Experimental manipulation of NEO-PI-R items

Research assessing the relationship of the Five-factor model (FFM) of perso nality to personality disorder symptomatology has generally been consistent with theoretical expectations. Three exceptions, however, have been failur es to confirm predicted associations of the NEO-Personality Inventory-Revis ed (NEO-PI-R; Costa & McCrae, 1992b) Conscientiousness scale with obsessive -compulsive personality disorder symptomatology, the NEO-PI-R Agreeableness scale with dependent symptomatology, and the NEO-PI-R Openness scale with schizotypal symptomatology. It was the hypothesis of this study that these findings might be due in part to a relative emphasis on adaptive rather tha n maladaptive variants of these domains of personality functioning within t he NEO-PI-R. This hypothesis was tested by experimentally altering NEO-PI-R items to reverse their implications for maladaptiveness. The predicted cor relations of the FFM were confirmed with the experimentally altered items i n a sample of 86 adult psychiatric outpatients.