Niche diversity influences psychometric properties of a brief personality scale – evidence from representative samples during the COVID-19 pandemic

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ronald Fischer ◽  
Johannes Alfons Karl

Recent studies using more diverse samples have questioned the applicability of the Big Five. It needs to be shown how robust measures of the big five are and whether any deviations are systematic or random. We present validity information on a ten-item personality measure applied to population samples in 16 nations during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic (N=35,052). Overall, we found poor replicability and low reliability of the five-factor structure of personality. We then test whether variation is systematically related to ecological, economic or stress-related variables. Personality structure replicability measured via averaged Tucker’s Φ values was correlated with niche diversity data (Human development index, rate of urbanization, diversity of export goods) and national wealth, but not reliably related with COVID-19 (gross domestic product per capita). and death rates per million citizens during the study period. These patterns overall suggest that a) personality structure in brief measures need to be carefully tested prior to any substantive interpretations of the personality data and b) that systematic socioecological factors have an impact on survey responses to personality inventories.

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ted Schwaba ◽  
Mijke Rhemtulla ◽  
Christopher James Hopwood ◽  
Wiebke Bleidorn

FINAL MANUSCRIPT IS NOW PUBLICLY AVAILABLE AT https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0236893 We created a facet atlas that maps the interrelations between facet scales from 13 hierarchical personality inventories to provide a practically useful, transtheoretical description of lower-level personality traits. We generated the atlas by estimating a series of network models that visualize the correlations among 268 facet scales administered to the Eugene-Springfield Community Sample (N=1,134). As expected, most facets contained a blend of content from multiple Big Five domains and were part of multiple Big Five networks. We identified core and peripheral facets for each Big Five domain. Results from this study resolve some inconsistencies in facet placement across instruments and highlights the complexity of personality structure relative to the constraints of traditional hierarchical models that impose simple structure. The facet atlas (also available as an online point-and-click app) provides a guide for researchers who wish to measure a domain with a limited set of facets as well as information about the core and periphery of each personality domain. To illustrate the value of a facet atlas in applied and theoretical settings, we examined the network structure of scales measuring impulsivity and tested structural hypotheses from the Big Five Aspect Scales inventory.


2014 ◽  
Vol 35 (3) ◽  
pp. 144-157 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Bäckström ◽  
Fredrik Björklund

The difference between evaluatively loaded and evaluatively neutralized five-factor inventory items was used to create new variables, one for each factor in the five-factor model. Study 1 showed that these variables can be represented in terms of a general evaluative factor which is related to social desirability measures and indicated that the factor may equally well be represented as separate from the Big Five as superordinate to them. Study 2 revealed an evaluative factor in self-ratings and peer ratings of the Big Five, but the evaluative factor in self-reports did not correlate with such a factor in ratings by peers. In Study 3 the evaluative factor contributed above the Big Five in predicting work performance, indicating a substance component. The results are discussed in relation to measurement issues and self-serving biases.


2019 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 117-125
Author(s):  
Johannes Schult ◽  
Rebecca Schneider ◽  
Jörn R. Sparfeldt

Abstract. The need for efficient personality inventories has led to the wide use of short instruments. The corresponding items often contain multiple, potentially conflicting descriptors within one item. In Study 1 ( N = 198 university students), the reliability and validity of the TIPI (Ten-Item Personality Inventory) was compared with the reliability and validity of a modified TIPI based on items that rephrased each two-descriptor item into two single-descriptor items. In Study 2 ( N = 268 university students), we administered the BFI-10 (Big Five Inventory short version) and a similarly modified version of the BFI-10 without two-descriptor items. In both studies, reliability and construct validity values occasionally improved for separated multi-descriptor items. The inventories with multi-descriptor items showed shortcomings in some factors of the TIPI and the BFI-10. However, the other scales worked comparably well in the original and modified inventories. The limitations of short personality inventories with multi-descriptor items are discussed.


Author(s):  
T. G. Gadisov ◽  
A. A. Tkachenko

Summary. Objective: A comparative study of the personality structure from the perspective the Five-factor personality model (“Big Five”) in mentally healthy and in people with personality disorders depending on the leading radical determined by the clinical method.Materials and methods: a comparative study of personality structures in the mentally healthy (13 people) and in individuals with personality disorders (47 people) was carried out. To assess the personality structure, the NEO-Five Factor Inventory questionnaire was used. Persons with personality disorders were divided into groups in accordance with the leading radical: 24 — with emotionally unstable; 13 — with a histrionic; 6 — with schizoid; 4 — with paranoid radicals.Results: There were no differences in the values of the domains of the Five-Factor personality model between a group of individuals with personality disorders and the norm. The features of domain indicators of the Five-factor personality model were revealed in individuals with personality disorder depending on theradical.Conclusion: The NEO-Five Factor Inventory questionnaire, like most other tools from the perspective of the Five-Factor Model, is not suitable for assessing a person in terms of assigning it to variants of a mental disorder. When comparing the categorical and dimensional approaches to assessing the structure of personality disorders, it was found that the obligate personality traits identified using the categorical approach are fully reflected in the «Big Five» in individuals with a leading schizoid radical. The relations of obligate personal traits with the domains of the Five-factor model of personality in individuals with other (paranoid, histrionic,and emotionally unstable) radicals are less clear.


Author(s):  
Javier Cifuentes-Faura

The pandemic caused by COVID-19 has left millions infected and dead around the world, with Latin America being one of the most affected areas. In this work, we have sought to determine, by means of a multiple regression analysis and a study of correlations, the influence of population density, life expectancy, and proportion of the population in vulnerable employment, together with GDP per capita, on the mortality rate due to COVID-19 in Latin American countries. The results indicated that countries with higher population density had lower numbers of deaths. Population in vulnerable employment and GDP showed a positive influence, while life expectancy did not appear to significantly affect the number of COVID-19 deaths. In addition, the influence of these variables on the number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 was analyzed. It can be concluded that the lack of resources can be a major burden for the vulnerable population in combating COVID-19 and that population density can ensure better designed institutions and quality infrastructure to achieve social distancing and, together with effective measures, lower death rates.


2009 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 179-198 ◽  
Author(s):  
CHAU-KIU CHEUNG ◽  
ALEX YUI-HUEN KWAN

ABSTRACTWhether filial piety or financial support to older parents is eroded or maintained through societal modernisation is an unresolved issue in China and a matter of widespread concern. Whereas structural-functionalist theories predict erosion, alternative views suggest that modernisation reduces filial piety only minimally or conditionally. One possible condition that resists the modernisation effect is education. The impacts of modernisation and its interaction with Chinese education are therefore the focus of this study. Using various sources, the paper reports analyses of the relationships between the levels of modernisation in six Chinese cities, measured by average gross domestic product per capita, the average wage and the percentage of the workforce that are employed in the service sector, and variations in expressions of filial piety and cash payments to parents. Representative samples of the cities' adult residents were used. It was found that filial piety and cash payments were lower when the citizen was in a city with higher or more advanced modernisation, and that the reduction in affirmations of filial piety associated with higher modernisation was less among citizens with higher education. It is concluded that educational policy and practice can be a means to sustain filial piety in the face of modernisation.


2014 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
René Butter

Ecological scales as personnel psychology’s response to situational behaviour differences: development of a conscientiousness scale for Ph.D. candidates Ecological scales as personnel psychology’s response to situational behaviour differences: development of a conscientiousness scale for Ph.D. candidates Personnel psychology aims to predict situational success criteria for specific jobs, but is restricted by the relatively low validity of traditional personality inventories. Individual behavior varies across situations and traditional inventories are constructed to cancel out these differences. To tackle this problem, this study presents the concept of ‘ecological scales’. These are contextualized questionnaires with a high ecological validity, meaning that the test outcomes correspond to daily practice. A time management scale was developed for Ph.D. candidates. The time management scale was significantly related to Ph.D. success and showed incremental validity above the Big Five. These results suggest that ecological scales could contribute to further improving the criterion-related validity of personality instruments.


2019 ◽  
Vol 54 (6) ◽  
pp. 593-598 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nathalie Pruckner ◽  
Barbara Hinterbuchinger ◽  
Matthäus Fellinger ◽  
Daniel König ◽  
Thomas Waldhoer ◽  
...  

Abstract Aims Alcohol is an important risk factor for morbidity and mortality, especially within the European region. Differences in per capita consumption and drinking patterns are possible reasons for regional differences and diverging trends in alcohol-related health outcomes. Methods Twenty-nine countries within the World Health Organization (WHO) European region were evaluated for trends and predictions in alcohol-related deaths within the last four decades using data available from the WHO Health for All database. Results Between 1979 and 2015, age-standardised death rates due to selected alcohol-related causes decreased significantly for both sexes in all assessed countries of the WHO European region, but regional differences are still pronounced. Assuming a similar trend in the future, the model predicted a further decrease until the year 2030. Conclusion Even though alcohol-related mortality may have decreased within the last decades, the detrimental effects of alcohol consumption and alcohol dependence remain a considerable burden of disease within Europe.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 118-130 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher J. Soto

The Big Five personality traits have been linked with a broad range of consequential life outcomes. The present research systematically tested whether such trait–outcome associations generalize across gender, age, ethnicity, and analytic approaches that control for demographic and personality covariates. Analyses of nationally representative samples from the Life Outcomes of Personality Replication project ( N = 6,126) indicated that (a) most trait–outcome associations do generalize across gender, age, and ethnicity; (b) controlling for overlap between personality traits substantially reduces the strength of many associations; and (c) several dozen trait–outcome associations proved highly generalizable across all analyses. These findings have important implications for evaluating the robustness of the personality–outcome literature, updating the canon of established trait–outcome associations, and conducting future research.


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