The trait approach to personality is one of the most influential epistemological frameworks in personality psychology and underlies the development of most objective personality inventories. The Revised NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-PI-R) is amongst the most widely used operationalisations of the FFM within personality assessment (Costa and McCrae, 1992). However, recent research (Franklin, 2009; Laher, 2010) suggests that the NEO-PI-R is not wholly applicable within the South African context; as there may be inappropriate items contained within the inventory, both linguistically and culturally. Within the United States, McCrae, Costa and Martin (2004) identified the NEO-PI-R as having specific problematic items, and developed the NEO-PI-3 as a revised “more readable” version of the NEO-PI-R. Thirty-seven items were changed from the original 240 items in the NEO-PI-R to create the NEO-PI-3. However, the modifications made to the NEO-PI-3 did not address all the issues pertinent within the NEO-PI-R from a South African perspective as evidenced in Laher’s (2010) and Franklin’s (2009) studies. This study adapted the NEO-PI-3 by changing specific items informed through Franklin (2009) and Laher’s (2010) research, as well as research conducted within this study on two samples of university lectures at the University of the Witwatersrand. Forty-nine items were changed from the original 240 NEO-PI-R items, retaining 30 items changed from the NEO-PI-3, and preferring 3 of the original NEO-PI-R items to the NEO-PI-3 items. These changes were aimed at making the NEO-PI-3 a more appropriate and applicable instrument both culturally and linguistically within the South African context. This modified inventory was then administered to 175 students at the University of the Witwatersrand to test the inventory’s validity and reliability. The reliability of this modified inventory was assessed through conducting an internal consistency analysis generating alpha coefficients indicating that the inventory was indeed reliable. The construct validity of this modified inventory was assessed through an exploratory factor analysis where five factors did emerge from the analysis; concomitant with the theoretical basis of the FFM. Based on feedback from the participants, both quantitatively and qualitatively, recommendations for future research and further problematic items are identified and discussed. In terms of the reliability of the modified version of the NEO-PI-3, internal consistency coefficients produced within the study suggested that the instrument is reliable, producing moderate to good alpha values, as well as producing evidence of good construct validity. Only 17 items emerged as still being potentially problematic within the modified version of the NEO-PI-3.

Commercial nuclear power utilities are under pressure to effectively recruit and retain licensed reactor operators in light of poor candidate training completion rates and recent candidate failures on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) license exam. One candidate failure can cost a utility over $400,000, making the successful licensing of new operators a critical path to operational excellence. This study was designed to discover if the NEO-PI-3, a 5-factor measure of personality, could improve selection in nuclear utilities by identifying personality factors that predict license candidate success. Two large U.S. commercial nuclear power corporations provided potential participant contact information and candidate results on the 2014 NRC exam from their nuclear power units nation-wide. License candidates who participated (n = 75) completed the NEO-PI-3 personality test and results were compared to 3 outcomes on the NRC exam: written exam, simulated operating exam, and overall exam result. Significant correlations were found between several personality factors and both written and operating exam outcomes on the NRC exam. Further, a regression analysis indicated that personality factors, particularly Conscientiousness, predicted simulated operating exam scores. The results of this study may be used to support the use of the NEO-PI-3 to improve operator selection as an addition to the current selection protocol. Positive social change implications from this study include support for the use of a personality measure by utilities to improve their return-on-investment in candidates and by individual candidates to avoid career failures. The results of this study may also positively impact the public by supporting the safe and reliable operation of commercial nuclear power utilities in the United States.