fei75766_ch13_408-434.indd 414  02/06/20 01:05 PM
Part IV    Dispositional Theories414
In1975, 4years intohisPhDprogram, McCrae’s destiny wasabout tochange. 
Hewassentbyhisadvisor towork asaresearch assistant withJames Fozard, anadult 
developmental psychologist attheNormative Aging Study attheVeterans Adminis -
tration Outpatient Clinic inBoston. ItwasFozard whoreferred McCrae toanother 
Boston-based personality psychologist, PaulT.Costa Jr.,whowasonthefaculty at
University ofMassachusetts atBoston. 
After McCrae completed hisPhDin1976, Costa hired himasproject direc -
torandco-principal investigator forhisSmoking andPersonality Grant. McCrae and
Costa worked together onthisproject for2years, untiltheybothwerehired bythe
National Institute onAging’s Gerontology Research Center, adivision oftheNational 
Institutes ofHealth (NIH) housed inBaltimore. Costa washired asthechief ofthe
section onstress andcoping, whereas McCrae tooktheposition assenior stafffellow. 
Because theGerontology Research Center already hadlarge, well-established datasets 
ofadults, itwasanidealplace forCosta andMcCrae toinvestigate thequestion of
howpersonality isstructured. During the1970s, withtheshadow ofMischel’s influ-
encestillhanging heavily overthestudy ofpersonality andwiththeconcept oftraits 
being nearly ataboo subject, Costa andMcCrae conducted work ontraits thatensured 
them aprominent roleinthe40-year history ofanalyzing thestructure ofpersonality.
PaulT.Costa, Jr.wasbornonSeptember 16,1942 inFranklin, NewHampshire, 
thesonofPaulT.Costa, Sr.andEsther Vasil Costa. Heearned hisundergradu -
atedegree inpsychology atClark University in1964 andbothhismaster’s (1968) 
andPhD(1970) inhuman development from theUniversity ofChicago. Hislong-
standing interests inindividual differences andthenature ofpersonality increased 
greatly inthestimulating intellectual environment attheUniversity ofChicago. 
While atChicago, heworked withSalvatore R.Maddi, withwhom hepublished a
book onhumanistic personality theory (Maddi &Costa, 1972). After receiving his
PhD, hetaught for2years atHarvard andthenfrom 1973 to1978 atUniversity 
of Massachusetts–Boston. In1978, hebegan working attheNational Institute of
Aging’s Gerontology Research Center, becoming thechief fortheSection onStress 
andCoping andthenin1985 chief fortheLaboratory ofPersonality &Cognition. 
Thatsame year, 1985, hebecame president ofDivision 20(Adult Development and
Aging) oftheAmerican Psychological Association. Among hisother listofaccom -
plishments arefellow ofAmerican Psychological Association in1977 andpresident 
ofInternational Society fortheStudy ofIndividual Differences in1995. Costa and
hiswife, Karol Sandra Costa, havethree children, Nina, Lora, andNicholas.
Thecollaboration between Costa andMcCrae hasbeen unusually fruitful, with
wellover200co-authored research articles andchapters, andseveral books, including 
Emerging Lives, Enduring Dispositions (McCrae &Costa, 1984), Personality in Adult -
hood: A Five-Factor Theory Perspective, 2nded.(McCrae &Costa, 2003), andRevised 
NEO Personality Inventory (Costa &McCrae, 1992). 
In Search of the Big Five
Thestudy oftraits wasfirstbegun byAllport andOdbert inthe1930s andcontin -
uedbyCattell inthe1940s andbyTupes, Christal, andNorman inthe1960s (see
John &Srivastava, 1999, forahistorical review oftheFive-Factor Model, orthe
Big-Five). Final PDF to printer