The Revised NEO Personality Inventory, NEO PI-R, is the gold standard of personality testing. It will be referred to here (as it is in many other places) simply as the NEO-AC.
The NEO-AC was developed by two psychologists, Drs. Costa and McCrae, in 1985, and then revised in 1992. It is composed of 240 self-report questions that are answered on a five-point scale (from strongly agree to strongly disagree). Each question is written so that anyone with a sixth-grade reading level will be able to take the exam. On average the test takes approximately 40 minutes to complete (though there is no time limit in taking it). Questions of test-takers can be answered by the person administering the test, if necessary, to clarify definitions, meanings, and so on. Although some of the questions on the test may sound similar to one another, there are actually no “overlapping items,” and the scales are balanced to control for acquiescence.
The questions on the NEO-AC are, in and of themselves, not very “deep” and don’t carry much weight outside of their use in assessing your traits compared to other people who read and answer the same set of questions. That is, after you have taken the test and find out where your personality traits line up in comparison to others who took the test, there is no point in going back to the questions and trying to interpret why you answered one question one way or another question another way.
One of our traders who took the test commented, “The questions were somewhat contradictory. One question asked me if I like bright colors and flashy items. I like bright colors, but don’t like flashy items, so how do you answer it?” Again, the exact content of the question is not so important as how you react and respond to that question in comparison with everyone else who has ever taken the test. Don’t get stressed out if you think a question is poorly written or you aren’t sure what the question is really trying to probe. The questions may seem arbitrary or contradictory, but actually each one is very carefully crafted and precisely worded in a way so that, in large numbers, the test always produces a “bell-shaped curve” for each of the traits. So when taking the NEO-AC, try not to over-think or psychoanalyze things. Simply read the questions, take them at face value, and answer them, one after another, as honestly as you can.
The name NEO-AC comes from the fact that this test is assessing the five major personality domains. These are also sometimes termed the “five factors” or the “five- factor model” (FFM):
N—Neuroticism
E—Extraversion
O—Openness
A—Agreeableness
C—Conscientiousness
Each of these five major factors is composed of six separate facets, or subfactors. Hence, in total the NEO-AC assesses thirty distinct personality traits. Taken together, the NEO-AC’s five domain scales and thirty facet scales facilitate a comprehensive and detailed assessment of normal adult personality. Both paper and computer forms of the test are available. The test must be administered by a trained professional, and the test and its contents are all copyrighted material.
There is also a short version of the test, called the NEO-FFI, which only has 60 questions and takes less than 15 minutes to complete. However, this short version only looks at the five major domains and does not get into the facet level.
One commonly heard criticism of the NEO-AC is that it’s a test of limited scope and does not explain all of human personality. Some psychologists argue that the test overlooks personality traits, such as motivation, thriftiness, sense of humor, and so forth. However, the very reason that not all personality traits are included in this test is that these other traits were either (1) not validated as occurring in a bell-shaped pattern across all cultures and peoples, (2) not stable enough, or (3) not easily described or measured in a simple pen-and-paper test.
Although the NEO-AC is not perfect, it is the best tool out there for assessing personality. It is concise, accurate, and well validated. And that is why it is the test routinely being used by researchers and scientists trying to learn about personality and how the mind works. It is the test used in massive amounts of data published in high-level academic journals. The NEO-AC is truly recognized around the world as the gold standard for personality assessment.
Other important attributes of the NEO-AC include:
The NEO-AC is backed by multiple research studies demonstrating:
Some additional tips follow.
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