fei75766_ch13_408-434.indd 413  02/06/20 01:05 PM
Chapter 13    McCrae and Costa’s Five-Factor Trait Theory413
relatively lowonyandviceversa. Aperfect correlation (r=1.00) would result inxandy
occupying thesame line.Psychologically, orthogonal rotation usually results inonlyafew
meaningful traits, whereas oblique methods ordinarily produce alarger number.
The Big Five: Taxonomy or Theory?
InChapter 1,wedefined ataxonomy asaclassification ofthings according totheir
natural relationships. Wealsosuggested thattaxonomies areanessential starting 
point fortheadvance ofscience, butthattheyarenottheories. Whereas theories 
generate research, taxonomies merely supply aclassification system. 
Inthefollowing discussion ofMcCrae andCosta’s Five-Factor Model (FFM), 
wewillseethattheirwork began asanattempt toidentify basic personality traits as
revealed byfactor analysis. Thiswork soon evolved intoataxonomy andtheFive-
Factor Model. After much additional work, thismodel became atheory, onethatcan
bothpredict andexplain behavior.
Biographies of Robert R. McCrae  
and Paul T. Costa, Jr. 
Robert Roger McCrae wasbornonApril 28,1949 inMaryville, Missouri, atown 
of13,000 people located about 100miles north ofKansas City. Maryville ishome 
toNorthwest Missouri State, thetown’s largest employer. McCrae, theyoungest of
three children borntoAndrew McCrae andEloise Elaine McCrae, grew upwith
anavidinterest inscience andmathematics. Bythetimeheentered Michigan State 
University, hehaddecided tostudy philosophy. ANational Merit Scholar, henever -
theless wasnotcompletely happy withtheopen-ended andnon-empirical nature of
philosophy. After completing hisundergraduate degree, heentered graduate school 
atBoston University withamajor inpsychology. Given hisinclination andtalent 
formath andscience, McCrae found himself intrigued bythepsychometric work 
ofRaymond Cattell. Inparticular, hebecame curious about using factor analysis to
search forasimple method foridentifying thestructural traits found inthediction -
ary.AtBoston University, McCrae’s major professor wasHenry Weinberg, aclinical 
psychologist withonlyaperipheral interest inpersonality traits. Hence, McCrae’s 
interest intraits hadtobenourished more internally thanexternally. 
During the1960s and1970s, Walter Mischel (seeChapter 18)wasquestion -
ingthenotion thatpersonality traits areconsistent, claiming thatthesituation is
more important thananypersonality trait. Although Mischel hassince revised his
stance ontheconsistency ofpersonality, hisviews were accepted bymany psycholo -
gistsduring those years. Inapersonal communication dated May4,1999, McCrae 
wrote: “Iattended graduate school intheyears afterMischel’s (1968) critique of
traitpsychology. Many psychologists atthetimewere prepared tobelieve thattraits 
were nothing butresponse sets,stereotypes, orcognitive fictions. Thatnever made 
anysense tome,andmyearly research experience showing remarkable stability in
longitudinal studies encouraged thebelief thattraits were realandenduring.” Nev-
ertheless, McCrae’s work ontraits while ingraduate school wasarelatively lonely 
enterprise, being conducted quietly andwithout much fanfare. Asitturns out,this
quiet approach waswell-suited tohisownrelatively quiet andintroverted personality. Final PDF to printer