Assessing Social, Emotional, and Behavioral Skills in Just a Few Minutes: 96-, 45-, and 20-Item Short Forms of the BESSI.

Social, emotional, and behavioral (SEB) skills matter for individuals' well-being and success. The behavioral, emotional, and social skills inventory (BESSI) uses 192 items to assess 32 specific SEB skills across five broad skill domains. This research developed three short forms of the BESSI-192 and explored their measurement properties, predictive validity, and cross-cultural comparability. We found that BESSI-96, BESSI-45, and BESSI-20 largely captured the psychological content of the BESSI-192 measure, retained a robust multidimensional structure, and demonstrated adequate reliability. At the domain and facet level, the BESSI short forms showed patterns of associations with external criteria that were similar to the BESSI-192 and preserved most of the BESSI-192's predictive power. The BESSI short forms also demonstrated full or partial measurement invariance between the primarily U.S.-based and German adult samples. We conclude by discussing contexts in which the short forms may be useful for researchers and practitioners.

The Italian Behavioral, Emotional, and Social Skills Inventory (BESSI-I).

The importance of social, emotional, and behavioral (SEB) skills is recognized worldwide, but their measurement has always been a challenge. The BESSI measures 32 SEB skills, divided into five domains (social engagement, cooperation, self-management, emotional resilience, and innovation), but its validity must be expanded to new languages and contexts. Across two studies (N1 = 990, N2= 824) we developed the Italian version of the BESSI, provided further support for its convergent and discriminant validity with the Big Five, and expanded its nomological network to procrastination, self-efficacy, and emotion regulation. The BESSI-I showed excellent internal reliability and satisfactory fit indices at the facet, domain, and overarching framework level. We also confirmed the correlations between the SEB skills and the Big Five personality traits and found meaningful correlations with the selected external outcomes. Overall, we confirm that the BESSI-I is a valid and useful instrument to assess SEB skills for research and clinical purposes.

The Behavioral, Emotional, and Social Skills Inventory: A Spanish Adaptation and Further Validation in Adult Population.

Social, emotional, and behavioral (SEB) skills encompass a broad range of interpersonal and intrapersonal abilities that are crucial for establishing and maintaining relationships, managing emotions, setting and pursuing goals, and exploring new learning opportunities. To address the lack of consensus regarding terminology, definition, and assessment of SEB skills, Soto et al. developed the Behavioral, Emotional, and Social Skills Inventory (BESSI), which consists of 192 items, 32 facets, and 5 domains. The objective of the current study was to adapt the BESSI to Spanish (referred to as BESSI-Sp) and enhance the overall understanding of the BESSI framework. A sample of 303 people was employed with a mean age of 30.35 years (SD = 14.73), ranging from 18 to 85 years. The results indicate that the BESSI-Sp demonstrates strong psychometric properties. Its facet- and domain-level structure aligns with the theoretical expectations and closely resembles the English-language source version. The facets exhibit high reliability (mean ω = .89), and the scores demonstrate adequate stability after 3 to 4 weeks (mean rICC = .77). The BESSI-Sp also displays evidence of convergent validity and integrates well with the Big Five framework, providing incremental validity for various outcomes. We discuss the implications of these findings for the assessment of SEB skills and future research in this field.

Examining SEB skills' incremental validity over personality traits in predicting academic achievement.

Personality traits and social, emotional, and behavioral (SEB) skills share the same behavioral referents, but whereas traits refer to a person's typical or average performance, skills refer to their capacity or maximal performance. Given their shared behavioral foundations, an important question to address is whether personality traits and SEB skills independently predict important outcomes. In this study (N = 642), we examined whether subscales of the Behavioral, Emotional, and Social Skills Inventory (BESSI), a measure of SEB skills, provided incremental validity in the prediction of the ACT composite score, an important academic outcome for American adolescents, over the Big Five personality traits. Consistent with our expectations, on average, SEB skills showed stronger associations with ACT achievement scores than personality traits. Moreover, SEB skills added incremental validity over and above personality traits in predicting ACT achievement scores. The findings reinforce the importance of conceptually distinguishing and measuring traits and skills.

A reliable instrument for making use of an overly neglected source of information on personality: The French adaptation of the Big Five Inventory-2 (Bfi-2) informant-report form.

OBJECTIVES: The assessment of personality traits is most often based on self-report. However, a growing body of research has shown that informant-report is a valuable and too often overlooked source of unique information. The aim of this study was to validate the French version of the informant-report form of the Big Five Inventory-2 (BFI-2) which assesses 15 facet traits in addition to the five major trait domains. METHODS: We asked 699 psychology and sports science and technology students to describe a person they knew well using the BFI-2 and obtained 661 valid records with demographic information. The data were analyzed using a bi-factor exploratory structural equation model with five bifactors corresponding to the Big Five domains, and three group factors (facets) each. RESULTS: This model had an excellent overall fit. Cronbach's alpha coefficients for the five domains were very satisfactory and the McDonald's omega coefficients were even better. The scales that measured the five major factors were therefore highly reliable, although Extraversion was somewhat less so. The scales measuring facets all had high reliability as measures of the whole formed by the major factor and the group factor. In addition, ten of them were reliable measures of their specific factor, and the remaining five appeared to be pure measures of the five domains. CONCLUSIONS: The informant-report form of the BFI-2 is a reliable instrument which is easy and quick to administer. These qualities should enable clinicians and researchers to exploit the much-neglected source of original information provided by informant-reports.

The social, emotional, and behavioral skill antecedents to college students' volunteering during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The disruptions to community functioning caused by the COVID-19 pandemic spurred individuals to action. This empirical study investigated the social, emotional, and behavioral (SEB) skill antecedents to college students' volunteering during the COVID-19 pandemic (N = 248, Mage = 20.6). We assessed eight SEB skills at the onset of a volunteering program, and students' volunteer hours were assessed 10-weeks later. Approximately 41.5% of the sample did not complete any volunteer hours. Higher levels of perspective taking skill, abstract thinking skill, and stress regulation were associated with more time spent volunteering. These results suggest that strength in particular SEB skills can prospectively predict prosocial civic behaviors.

A validation of the Japanese adaptation of the Big Five Inventory-2.

The purpose of this study was to adapt a Japanese version of the Big Five Inventory-2 (BFI-2-J) to examine its factor structure, reliability, validity, and measurement invariance. The BFI-2-J assesses five domains and 15 facets of the Big Five personality traits. We analyzed two datasets: 487 Japanese undergraduates and 500 Japanese adults. The results of the principal component analysis and confirmatory factor analysis revealed that the domain-facet structure of the BFI-2-J was similar to that of other language versions. The reliability of the BFI-2-J is sufficient. The correlation coefficients between the BFI-2-J and the other Big Five and self-esteem measures supported convergent and discriminant validity. Moreover, we confirmed measurement invariance across age and sex groups in domain-level and facet-level models. The results suggest that the BFI-2-J is a good instrument for measuring the Big Five personality traits and their facets in Japan. The BFI-2-J is expected to be useful in Japanese personality research and international comparative research.

The Behavioral, Emotional, and Social Skills Inventory (BESSI): Psychometric Properties of a German-Language Adaptation, Temporal Stabilities of the Skills, and Associations with Personality and Intelligence.

Social, emotional, and behavioral (SEB) skills comprise a broad set of abilities that are essential for building and maintaining relationships, regulating emotions, selecting and pursuing goals, or exploring novel stimuli. Toward an improved SEB skill assessment, Soto and colleagues recently introduced the Behavioral, Emotional, and Social Skills Inventory (BESSI). Measuring 32 facets from 5 domains with 192 items (assessment duration: ~15 min), BESSI constitutes the most extensive SEB inventory to date. However, so far, BESSI exists only in English. In three studies, we comprehensively validated a novel German-language adaptation, BESSI-G. Moreover, we expanded evidence on BESSI in three ways by (1) assessing the psychometric properties of the 32 individual skill facets, in addition to their domain-level structure; (2) providing first insights into the temporal stabilities of the 32 facets over 1.5 and 8 months; and (3) investigating the domains' and facets' associations with intelligence, in addition to personality traits. Results show that BESSI-G exhibits good psychometric properties (unidimensionality, reliability, factorial validity). Its domain-level structure is highly similar to that of the English-language source version. The facets show high temporal stabilities, convergent validity with personality traits, and discriminant validity with fluid and crystallized intelligence. We discuss implications for research on SEB skills.

The Norwegian Adaptation of the Big Five Inventory-2.

Two studies were conducted to assess the psychometric properties of scores from the Norwegian adaptation of the Big Five Inventory-2 (BFI-2). In Study 1, the BFI-2 was translated to Norwegian and the scores from a convenience sample (N = 606) demonstrated good psychometric properties. BFI-2 scores from subsamples correlated in expected ways with self- and other ratings of the Big Five, and with self-ratings of empathic concern and perspective taking. In Study 2, after some minor improvements in translation, the psychometric properties of BFI-2 scores were assessed in a new sample (N = 409). Results from random intercept EFA of scores supported the proposed model. The psychometric properties of two shorter versions of the inventory, the BFI-2-S and BFI-2-XS, were also examined. Overall, the results suggest that the Norwegian adaptation of the BFI-2 provide reliable and valid scores.

An integrative framework for conceptualizing and assessing social, emotional, and behavioral skills: The BESSI.

People differ in their social, emotional, and behavioral (SEB) skills: their capacities to maintain social relationships, regulate emotions, and manage goal- and learning-directed behaviors. In five studies using data from seven independent samples (N = 6,309), we address three key questions about the nature, structure, assessment, and outcomes of SEB skills. First, how can SEB skills be defined and distinguished from other kinds of psychological constructs, such as personality traits? We propose that SEB skills represent how someone is capable of thinking, feeling, and behaving when the situation calls for it, whereas traits represent how someone tends to think, feel, and behave averaged across situations. Second, how can specific SEB skills be organized within broader domains? We find that many skill facets can be organized within five major domains representing Social Engagement, Cooperation, Self-Management, Emotional Resilience, and Innovation Skills. Third, how should SEB skills be measured? We develop and validate the Behavioral, Emotional, and Social Skills Inventory (BESSI) to measure individuals' capacity to enact specific behaviors representing 32 skill facets. We then use the BESSI to investigate the nomological network of SEB skills. We show that both skill domains and facets converge in conceptually meaningful ways with socioemotional competencies, character and developmental strengths, and personality traits, and predict consequential outcomes including academic achievement and engagement, occupational interests, social relationships, and well-being. We believe that this work provides the most comprehensive model currently available for conceptualizing SEB skills, as well as the most psychometrically robust tool available for assessing them. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Survey data of social, emotional, and behavioral skills among seven independent samples.

The data presented in this article- originally reported by Soto and colleagues (Soto et al., in press)- assess social, emotional, and behavioral (SEB) skills, indexed by the Behavioral, Emotional, and Social Skills Inventory (BESSI), across seven independent samples (N = 6,309). Four of the datasets (N = 5000) were collected using an online survey housed on PersonalityLab.org. In two of these internet datasets, participants provided their responses to sociodemographic items, subsets of BESSI items (45 - 102 items), and the Big Five Inventory-2 (BFI-2, 60 items). In the other two internet datasets, participants answered the same sociodemographic items and the full BESSI questionnaire (192 - 200 items). The fifth dataset was collected via an online survey sponsored by the Character Lab Research Network and included responses from 499 high school students. The High School Student Sample completed sociodemographic items, the full BESSI (192 items), and measures of academic engagement, occupational interests, peer acceptance, friendship quality, romantic relationship satisfaction, family relationship satisfaction, volunteerism, physical exercise, and life satisfaction (96 total items). The sixth dataset was collected using the Qualtrics Online Sample service, and 488 adult respondents completed an extended, observer-report version of the BESSI (284 items), sociodemographic items, and information regarding their relationship with the person whom they were reporting on (7 items). The seventh data set consisted of college students (N = 322) from Colby College. The College Student Sample completed a survey on Qualtrics that included sociodemographic items, the full BESSI (192 items), the BFI-2 (60 items), and four other SEB skill inventories (116 items). All datasets, questionnaires, and scoring forms are hosted on OSF. The data can be used to (1) understand the structure and organization of SEB skills, (2) model the relationship between SEB skills and conceptually adjacent constructs such as personality traits and character strengths, and (3) explore the associations between SEB skills and consequential outcomes.

The Big Five Inventory-2 in China: A Comprehensive Psychometric Evaluation in Four Diverse Samples.

The Big Five Inventory-2 (BFI-2) has received wide recognition since its publication because it strikes a good balance between content coverage and brevity. The current study translated the BFI-2 into Chinese, evaluated its psychometric properties in four diverse Chinese samples (college students, adult employees, adults treated for substance use, and adolescents), and compared its factor structure with those obtained from two U.S. samples. Across two studies, the Chinese BFI-2 demonstrated good reliability (Cronbach's α and test-retest reliability), structural validity, convergent/discriminant validity, and criterion-related validity at the domain level. At lower levels of analyses, some facets and negatively worded items functioned better among participants with higher than those with lower education levels. Implications, limitations, and future directions are discussed.

Beyond Openness to Experience and Conscientiousness: Testing links between lower-level personality traits and American political orientation.

INTRODUCTION: Research has consistently revealed positive correlations between political liberalism and Openness to Experience, and between conservatism and Conscientiousness. Most of this research has made use of domain-level models of the Big Five personality traits. Recent work suggests, however, that each Big Five trait domain can be divided into distinct aspects or facets, which offer more nuanced characterizations of each trait. METHODS: Across four studies (Ns ranging from 1,123 to 116,406), the present research examined the degree to which distinct lower-level traits would be associated with meaningful differences in political orientation. United States residents completed two different hierarchical Big Five personality measures (the Big Five Aspect Scales and the Big Five Inventory-2), as well as a range of measures of political orientation. RESULTS: Across both personality measures, liberal political orientation showed distinct positive associations with the lower-level traits Openness/Aesthetic Sensitivity, Intellect/Intellectual Curiosity, Compassion, and Withdrawal/Depression, as well as distinct negative associations with Orderliness/Organization, Politeness, and Assertiveness. DISCUSSION: By examining individual differences at a higher level of granularity, these data provide insight into specific motivations that predispose individuals toward different ends of the political spectrum.

Why Has Personality Psychology Played an Outsized Role in the Credibility Revolution?

Personality is not the most popular subfield of psychology. But, in one way or another, personality psychologists have played an outsized role in the ongoing "credibility revolution" in psychology. Not only have individual personality psychologists taken on visible roles in the movement, but our field's practices and norms have now become models for other fields to emulate (or, for those who share Baumeister's (2016, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2016.02.003) skeptical view of the consequences of increasing rigor, a model for what to avoid). In this article we discuss some unique features of our field that may have placed us in an ideal position to be leaders in this movement. We do so from a subjective perspective, describing our impressions and opinions about possible explanations for personality psychology's disproportionate role in the credibility revolution. We also discuss some ways in which personality psychology remains less-than-optimal, and how we can address these flaws.

People with disagreeable personalities (selfish, combative, and manipulative) do not have an advantage in pursuing power at work.

Does being disagreeable-that is, behaving in aggressive, selfish, and manipulative ways-help people attain power? This question has long captivated philosophers, scholars, and laypeople alike, and yet prior empirical findings have been inconclusive. In the current research, we conducted two preregistered prospective longitudinal studies in which we measured participants' disagreeableness prior to entering the labor market and then assessed the power they attained in the context of their work organization ∼14 y later when their professional careers had unfolded. Both studies found disagreeable individuals did not attain higher power as opposed to extraverted individuals who did gain higher power in their organizations. Furthermore, the null relationship between disagreeableness and power was not moderated by individual differences, such as gender or ethnicity, or by contextual variables, such as organizational culture. What can account for this null relationship? A close examination of behavior patterns in the workplace found that disagreeable individuals engaged in two distinct patterns of behavior that offset each other's effects on power attainment: They engaged in more dominant-aggressive behavior, which positively predicted attaining higher power, but also engaged in less communal and generous behavior, which predicted attaining less power. These two effects, when combined, appeared to cancel each other out and led to a null correlation between disagreeableness and power.

Measurement Invariance and Sex and Age Differences of the Big Five Inventory-2: Evidence From the Russian Version.

The Big Five Inventory-2 (BFI-2) is a recently published 60-item questionnaire that measures personality traits within the five-factor model framework. An important aspect of the BFI-2 is that it measures the traits at both the domain and facet levels and also controls acquiescence bias via the balanced number of true- and false-keyed items across the domains and facets. The current research evaluates factorial measurement invariance of a Russian version of the BFI-2 across sex and age within samples of 1,024 university students (Study 1) and 1,029 Internet users (Study 2). Across these samples, men scored lower on the domains of negative emotionality and agreeableness and slightly higher on extraversion. Sex differences were also obtained on various facets. In the Internet sample, age correlated modestly with several Big Five domains in accordance with the well-documented maturity principle. The newly developed Russian version of BFI-2 showed good reliability and validity across both samples. Moreover, random intercept exploratory factor analyses showed that the BFI-2 displayed a hierarchical five-domain-15-facet structure that demonstrated strict measurement invariance across sex and age.

The Big Five Inventory-2: Replication of Psychometric Properties in a Dutch Adaptation and First Evidence for the Discriminant Predictive Validity of the Facet Scales [Formula: see text] [Formula: see text] [Formula: see text].

This series of studies investigated whether the good psychometric properties of the English version of the Big Five Inventory-2 (BFI-2) could be replicated using its Dutch adaptation. Second, it aimed to further examine the predictive validity of both the Big Five domain and the more specific facet scales of the BFI-2 in a large and representative sample. Results indicated that the structure found in the English version was replicated in the Dutch adaptation. The 60-item BFI-2 was reliable at the level of both domains and facets, as were the abbreviated versions. In terms of validity, the domain scales predicted a broad range of criteria. Examination of preregistered hypotheses regarding the discriminant validity of the facets indicated that experts were able to predict which facets would be most strongly associated with specific criteria. Overall, results confirm the strong psychometric properties of the BFI-2 Big Five domain scales and indicate that theoretically identified facets can be more valid predictors of criteria than other facets of the same domain.

How Replicable Are Links Between Personality Traits and Consequential Life Outcomes? The Life Outcomes of Personality Replication Project.

The Big Five personality traits have been linked to dozens of life outcomes. However, metascientific research has raised questions about the replicability of behavioral science. The Life Outcomes of Personality Replication (LOOPR) Project was therefore conducted to estimate the replicability of the personality-outcome literature. Specifically, I conducted preregistered, high-powered (median N = 1,504) replications of 78 previously published trait-outcome associations. Overall, 87% of the replication attempts were statistically significant in the expected direction. The replication effects were typically 77% as strong as the corresponding original effects, which represents a significant decline in effect size. The replicability of individual effects was predicted by the effect size and design of the original study, as well as the sample size and statistical power of the replication. These results indicate that the personality-outcome literature provides a reasonably accurate map of trait-outcome associations but also that it stands to benefit from efforts to improve replicability.

Optimizing the length, width, and balance of a personality scale: How do internal characteristics affect external validity?

How well can scores on a personality scale predict criteria such as behaviors and life outcomes? This question concerns external validity, which is a core aspect of personality assessment. The present research was conducted to examine how external validity is influenced by a trait scale's internal characteristics, such as its length (number of items), width (breadth of content), and balance (between positively and negatively keyed items). Participants completed the Big Five Inventory-2 (BFI-2), and were also assessed on a set of self-reported and peer-reported validity criteria. We used the BFI-2 item pool to construct multiple versions, or iterations, of each Big Five trait scale that varied in terms of length, width, and balance. We then identified systematic effects of these internal scale characteristics on external validity associations. Regarding length, we find that longer trait scales tend to have greater validity, with a scale length "sweet spot" of approximately 6 to 9 items. Regarding width, we find that broad trait scales tend to have slightly stronger, and much more consistent, associations with external validity criteria than do narrow scales; broad scales thus represent relatively safe bets for personality assessment, whereas narrow scales carry greater risks but offer potentially greater rewards. Regarding balance, we find that associations between imbalanced trait and criterion scales can be substantially inflated or suppressed by acquiescent responding; trait scales that include an equal number of positively and negatively keyed items can minimize such acquiescence bias. We conclude by translating these findings into practical advice regarding psychological assessment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

The next Big Five Inventory (BFI-2): Developing and assessing a hierarchical model with 15 facets to enhance bandwidth, fidelity, and predictive power.

[Correction Notice: An Erratum for this article was reported in Vol 113(1) of Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (see record 2017-26058-001).In the article, all citations to McCrae and Costa (2008), except for the instance in which it appears in the first paragraph of the introduction, should instead appear as McCrae and Costa (2010). The complete citation should read as follows: McCrae, R. R., & Costa, P. T. (2010). NEO Inventories professional manual. Lutz, FL: Psychological Assessment Resources. The attribution to the BFI-2 items that appears in the Table 6 note should read as follows: BFI-2 items adapted from "Conceptualization, Development, and Initial Validation of the Big Five Inventory-2," by C. J. Soto and O. P. John, 2015, Paper presented at the biennial meeting of the Association for Research in Personality. Copyright 2015 by Oliver P. John and Christopher J. Soto. The complete citation in the References list should appear as follows: Soto, C. J., & John, O. P. (2015, June). Conceptualization, development, and initial validation of the Big Five Inventory-2. Paper presented at the biennial meeting of the Association for Research in Personality, St. Louis, MO. Available from http://www.colby.edu/psych/personality-lab/ All versions of this article have been corrected. All versions of this article have been corrected.] Three studies were conducted to develop and validate the Big Five Inventory-2 (BFI-2), a major revision of the Big Five Inventory (BFI). Study 1 specified a hierarchical model of personality structure with 15 facet traits nested within the Big Five domains, and developed a preliminary item pool to measure this structure. Study 2 used conceptual and empirical criteria to construct the BFI-2 domain and facet scales from the preliminary item pool. Study 3 used data from 2 validation samples to evaluate the BFI-2's measurement properties and substantive relations with self-reported and peer-reported criteria. The results of these studies indicate that the BFI-2 is a reliable and valid personality measure, and an important advance over the original BFI. Specifically, the BFI-2 introduces a robust hierarchical structure, controls for individual differences in acquiescent responding, and provides greater bandwidth, fidelity, and predictive power than the original BFI, while still retaining the original measure's conceptual focus, brevity, and ease of understanding. The BFI-2 therefore offers valuable new opportunities for research examining the structure, assessment, development, and life outcomes of personality traits. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).