The adaptation of the Big Five Inventory in measuring Malaysian youths’ personality traits

Abstract

Personality refers to a person's typical patterns of thinking, feeling, and behaving. Personality can be measured using several instruments such as the NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-PI-R) and the Big Five Inventory (BFI), to name a few. The comprehensiveness of the NEO-PI-R in measuring the Big Five personality dimensions is well-documented, however, some researchers argue that it is rather lengthy and may not be practical in many research settings. In situations where time and cost is premium, a briefer measure such as the BFI is preferable. However, in contrast to NEO-PI-R, no study focusing on the validation of the Malay version of the BFI has been reported. This study sought to investigate the reliability and validity of the Malay version of BFI in Malaysia. The English version of the BFI was translated into Malay Language and administered to a calibration sample of 236 Malaysian young adults, with the final model of the BFI cross-validated using a replication sample of 201 Malaysian young adults. The Malay version of the BFI showed good internal consistency. Structural equation modeling analyses indicated that the Malay-translated BFI has good convergent and discriminant validity. The x 2 difference tests supported the five factor structure of personality in the Malaysian context. The brief Malay-translated BFI offers satisfactory psychometric properties and thus can be sufficiently used to measure the personality of the Malaysians.