EFAs of the FFM using the NEO PI-R across age, gender, race, nationality, and self versus observer report have repeatedly produced the five-factor structure in which the factors are labeled as described above (McCrae et al., 1996). The stability of the five-factor structure is striking: The five dimensions appear to summarize personality variability in a remarkably consistent way. However, as McCrae et al. (1996) noted, the FFM does not propose a simple structure, because many traits fall between the axes with the five-factor labels. Accordingly, one does get large secondary loadings for many of the 30 facets on the NEO PI-R. In one analysis reported by McCrae et al. (1996), the impulsiveness facet of the NEO PI-R neuroticism dimension loaded .54 on neuroticism, −.36 on conscientiousness, .30 on extraversion, and −.23 on agreeableness. Each of those four broad factors shares variance with the impulsiveness scale. Angry hostility, another facet of neuroticism, typically has a large secondary negative loading on agreeableness. These multiple loadings make sense: The trait angry hostility conceptually and empirically falls in both the neuroticism and agreeableness domains.
