Blackwell Reference Online

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Agreeableness , which reflects a consistently warm, prosocial, non-aggressive orientation toward others, is one of the Big Five dimensions of human personality uncovered by factor analyses of trait ratings in several languages and cultures. Like the other Big Five constructs, agreeableness is a higher order statistical factor reflecting a pattern of intercorrelation among a number of more specific traits, in this case involving an individual's approach to interpersonal relationships. Agreeableness appears to be a lifelong aspect of personality in that one's level of agreeableness relative to others tends to remain consistent over long periods of time, although people typically do become somewhat more agreeable as they age. Agreeableness is typically measured along with the other Big Five factors using questionnaires, in which the respondent rates his or her level of agreement with items describing the self or another target person. Because the Big Five personality factors were actually derived from studies examining correlations among items rated in this way, the items on Big Five questionnaires help to convey the content of each construct. The best known and most comprehensive Big Five questionnaire is Costa and McCrae's NEO Personality Inventory-Revised (NEO-PI-R); “NEO” represents the factors Neuroticism, Extraversion, and Openness to Experience, although these words are not ... log in or subscribe to read full text