The Revised Neo Personality Inventory and the MMPI-2 Psychopathology Five in the prediction of aggression

As suggested by Ben-Porath and Waller (Ben-Porath, Y. S., & Waller, N. G. (1992). “Normal” personality inventories in clinical assessment: general requirements and the potential for using the NEO personality inventory. Psychological Assessment, 4, 14–19], the incremental validity of the Revised NEO Personality Inventory [NEO-PI-R; Costa, P. T., & McCrae, R. R. (1992b). The revised NEO personality inventory (NEO-PI-R) and NEO five factor inventory (NEO-FFI) professional manual. Odessa, FL: Psychological Assessement Resources] domain scales over the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 Personality Psychopathology Five [MMPI-2 PSY-5; Harkness, A. R., McNulty, J. L., & Ben-Porath, Y. S. (1995). The personality five (PSY-5): constructs and MMPI-2 scales. Psychological Assessment, 7, 164–114] scales for predicting aggression was assessed in the present study using a sample of 234 introductory psychology students (155 females, 79 males). Results indicated that the NEO-PI-R domain scales were able to add significantly to the prediction of several facets of aggression over and above the PSY-5 scales, providing evidence for the incremental validity of the instrument. However, the practical importance of the findings remain open to debate. Implications of the present findings for the use of normal-range personality instruments in clinical settings are discussed.