fei75766_ch13_408-434.indd 429  02/06/20 01:05 PM
Chapter 13    McCrae and Costa’s Five-Factor Trait Theory429
Dothese theories gobeyond taxonomies andproduce important personality 
research? Thetraitandfactor theories ofCosta andMcCrae areexamples ofastrictly 
empirical approach topersonality investigation. These theories werebuiltbycollecting 
asmuch dataaspossible onalarge number ofpeople, intercorrelating thescores, factor 
analyzing correlation matrices, andapplying appropriate psychological significance to
theresultant factors. Apsychometric approach, rather thanclinical judgment, isthe
cornerstone oftraitandfactor theories. Nevertheless, likeother theories, traitandfac-
tortheories must bejudged bysixcriteria ofauseful theory.
First, dotraitandfactor theories generate research? Onthiscriterion, theFive-
Factor Model ofCosta andMcCrae must berated veryhigh. Thetraittheory of
McCrae andCosta andother advocates oftheBigFivepersonality structure have
alsogenerated large amounts ofempirical research. Thatresearch hasshown thatthe
traits ofextraversion, neuroticism, openness toexperience, agreeableness, andconsci -
entiousness arenotlimited toWestern nations, butarefound inawidevariety ofcul-
tures, using myriad translations oftherevised NEO-PI (McCrae, 2002). Inaddition, 
McCrae andCosta havefound thatbasic personality traits aresomewhat flexible up
toabout age30,but,afterthattime, theyremain quite stable overthelifespan. Other 
researchers havereported more evidence forchange inpersonality during adulthood 
duetochanges inlifecircumstance orbrain functioning.
Second, aretraitandfactor theories falsifiable? Onthiscriterion, traitandfac-
tortheories receive amoderate tohighrating. Thework ofMcCrae andCosta lends 
itself tofalsification, eventhough some oftheresearch coming from non-Western 
countries suggests thattraits other thantheBigFivemaybeneeded toexplain per-
sonality inAsian countries.
Third, traitandfactor theories arerated highontheirability toorganize knowl -
edge. Anything thatistrulyknown about personality should bereducible tosome 
quantity. Anything thatcanbequantified canbemeasured, andanything thatcanbe
measured canbefactor analyzed. Theextracted factors thenprovide aconvenient 
andaccurate description ofpersonality interms oftraits. These traits, inturn, 
canpresent aframework fororganizing many disparate observations about human 
personality.
Fourth, auseful theory hasthepower toguide the actions of practitioners, andon
thiscriterion, traitandfactor theories receive mixed reviews. Although these theories 
provide acomprehensive andstructured taxonomy, suchaclassification islessuseful 
toparents, teachers, andcounselors thanitistoresearchers.
Aretraitandfactor theories internally consistent? TheBigFivetheory and
research isinternally quite consistent, evenifthere aresome (e.g., Eysenck, see
nextchapter) whodisagree withthenumber ofbasic dimensions ofpersonality. 
Cross-cultural research tends tolendsupport fortheuniversality ofthese fivedimen -
sions allovertheworld, which suggests these areconsistent dimensions ofhuman 
personality (McCrae, 2002; Schmitt, Allik, McCrae, &Benet-Martínez, 2007; Trull 
&Geary, 1997; Zheng etal.,2008). Weshould point out,however, thatcross-cultural 
research isnotunanimous initsfindings supporting theBigFive, partly duetothedif-
ficulties intranslating thequestions intomany different languages. Forinstance, the
internal reliability oftheBigFiveInventory-Agreeableness scale isonly0.57inSouth 
andSoutheast Asia, suggesting theitems arenotcompletely measuring onedimension 
among Asians (Schmitt etal.,2007). Final PDF to printer