Measures

Big Five Inventory-2 (BFI-2)

A dimensional personality inventory separating five broad domains and 15 narrower facets.

Questionnaire The format describes how observations are obtained, not an evidence rating.

What it measures

Five broad personality domains (Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Negative Emotionality and Open-Mindedness) and 15 facets, rather than personality types or a clinical diagnosis.

What people do

The full BFI-2 uses 60 self-report items rated on a 5-point agreement scale from 1 (Disagree strongly) to 5 (Agree strongly), with 12 items per domain and 4 items per facet. Broad-domain coverage and narrower facet coverage answer different questions.

What the scores mean

Responses are combined using the official domain and facet keys, with half of the items in each domain and facet reverse-keyed to reduce acquiescence bias. A profile retains the five domain means and 15 facet means; a single grand personality total would erase their meaning.

This explains the logic of a score. It does not supply a test form, individual result or administration manual.

Development and versions

Christopher Soto and Oliver John developed the BFI-2; the main journal article appeared in 2017. Official abbreviated forms include the 30-item BFI-2-S and 15-item BFI-2-XS, which are distinct from the older 44-item BFI.

Evidence: (Soto & John, 2017); (Berkeley Personality Lab: BFI-2, n.d.); (Soto & John: BFI-2 Form and Scoring Key, n.d.); (Spielman et al., 2020)

Reliability and validity evidence

The development article evaluates a hierarchical domain/facet structure and predictive performance across domains and facets. The inspected abstract does not supply an independent replication review or universal norms. The shorter 30-item and 15-item forms trade facet precision and content coverage for administration time.

Evidence belongs to a version, sample and interpretation. Read the source notes for what was actually inspected.

Evidence: (Soto & John, 2017); (Berkeley Personality Lab: BFI-2, n.d.); (Soto & John: BFI-2 Form and Scoring Key, n.d.); (Spielman et al., 2020)

Where it is used

Useful for research asking how broad traits and more specific facets relate to behavior. The precision needed for a group association can differ from that needed for individual feedback.

Limits and common misreadings

  • Self-presentation and interpretation of wording affect self-report.
  • A score distribution from one language or sample is not a universal norm.
  • Describing a tendency does not identify its cause.

Read an example

Original teaching example

A researcher finds that two participants have similar Conscientiousness but different facet profiles. The domain similarity does not imply that their organization and persistence are identical. This is an original teaching scenario, not participant data.

Constructed for learning; this is not a result from the instrument’s validation study.

Access and permission

The developer page permits noncommercial research use with attribution and retains copyright. Consult the developer for other uses; no full item set is hosted here.

Read the source for Big Five Inventory-2 (BFI-2)

Textbook connection

Related contextPsychology 2e: 11.9 Personality Assessment

Conceptual context; the instrument-specific sources in this profile provide the primary evidence.

Related measures

Read a measure critically · Explore score examples · Review research methods

Sources and inspection notes

Checked October 22, 2026. An inspection date is not a publication date. Publisher information is not presented as independent validation; abstract-only and indexed-excerpt access are identified below.

  1. Berkeley personality lab: BFI-2. (n.d.). https://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~johnlab/bfiDeveloper page: description and permission terms

    The first description and permission sections were inspected. Later FAQ material mixes older BFI and BFI-2 information; it is not used as an edition-specific scoring manual.

  2. Soto & John: BFI-2 form and scoring key. (n.d.). https://www.colby.edu/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/bfi2-form.pdfDeveloper-hosted document: indexed scoring-key excerpt

    Domain and facet scoring structure checked in the indexed excerpt. Instrument items are not reproduced here.

  3. Soto, C. J., & John, O. P. (2017). The next Big Five inventory (BFI-2): Developing and assessing a hierarchical model with 15 facets to enhance bandwidth, fidelity, and predictive power. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 113(1), 117–143. https://doi.org/10.1037/pspp0000096Consulted sourcePrimary research: indexed record and abstract

    Development and hierarchical domain/facet structure. Full validation tables were not independently reanalyzed.

  4. Spielman, R. M., Jenkins, W. J., & Lovett, M. D. (2020). Psychology 2e. OpenStax. https://openstax.org/books/psychology-2e/pages/11-9-personality-assessmentTextbook: conceptual context

    Conceptual context; the instrument-specific sources in this profile provide the primary evidence.