Big Five Factors of Personality and Replicated Predictions of Behavior

Measures of the Big Five factors of personality were used to predict a variety of criterion variables thought to represent behaviors of some social and cultural significance (e.g., alcohol consumption, grade point average). Analyses focused on replicated predictions across 2 independent samples of participants (Ns = 276 and 142) with 3 different measures of the Big Five (the NEO Five-Factor Inventory, the Revised NEO Personality Inventory, and the Five-Factor Nonverbal Personality Questionnaire, the latter an experimental nonverbal personality inventory). The results indicated substantial consistency in behavior predictions across the different Big Five assessments. The data are interpreted as supporting both the construct validity of the personality measures used and the role of the Big Five factors as determinants of certain complex behaviors.