Concurrent validity and expanded interpretation of the M5–50

The M5–50 is a brief 50 item international personality item pool public-domain five-factor model personality instrument. While public-domain instruments can facilitate social justice by allowing access to instruments to those who may not have the financial resources to use a pay-to-use instrument, public-domain measures may lack the scrutiny given to pay-to-use instruments. This study provides scrutiny through examining the concurrent validity evidence of the M5–50 by correlating it to the proprietary NEO-PI-3. Additionally, to provide additional validity, this study also correlates the M5–50 domains with well-documented relationships with religious fundamentalism. Regarding the NEO-PI-3, the domains of Neuroticism and Conscientiousness appear to well represent their NEO-PI-3 domain counterparts, whereas Extraversion and Agreeableness had weak relationships with some facet-level content. Openness to Experience on the M5–50 appears able to align with both the Openness/Intellect model and a unified domain structure suggested by traditional five-factor model literature as M5–50 domains and items most strongly correlate with the Aesthetics and Ideas facets in the NEO-PI-3 Openness domain. Regarding religious fundamentalism, the M5–50 domain of Openness had an inverse relationship with fundamentalism, while extraversion had a positive relationship with fundamentalism. Interpretive recommendations for the M5–50 and recommendations for future development of brief, IPIP-based Openness to Experience domains are discussed.