A COMPARISON OF DIFFERENT INSTRUMENTS PROPOSED TO MEASURE THE BIG-5

We compared three questionnaires assumed to measure different versions of five basic or Big Five factors of personality: The revised form of the NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-PI-R), developed by COSTA and McCR AE (1992) within the framework of the conventional Big Five factor mod el (GOLDBERG, 1990); the Zuckerman Kuhlman Personality Questionnaire ( ZKPQ-III; ZUCKERMAN, KUHLMAN, TETA, JOIREMAN & CARROCCIA, 1992) measur ing five basic temperament factors assumed to have significant biologi cal correlates and genetic influence; and the Professional Personality Questionnaire (PPQ; KLINE & LAPHAM, 1990) designed to measure the Big Five, as described by COSTA and McCRAE, in occupational settings. Fac tors derived from a set of 179 adjective rating scales were used as a standard of comparison representing the Big Five in the tradition of t he lexical approach to personality. A principal component analysis of the questionnaire scales and rating factors revealed rive components t hat were most clearly defined by the NEO-PI-R domain scales and the ad jective rating factors.