Scoring
How the IPIP-NEO-120 is scored
A straight sum with a fixed key: every item gets a weight from 0 to 4, reverse-keyed items are flipped, four items make a facet and twenty-four make a domain.
The items
The inventory is Johnson’s (2014) 120-item representation of the thirty facets of the Five Factor Model, drawn from the International Personality Item Pool. The items and scales are in the public domain. Administration keeps Johnson’s published item set and its fixed order, grouped by domain and then by facet: no item was dropped or added. Every respondent sees all 120 items with the same five response options.
| Domain | Facets | Items | Domain total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Openness | Imagination, Artistic Interests, Emotionality, Adventurousness, Intellect, Liberalism | 24 | 0–96 |
| Conscientiousness | Self-Efficacy, Orderliness, Dutifulness, Achievement-Striving, Self-Discipline, Cautiousness | 24 | 0–96 |
| Extraversion | Friendliness, Gregariousness, Assertiveness, Activity Level, Excitement-Seeking, Cheerfulness | 24 | 0–96 |
| Agreeableness | Trust, Morality, Altruism, Cooperation, Modesty, Sympathy | 24 | 0–96 |
| Neuroticism | Anxiety, Anger, Depression, Self-Consciousness, Immoderation, Vulnerability | 24 | 0–96 |
Response weights
Each item is answered on a five-point scale from Very Inaccurate to Very Accurate, stored as a position from 0 to 4. A forward-keyed item scores that position directly: Very Inaccurate is 0, Very Accurate is 4.
55 of the 120 items are reverse-keyed. For these the position is inverted before summing, so 0 becomes 4, 1 becomes 3, and so on. “Am not easily annoyed.” is reverse-keyed on Anger: a respondent who calls it Very Accurate adds 0 to the Anger total.
Facet totals, 0–16
A facet total is the sum of its four scored items, from 0 to 16. Two examples, with the scored value of every item.
| Item (N1 Anxiety) | Key | Response | Scored |
|---|---|---|---|
| Worry about things. | forward | 3 | 3 |
| Fear for the worst. | forward | 2 | 2 |
| Am afraid of many things. | forward | 4 | 4 |
| Get stressed out easily. | forward | 3 | 3 |
| Item (N2 Anger) | Key | Response | Scored |
|---|---|---|---|
| Get angry easily. | forward | 1 | 1 |
| Get irritated easily. | forward | 2 | 2 |
| Lose my temper. | forward | 0 | 0 |
| Am not easily annoyed. | reverse | 4 | 0 |
Domain totals, 0–96
A domain total is the sum of its six facet totals, which is the sum of all 24 items in the domain, from 0 to 96. It is reported as a percentage of that maximum: a total of 62 reports as about 64.6 on the 0–100 scale.
A result needs all 120 answers. The stored domain scores are re-checked against a fresh scoring of the same answers before a result enters any figure on this site.
A percent of maximum is not a percentile
A domain score of 70 means the answers were worth 70% of the ceiling. It does not mean the respondent scored higher than 70% of people. In this sample the mean Openness score is 65.1 and the mean Neuroticism score is 45.9, so the same number sits in a different place on each scale.
From score to percentile
To turn a score into a position, compare it with the cut-points on the norms page. A Neuroticism score of 66 is above the 75th-percentile cut-point (58) and below the 90th (69); an Openness score of 66 is the median (66).
The percentile used throughout is a mid-rank: the share of respondents who scored lower, plus half of those who tied, shown between 1 and 99.
How precise a score is
A domain score has a standard error of measurement of 5.1 to 5.5 points on the 0–100 scale, and a facet total is built from only four items. Treat a score as a range. The reliability page has the figures for every domain and facet.