The Five-Factor Model in the Philippines

Abstract

The Five-Factor Model is a prominent exemplar of the trait psychology perspective, one of several theoretical perspectives in the study of personality across cultures. Research indicates that the trait psychology perspective provides a viable theoretical basis for understanding Filipino personality and behavior. Structure-oriented studies in the Philippines using the Revised NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-PI-R) indicate that the Five-Factor Model generalizes well to the Philippine context, particularly when targeted factor rotations are used. Indigenous dimensions, derived using lexical and inventory approaches, resemble, or overlap with, dimensions of the FFM and are not very culture-specific, but sometimes carve up the personality space somewhat differently. In a study of mean trait levels with the NEO-PI-R, hypotheses about average cultural differences between Filipinos and Americans derived from the literature converged well with the personality comparison judgments of 43 bicultural judges. However, the resulting predictions of average cultural differences received only limited or partial support in an examination of Filipino mean profiles on the NEO-PI-R, plotted using U.S. norms. These results highlighted the uncertain nature of direct score comparisons, and concerns about measurement equivalence, in investigations of mean differences in personality traits across cultures.