The analysis of natural language trait names and questionnaire scales has suggested that the five factors of Neuroticism, Extraversion, Openness, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness constitute an adequate taxonomy ofpersonality An altemative approach to comprehensive personality assessment based on clinical judgments is given by the California Q-Set {CQS, Block, 1961) When self-Qsorts from 403 adult men and women were factored, the five factors closely resembled those found m adjectives, and showed convergent and discnminant validity against self-reports and peer-and spwuse-ratings on measures ofthe fivefactor model Results were replicated when interviewer Q-sort ratings were examined for a subset of subjects These findings strongly support the claim to comprehensiveness ofthe five-factor model It IS easy to see why a comprehensive description and classification of personality traits would be useful It would provide a common language for researchers of different onentations, a basis for companng and evaluating personality theones, a framework for the convergent and discnminant validation ofpersonality scales, and a guide to comprehensive assessment ofthe individual However, it is much less easy to see how one would ^ about exhaustively enumerating traits to obtain a necessary and sufficient list of personality descnptors Three approaches have in feet been used, relymg on the analysis of natural language, formal personality constructs, and clinical insights Previous articles (McCrae & Costa, 1985b, m press) have argued for convergence between systems denved from English language trait-names and personality scales, the present article compares the five-factor model derived from those

This article provides an example of the potential usefulness of personality measures in practical selection contexts Specifically, it describes the development and construct validation of a measure of service orientation. Service orientation-the disposition to be helpful, thoughtful, considerate, and cooperative-is an aspect of nontechnical performance that is important m a variety of jobs. In several studies with different classifications of personnel, the service-orientation measure showed steady and substantial correlations with overall job performance. The network of relationships between service orientation and other measures of social and cognitive functioning was also sensible and interpretable.The conventional wisdom of applied psychology, based on several earlier reviews (Ellis, 1946; Ghiselh & Barthol, 1953; Guion & Gottier, 1965), is that personality measures are not particularly useful as predictors of on-thejob performance. This view was probably fair given the evidence on which it was based.Advances in personality psychology over the past 15 years suggest, however, that it might be time to reexamine the role of personality measures in personnel selection (cf. Bernardin & Bownas, in press). As one example of the sort of development we have in mind, Hogan (1983) presented a theory of personality designed explicitly to link traits and everyday performance, which theory also provides.a detailed measurement model. Hogan suggested that standard personality dimensions (i.e., sociability, adjustment, conscientiousness, etc.) reflect social evaluations of everyday performance and should, therefore, contain important information about competencies relevant to the nontechnical aspects of job behavior.This article has two general goals. The first is to describe the development of a personality measure designed to be used in practical selection contexts and to evaluate its construct

Two recent item factor analyses of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) classified the resulting factors according to a conceptual scheme offered by Norman's (1963) five factor model. The present article empirically evaluates those classifications by correlating MMPI factor scales with self-report and peer rating measures of the five factor model in a sample of 153 adult men and women. Both sets of predictions were generally supported, although MMPI factors derived in a normal sample showed closer correspondences with the five normal personality dimensions. MMPI factor scales were also correlated with 18 scales measuring specific traits within the broader domains of Neuroticism, Extraversion, and Openness. The nine Costa, Zonderman, McCrae, and Williams (1985) MMPI factor scales appear to give useful global assessments of four of the five factors; other instruments are needed to provide detailed information on more specific aspects of normal personality. The use of the five factor model in routine clinical assessment is discussed.

Subjects completed a trait-measure of shyness and a state-measure of loneliness at the start of a new semester (Time 1), and repeated the loneliness measure at the end of the semester (Time 2). Shy students had significantly higher loneliness scores than unshy students at Time 1. Both groups showed a decline in loneliness over the length of the semester, presumably due to habituation, but the shy students were still significantly lonelier than the unshy students at the end of the semester. These findings indicate that both social situations (such as the novel circumstances of a new semester) and personality dispositions (such as shyness) contribute to the amount of loneliness that an individual may experience.

The contribution of learning to the adult experience of illness was investigated by asking 351 nursing students how their mothers reacted to menstrual symptoms and cold symptoms during their adolescence and how their mothers behaved when they themselves had menstrual symptoms. Mothers of respondents were independently asked the same questions. Nursing students who had been encouraged to adopt a sick role for menses or whose mothers modeled menstrual distress reported significantly more menstrual symptoms, clinic visits, and disability days for these symptoms as adults. Similarly, those encouraged to adopt a sick role for colds or who lived with a chronically ill person reported more clinic visits and disability days for nongynecological symptoms. Specific types of symptom reports and health care appeared to be learned: Encouragement and modeling of the menstrual sick role were more highly correlated with symptom-reports, clinic visits, and absenteeism for menstrual than for nongynecological symptoms, and encouragement of the cold sick role was more highly correlated with nongynecological than with menstrual clinic visits and absenteeism.