IPIP scales that is discover by Paul T. Costa, Jr. and Robert

R. McCrae. According to International Personality Item Pool (2016), initially Raymond Cattell, a

British Psychologist had develop a 16 different scale of personality questionnaire, 16PF, but after

Costa and McCrae figure out 16PF is redundant, they started to conduct a research based on

16PF and discover three domain of personality which is Neuroticism, Extraversion, and

Openness to Experience. After that, they form their own original personality inventory (NEO PI)

to analyze the three factors. They started to add Agreeableness and Conscientiousness as the five

domain personality after the inspiration of the Big 5 talk by Jack Digman, a colleague of Lew

Goldberg and renamed their instrument as the NEO Personality Inventory- Revised (NEO PI-R).

Costa and McCrae started to compare the NEO PI-R with other major personality questionnaires

and discovered that Five Factor Model (FFM) also can be found in nearly all personality

instruments. As a result, FFM is now recognizing as the key standard for personality assessment.

The NEO PI-R is a set of questionnaire that mainly used to measure ones personality based on

Five Factor Model (FFM). This test is able to measure ones emotion, their interpersonal skill,

willingness to experience new things, attitude and motivational style (McCrae & John, 1992).

For example, the person who is high in Neuroticism is more likely to have an unstable emotion

where they can easily get stress and bad mood. Based on the information above, NEO PI-R also

can used to apply in most of the industry because it able to measure Clients job abilities and

interests, as well as understanding Clients strength and weaknesses (Costa,2015).

Even though method of administer is in the form of group test, but it also can be

individual because the instruction and the question of the test is quite clear and comprehendible
(Ralph L, 2001). IPIP NEO-PI-R is available in two version, which is Form S and Form R.

According to PAR (2012), Form S is self-reported which is more suitable for adults while Form

R is an observer reports measure and it is written in the third person for peer, spouse, or expert

ratings. There has no time limits for the employees to answer the entire question but it takes

about 30 minutes for individuals to complete the test. Employees and complete IPIP NEO-PI-R

in online form, booklets, hand scoring answer sheets and the computer software (NEO Software

System) which is costly (Ralph L, 2001).

NEO-PI-R contains 240 questions, which consists of five domain subscales and each with

six facets. According to Ralph (2001), there are total of thirty facets in the NEO PI-R test that

provide more specific and greater understanding to the employees. The Neuroticism with six

facets, which is anxiety, angry hostility, depression, self-consciousness, impulsiveness and

vulnerability, is to identify the tendency of the employees to experience the psychological

distress. Extraversion with six facets, which is warmth, gregariousness, assertiveness, activity,

excitement seeking, and positive emotions is to measure the quantity and intensity of the

employee interpersonal interactions in the social world (Ralph, 2001). Moreover, Openness to

Experience refers to the proactive seeking and appreciation of experiences for themselves. The

facets in Openness to Experience is fantasy, aesthetics, feelings, actions, ideas, and values. In

addition, facets in Agreeableness, which is, trust, straightforwardness, altruism, compliance,

modesty, and tender-mindedness is to measure the quality of employee's interpersonal

interactions along a range from sympathy to hostility (Ralph, 2001). The last domain is

Conscientiousness, which used to measure the degree of organization, persistence, control, and

motivation in goal directed behavior (Ralph, 2001). The facets of Conscientiousness is

competence, order, dutifulness, achievement striving, self-discipline, and deliberation.

The NEO-PI-R contains 240 items. The total of negative items in the test is 106, which included

21 items in Neuroticism, 19 items in Extraversion, 24 items in Openness to Experience, 22 items

in Agreeableness and 20 items in Conscientiousness ("NEO Facets Table", n.d.).

Reliability is to measures some characteristic to get the consistent results over time. The

NEO PI-R Manual with 1539 adults aged 21-64 have coefficient alphas (.56-.81) for Form S

domains and facets; internal consistency data in Form S with 132 college students (84 males) is .

50-.87, and the Personality Profiles of Cultures Project Form R of the NEO-PI-R with total

12,156 respondents range from .50-.82. This shows that the three samples are consistent. In

addition, alpha is lowest (< .70) for Self-Consciousness, Activity, Openness to Actions and

Values, and Tender-Mindedness; alpha is highest ( .75) for Angry Hostility, Vulnerability,

Openness to Aesthetics and Ideas, Trust, and Self-Discipline (McCrae, Kurtz, Yamagata &

Terracciano, 2010). However, internal consistency does not shows too much difference by

domain and all five domains are highly consistent.

Validity of NEO PI-R is refers to the accuracy of the personality assessment. According to Costa

and McCrae (1992), convergent validity is to measure the relationship between NEO-PI-R facet

scales with alternative measures of similar constructs (as cited in Costa, 1996). For example, the

facet of Neuroticism, which is depression, related to the measure of Stress index in JobMatch

Talent test. Content validity means the degree of the test covers the content that it is supposed to

measure (Yaghmaei, 2003). The Content validity needs to be complete by an expert such as I/O

psychologists instead of psychologist in literature to avoid the trait names of personality

questionnaires derived from a literature is different from the I/O literature (Costa, 1996). For

example, Schmit stated that the requirement for a particular job related to the dimension in FFM,

which is Trustworthiness with Information or Cooperative Helping Tendencies (as cited in Costa,
1996). The former is relating to Conscientiousness and the latter is relating to Agreeableness, but

if they are not being identify and measure they will be ignore in the selection process. Therefore,

the 30 facets of the NEO-PI-R should cover many traits of interest to I/O psychologists (Costa,

1996).

Five Factor Model (FFM) of personality is the theory that dominates in NEO PI-R

personality assessment. This theory able to explain a natural framework for organizing research

and guide to the comprehensive assessment of individual which could be important to

educational, industrial/organizational and clinical psychologist (McCrae & John, 1992).

Therefore, this theory described as a set of tool that helped most of the psychologist in distinctive

area to conduct a personality research. The five dimensions in Five Factor Model is include

Neuroticism (emotional), Extraversion (interpersonal), Openness to Experience (experiential),

Agreeableness (attitudinal) and Conscientiousness (motivational). In addition, each dimension

may be carrying out different meaning. For example, the person who is low in neuroticism does

not mean that they always have a positive thinking but it is also reflects that the person is

relaxed, unflappable, even-tempered and calm (McCrae & John, 1992). Therefore, the NEO PI-R

is using the FFM theory in order to understand the person personality effectively.

Practical

The NEO PI-R is the personality tests that can be apply in the work environment

especially in the recruitment process. As Costa, McCrae, kay (1995) had mentioned that

personality traits is the common way to understand a persons life which include their occupation

preference, career choices and job performance. By referring to the outcome of the personality

test, it can help to identify whether a persons is suitable to that particular occupation or not.
Taking an example, salespersons often require a person who is extravert. This is because they

must have the ability to cope with the external world and enjoyed being with people. To be a

salesperson, they need to communicate well with other people, as they need to seek for customer

to sale their product. Garcia, Nima, Rappe, Rapp Ricciardi, Archer (2014), noted that manager

and human resource expert had describe the significant characteristics which can relate to the job

performance such as stress tolerance, persistence, self-control, ability to cooperate and take

initiative and willingness to listen. When ones personality match with their job, simultaneously

it will also influence their job performance. This statement can be proof by using the research

from Holland, Johnston, Hughey, and Asama (as cited in Costa, 1996) where they have point out

individuals who score high in Openness to Experience will be more successful in work that need

to have original thinking. For example, a creative person most probably will be successful in

designing career path. Hence, the development of NEO PI-R is mainly use in business settings.

The advantages of using NEO PI-R is that it is a useful instrument to measure the

personality. According to PAR (2012), NEO-PI-R can be a precious resource for the experts

because it provides a detailed personality description with six facets in each domain. NEO-PI-R

also intended to provide a more comprehensive explanation of the personality trait for the

individual characteristic and enduring emotional, interpersonal, experiential, attitudinal, and

motivational styles (Boyle, Matthews & Saklofske, 2008). With a systematic and clear questions

designed, employees can answer the test accurately.

Furthermore, the reliability of NEO-PI-R is high. The internal consistency of domain

range of Form S is high which is from .86 to .92 while the domain range for Form R is from .89

to .95 (Ralph L, 2001). Since the feature measured by IPIP NEO-PI-R show excellent long-term

stability, it mean the result of the retest reliability is high and satisfactory (Costa, 1996).
Employers can rely on this test and assign different tasks to employee based on their personality

and this may enhance the job performance.

The disadvantages of using IPIP NEO-PI-R is the booklets, answer sheets and the

computer software of it is quite costly if compare to other psychological test. According to PAR

(2012), the NEO PI-R Reusable Form S Item Booklets and the NEO PI-R Reusable Form R Item

Booklets cost $50.00. Besides, the cost for the limitless use NEO Software System is $495.00

(Ralph L, 2001). Unlike other psychological test such as 16 Personalities test that is free and can

be conducted online, IPIP NEO-PI-R is difficult to find in online and none of the website is

providing free test for it. Therefore, if the company want to use this test, they may have to spend

more money in order to let their employees conduct the test.

In addition, the disadvantage of using IPIP NEO-PI-R is the form S that is the self-

reported method. Since the self-reported questionnaire is depend on the employees honesty,

some of them may tend to be dishonest when conducting the test. According to Rob (2012), even

when the employees are trying to be honest, they may not able to provide the accurate answer

due to their introspection skill. The inaccurate result of the test that done by the employees may

have a big impact in the job arrangement. If the employees have been assigned to the job that

they are not familiar with or the job that are unsuitable for them, they may have the possibility to

face difficulties and not perform well in their job.

 References

Boyle, G., Matthews, G., & Saklofske, D. (2008). The SAGE handbook of personality theory

and assessment. Los Angeles, CA: SAGE Publications.

Costa, P., (1996). Work and Personality: Use of the NEO-PI-R in Industrial/Organisational

Psychology. Applied Psychology, 45(3), 225-241

NEO Facets Table. Ipip.ori.org. Retrieved, from http://ipip.ori.org/newNEO_FacetsTable.htm

Psychological Assessment Resources, (2016). Www4.parinc.com. Retrieved from

http://www4.parinc.com/Products/Product.aspx?ProductID=NEO-PI-R#Items

Ralph, L. P., (2016). Association for Assessment in Counseling (AACE) Newsnotes Article.

Aac.ncat.edu. Retrieved from http://aac.ncat.edu/newsnotes/y97fall.html

Rob. H., (2012). The dangers of self-report - Science Brainwaves. Science Brainwaves.

Retrieved from http://www.sciencebrainwaves.com/the-dangers-of-self-report/