Date of Award

12-2003

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Psychology

First Advisor

Richard L. Griffith

Second Advisor

Arthur Gutman

Third Advisor

Lisa A. Steelman

Fourth Advisor

Celine Lang

Abstract

The reconsideration of personality among personnel specialists is partly due to the discovery of the five-factor model of personality or the "Big Five" (Costa, 1996). In the years following the acceptance of this taxonomy, several researchers have examined the relationship of the "Big Five" personality traits to numerous job performance criteria. Research has show:n that personality testing can contribute significant incremental validity over that of cognitive ability and skills (Neuman & Wright, 1999). The issues of trait consistency and the faking of personality measures have divided researchers in regards to how detrimental the effects of each are. The results of Study 1 suggest that individuals view their behaviors as more or less consistent across some traits versus others. Extraversion was rated as the most consistent trait followed by Openness to Experience, Conscientiousness, Agreeableness, and then Neuroticism. For study 2 "General" and "Work frame-of-reference" version of the NEO-FFI was examined across applicant and non-applicant populations to assess the construct validity of each measure. The factor intercorrelations, number of factors loadings of indicators, and indicator errors of measurement were significantly different between applicant and honest conditions for the General measure. For the Work (FOR) measure, significant differences were not found between an applicant and honest condition. Finally, this study provided additional support for the greater predictive validity found when utilizing frame-of-reference measures. The Work (FOR) measure significantly predicted participant job performance for the traits of Neuroticism, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness.

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