Measuring Chinese Personality in 8 Minutes: A Short Measure of the Five-Factor Model of Personality

Using data from three Chinese samples (Ns = 611, 403, 299) collected using both monolingual and bilingual designs, we evaluated the psychometric properties and factor structure of the NEO Five-Factor Inventory 3 (FFI-3), the short form of the NEO Personality Inventory 3 (PI-3), for use in Chinese communities. Although the FFI-3 contains only a quarter of the 240 items of the PI-3, exploratory structural equation modeling revealed that it maintained the five-factor structure of the long form and achieved acceptable levels of internal consistency, cross-language validity, and test-retest reliability. The correlation coefficients between the short-form factors and the corresponding long-form factors were all above .86, indicating a strong association between the short and long versions of the scale. Taken together, our findings suggest that the FFI-3 is a viable tool for mapping personality in Chinese communities.