Examining Internal Consistency of the NEO-FFI in an Indian Context: Evidence from Female Undergraduates in Kolkata

Reliability is a cornerstone of psychological testing, ensuring that instruments consistently measure the constructs they intend to capture. The present study examined the internal consistency reliability of the NEO Five-Factor Inventory using Cronbach’s alpha among a purposive sample of 101 female undergraduate students in Kolkata, India. The NEO-FFI, a 60-item personality assessment designed to measure the Big Five domains—Neuroticism, Extraversion, Openness, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness—was administered, and Cronbach’s alpha coefficients were calculated separately for each domain. Results indicated alpha values of .71 for Neuroticism, .60 for Extraversion, .19 for Openness, .61 for Agreeableness, and .71 for Conscientiousness. Compared with the US normative sample of Costa & McCrae, the Indian sample showed consistently lower internal consistency, particularly for Openness. These findings are consistent with prior Indian studies reporting reduced reliability for certain Big Five domains, possibly reflecting cultural orientations, gender-specific response patterns, and limited variance in homogeneous groups. The study underscores the importance of re-examining Western-developed psychometric tools in local contexts and highlights the need for culturally sensitive adaptations of personality inventories.