Knowing and faking one's five-factor personality

This article reports on 2 studies, both concerned with the validity of the NEO Five-Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI). The first study, replicated over 3 samples, concerned the validity of the measure as determined by self-ratings. Results indicated that participants were able to predict their extraversion, conscientiousness, and neuroticism scores with reasonable accuracy, but agreeableness and openness-to-experience less so. In addition, participants were not very reliable in predicting others' test scores, although they believed themselves to have scores moderately similar to the other, self-nominated person. The second study showed that the NEO-FFI was highly susceptible to faking, although the all-important fake good versus control comparisons were significant only for agreeableness, conscientiousness, and neuroticism. The implications of these studies for applied personality measurement are considered.