German validation of the NEO Five-Factor Inventory

Over the past years, German researchers have shown much interest in Costa and McCrae's five factor model as well as in their instrument: the NEO-Five-Factor Inventory (1989). This article presents the results of a survey study using the German version of the NEO-FFI (Borkenau & Ostendorf, 1993) on a population sample of Germany (N = 1908). These findings are compared with the results presented in Borkenau and Ostendorf's manual (1993). Results show that, despite an acceptable internal consistency, the NEO-FFI scales are not sufficiently stable, The influence of age, gender, place of residence, and education are also examined. Furthermore, intercorrelations between the NEO-FFI scales are reported. The similarity between the factor structure described in the test manual and the loading matrix based on the population sample is assessed by means of factor structure comparisons using the Fischerr-Roppert method. Finally, correlations with the Giessen Test (GT) are presented.