PsychologicaiReporfs, 1991, 69, 1176-1178. O Psychological Reports 1991
RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN T H E BASIC PERSONALITY INVENTORY AND T H E NEO-PERSONALITY INVENTORY IN A NONPATIENT SAMPLE ' JOSEPH LEVIN AND ITZHAK MONTAG Tei-Aviv University Summary.-The relation between psychopathology measured by Jackson's 1989 Basic Personality Inventory and personality d~mens~ons measured by Costa and McCrae's 1985 NEO-Personality Inventory was invesr~gatedin a nonpatient sample of 457 female subjects. The results contribute to I he vahdation of both instruments and agree with the relevant findings reported in the literature. They also provide support for the cross-cultural invariance of these instruments.
There seems to be a renewed interest in the relation of personality dimensions to psychopathology (see, for example, Waller, Lilienfeld, Tellegen, & Lykken, 1991). This issue is addressed here by giving two recently developed inventories to a sample of nonpatients. One of the inventories, the Basic Personality Inventory, developed by Jackson (1989), was designed primarily to measure psychopathology. It is based on a construct-oriented strategy to tap the constructs that underlie the MMPI clinical scales. The second one, the NEO-Personabty Inventory (Costa & McCrae, 1985, 1989), represents the first operationalization in a questionnaire format of the "Big Five" person&ty factor model currently adopted by many investigators (Digman, 1990). The analysis of the correlations between scores on these two inventories provides also a contribution to their validation. Subjects The sample of 457 17- and 18-yr.-old high school girls were seniors who were applying for admission to a program of training as nature guides at the field study centers of the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel.
Instruments The Basic Personality Inventory is a 240-item, true-false questionnaire which includes the following scales: Hypochondriasis, Depression, Denial, Interpersonal Problems, Alienation, Persecutory Ideas, Anxiety, Thinking Disorder, Impulse Expression, Social Introversion, Self-depreciation, and Deviation. The NEO-Personality Inventory is a 181-item questionnaire using a 5 'The order of the authors is random. Corres ondence should be addressed to Dr. Joseph b i n or Dr. Itzhak Montag, Department of ~ s y ~ ~ ~Tel-Aviv l ~ g yUniversity, , Ramat Aviv, Tel-Aviv 69978, Israel.
CORRELATIONS BETWEEN PERSONALITY INVENTORIES
1177
point Likert response-format. The inventory can be scored for five global domain scales and 18 specific facet scales (only the former were employed here). The global domain scales are Neuroticism (N), Extraversion (E), Openness ( 0 ) , Agreeableness (A), and Conscientiousness (C). The Hebrew versions of both inventories were developed and validated by Montag (unpublished work, 1990). The Hebrew versions of the Basic Personality Inventory and the NEO-Personality Inventory were partially validated by correlating them with scores on the MMPI and the 16 PF, respectively (a separate report of these results is in preparation). RESULTSAND DISCUSSION The mean of the alpha reliabilities of the Basic Personality Inventory scales in the derivation sample (N = 297) was .66, with a range of .57 to .75. Some of the reliabilities are low, but this is to be expected with psychopathological scales in normal samples (see Jackson, 1989, p. 53). The mean of the alpha reliabilities of the NEO-Personality Inventory domain scales in the derivation sample (N = 535) was .84, with a range of .71 to .92. Table 1 presents the correlations between the two inventories. The relative magnitudes of the correlations in each column, especially the two highest ones (although some are of quite moderate size), are examined here. Neuroticism is substantially correlated with almost all of the Basic Personality Inventory scales, as expected, as most psychopathological tendencies include a distress component. The highest correlation, however, is with Anxiety (.65). Extraversion has its highest (negative) correlation with Social Introversion (-.39). It is also associated negatively with Depression (-.30) and Self-depreciation (-.27). These three scales form a factor of Depression (Jackson, 1989, p. 57). Openness is correlated only with Thinking Disorder (.29) and negatively with Denial (-.22). The relation with Thinking Disorder can be accounted for to some extent by the correlation reported between Openness and Divergent Thinking (Costa & McCrae, 1989, p. 10). The negative correlation with Denial is apparently due to the "lack of emotional responsiveness" which is listed by Jackson (1989, p. 6) among the attributes of this scale, while the converse appears among the descriptors of Openness (Costa & McCrae, 1985, p. 2). Agreeableness is mainly related negatively with Interpersonal Problems (-33) and Alienation (-.31) which constitute part of the factor of Social Symptomatology (Jackson, 1989, p. 57). Conscientiousness has its highest correlation in a negative direction with Impulse Expression (-.41), as expected. Its next highest correlation is with Denial
'The Basic Personality Inventory and the NEO-Personality Inventory were reproduced b per mission granted to RAMOT, Ltd. by Sigma Assessment Systems, Inc. and l'sychoLgica; Assessment Resources, Inc., respectively. These inventories were employed for research purposes only.
1178
J. LEVIN & I. MONTAG TABLE I PEARSON CORRELATIONS BETWEEN PERSONALITYINVENTORIES(N = 457)
Basic Personality Inventory Neuroticism
NEO-Personality Inventory Extraver- Openness Agreeable- Consciension ness tiousness
Hypochondriasis 44* -19 Depression 50 -30 Denial -48 13 Interpersonal Problems 31 01 Alienation 19 09 Persecutory Ideas 48 -18 Anxiety 65 -13 Thinking Disorder 41 -04 Impulse Expression 30 13 Social Introversion 15 -39 Self-depreciation 34 -27 Deviation 51 -07 *Decimal points omitted. For p < . 0 1 (2-tailed),r = f .12.
(.31). This is consistent with the high loading of Desirability on the Conscientiousness factor reported by Costa and McCrae (1989, p. 9). In conclusion, the correlations between psychopathological tendencies such as those measured by the Basic Personality Inventory and the fundamental normal personality traits, measured by the NEO-Personality Inventory, support the normality-abnormality continuity hypothesis. Also, the pattern of the correlations between the inventories provides further evidence of the construct validity of both instruments, as well as their cross-cultural invariance. REFERENCES COSTA,P T., JR., & MCCRAE,R. R. (1985) The NEO Personality Inventory manual. Odessa, FL: Psychological Assessment Resources. COSTA,P T., JR., & MCCRAE,R. R. (1989) The NEO-PIINEO-FFI manual supplement. Odessa, FL: Psychological Assessment Resources. DIGMAN,J. M. (1990) Personality structure: emergence of the five factor model. Annual Review of Psychology, 41, 417-440. JACKSON, D. N . (1989) Bait Personality Inventory manual. London, Ontario: Sigma Assessment Systems. WWER, N. G . , ~ N F E L D , S. O., TELLEGEN,A,, & LYKKEN, D. T. (1991) The Tridimensional Personality Questionnaire: structural validi and comparison with the Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire. Multiuariate ~e?auioral Remrch, 26, 1-23. Accepted November 2 7, 1 9 9 1.
RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN T H E BASIC PERSONALITY INVENTORY AND T H E NEO-PERSONALITY INVENTORY IN A NONPATIENT SAMPLE ' JOSEPH LEVIN AND ITZHAK MONTAG Tei-Aviv University Summary.-The relation between psychopathology measured by Jackson's 1989 Basic Personality Inventory and personality d~mens~ons measured by Costa and McCrae's 1985 NEO-Personality Inventory was invesr~gatedin a nonpatient sample of 457 female subjects. The results contribute to I he vahdation of both instruments and agree with the relevant findings reported in the literature. They also provide support for the cross-cultural invariance of these instruments.
There seems to be a renewed interest in the relation of personality dimensions to psychopathology (see, for example, Waller, Lilienfeld, Tellegen, & Lykken, 1991). This issue is addressed here by giving two recently developed inventories to a sample of nonpatients. One of the inventories, the Basic Personality Inventory, developed by Jackson (1989), was designed primarily to measure psychopathology. It is based on a construct-oriented strategy to tap the constructs that underlie the MMPI clinical scales. The second one, the NEO-Personabty Inventory (Costa & McCrae, 1985, 1989), represents the first operationalization in a questionnaire format of the "Big Five" person&ty factor model currently adopted by many investigators (Digman, 1990). The analysis of the correlations between scores on these two inventories provides also a contribution to their validation. Subjects The sample of 457 17- and 18-yr.-old high school girls were seniors who were applying for admission to a program of training as nature guides at the field study centers of the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel.
Instruments The Basic Personality Inventory is a 240-item, true-false questionnaire which includes the following scales: Hypochondriasis, Depression, Denial, Interpersonal Problems, Alienation, Persecutory Ideas, Anxiety, Thinking Disorder, Impulse Expression, Social Introversion, Self-depreciation, and Deviation. The NEO-Personality Inventory is a 181-item questionnaire using a 5 'The order of the authors is random. Corres ondence should be addressed to Dr. Joseph b i n or Dr. Itzhak Montag, Department of ~ s y ~ ~ ~Tel-Aviv l ~ g yUniversity, , Ramat Aviv, Tel-Aviv 69978, Israel.
CORRELATIONS BETWEEN PERSONALITY INVENTORIES
1177
point Likert response-format. The inventory can be scored for five global domain scales and 18 specific facet scales (only the former were employed here). The global domain scales are Neuroticism (N), Extraversion (E), Openness ( 0 ) , Agreeableness (A), and Conscientiousness (C). The Hebrew versions of both inventories were developed and validated by Montag (unpublished work, 1990). The Hebrew versions of the Basic Personality Inventory and the NEO-Personality Inventory were partially validated by correlating them with scores on the MMPI and the 16 PF, respectively (a separate report of these results is in preparation). RESULTSAND DISCUSSION The mean of the alpha reliabilities of the Basic Personality Inventory scales in the derivation sample (N = 297) was .66, with a range of .57 to .75. Some of the reliabilities are low, but this is to be expected with psychopathological scales in normal samples (see Jackson, 1989, p. 53). The mean of the alpha reliabilities of the NEO-Personality Inventory domain scales in the derivation sample (N = 535) was .84, with a range of .71 to .92. Table 1 presents the correlations between the two inventories. The relative magnitudes of the correlations in each column, especially the two highest ones (although some are of quite moderate size), are examined here. Neuroticism is substantially correlated with almost all of the Basic Personality Inventory scales, as expected, as most psychopathological tendencies include a distress component. The highest correlation, however, is with Anxiety (.65). Extraversion has its highest (negative) correlation with Social Introversion (-.39). It is also associated negatively with Depression (-.30) and Self-depreciation (-.27). These three scales form a factor of Depression (Jackson, 1989, p. 57). Openness is correlated only with Thinking Disorder (.29) and negatively with Denial (-.22). The relation with Thinking Disorder can be accounted for to some extent by the correlation reported between Openness and Divergent Thinking (Costa & McCrae, 1989, p. 10). The negative correlation with Denial is apparently due to the "lack of emotional responsiveness" which is listed by Jackson (1989, p. 6) among the attributes of this scale, while the converse appears among the descriptors of Openness (Costa & McCrae, 1985, p. 2). Agreeableness is mainly related negatively with Interpersonal Problems (-33) and Alienation (-.31) which constitute part of the factor of Social Symptomatology (Jackson, 1989, p. 57). Conscientiousness has its highest correlation in a negative direction with Impulse Expression (-.41), as expected. Its next highest correlation is with Denial
'The Basic Personality Inventory and the NEO-Personality Inventory were reproduced b per mission granted to RAMOT, Ltd. by Sigma Assessment Systems, Inc. and l'sychoLgica; Assessment Resources, Inc., respectively. These inventories were employed for research purposes only.
1178
J. LEVIN & I. MONTAG TABLE I PEARSON CORRELATIONS BETWEEN PERSONALITYINVENTORIES(N = 457)
Basic Personality Inventory Neuroticism
NEO-Personality Inventory Extraver- Openness Agreeable- Consciension ness tiousness
Hypochondriasis 44* -19 Depression 50 -30 Denial -48 13 Interpersonal Problems 31 01 Alienation 19 09 Persecutory Ideas 48 -18 Anxiety 65 -13 Thinking Disorder 41 -04 Impulse Expression 30 13 Social Introversion 15 -39 Self-depreciation 34 -27 Deviation 51 -07 *Decimal points omitted. For p < . 0 1 (2-tailed),r = f .12.
(.31). This is consistent with the high loading of Desirability on the Conscientiousness factor reported by Costa and McCrae (1989, p. 9). In conclusion, the correlations between psychopathological tendencies such as those measured by the Basic Personality Inventory and the fundamental normal personality traits, measured by the NEO-Personality Inventory, support the normality-abnormality continuity hypothesis. Also, the pattern of the correlations between the inventories provides further evidence of the construct validity of both instruments, as well as their cross-cultural invariance. REFERENCES COSTA,P T., JR., & MCCRAE,R. R. (1985) The NEO Personality Inventory manual. Odessa, FL: Psychological Assessment Resources. COSTA,P T., JR., & MCCRAE,R. R. (1989) The NEO-PIINEO-FFI manual supplement. Odessa, FL: Psychological Assessment Resources. DIGMAN,J. M. (1990) Personality structure: emergence of the five factor model. Annual Review of Psychology, 41, 417-440. JACKSON, D. N . (1989) Bait Personality Inventory manual. London, Ontario: Sigma Assessment Systems. WWER, N. G . , ~ N F E L D , S. O., TELLEGEN,A,, & LYKKEN, D. T. (1991) The Tridimensional Personality Questionnaire: structural validi and comparison with the Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire. Multiuariate ~e?auioral Remrch, 26, 1-23. Accepted November 2 7, 1 9 9 1.
