Developing and Validating the Narcissistic Personality Scale (NPS) among Older Thai Adults Using Rasch Analysis

Background: Being older could be stressful, especially among people with narcissistic personality disorders. Nevertheless, the tool is yet to be available among older Thai individuals. The study aimed to develop a tool to detect symptoms of narcissistic personality, and to validate its psychometric properties among older Thai adults. Methods: The Narcissistic Personality Scale (NPS) was developed based on nine domain symptoms of narcissistic personality disorder from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5), consisting of 80 items. The original scale was field-tested using Rasch analysis for item reduction, rendering a final 43 items. NPS was further investigated among 296 seniors aged 60 years old. Rasch analysis was used to assess its construct validity. Result: Of 43 items, 17 were further removed as infit or outfit mean square >1.5. The final 26-item NPS met all necessary criteria of unidimensionality and local independence without differential item functioning due to age and sex, and good targeting with subjects. Person and item reliability were 0.88 and 0.95, respectively. No disordered threshold or category was found. Conclusions: The NPS is a promising tool with a proven construct validity based on the Rasch measurement model among Thai seniors. This new questionnaire can be used as outcome measures in clinical practice.

Psychometric Properties of a New Stress-Related Personality Scale: The Virtual Inventory of Behavior and Emotions (VIBE)

BackgroundPersonality traits are important factors with regard to the tendency to experience and response to stress. This study introduces and tests a new stress-related personality scale called the Virtual Inventory of Behavior and Emotions (VIBE).MethodsTwo samples totaling 5512 individuals (with 66% between the ages of 18 and 34) completed the VIBE along with other measures of personality, stress, mood, and well-being. Results: Exploratory factor analyses revealed a four-factor structure for the instrument with dimensions labelled: 1) stressed; 2) energetic; 3) social; and 4) disciplined. Confirmatory factor analytic procedures on the final 23-item version showed good psychometric properties and data fit while machine learning analyses demonstrated the VIBE’s ability to distinguish between groups with similar patterns of response. Strong convergent validity was suggested through robust correlations between the dimensions of the VIBE and other established rating scales.ConclusionOverall, the data suggest that the VIBE is a promising tool to help advance understanding of the relations between stress, personality, and related constructs.

Links Between Personality and Sleep Midpoint in Older Adults in the National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project

Chronotype has been linked to poor cognitive outcomes and mortality among older adults. Although previous studies indicate an association between personality and sleep, little is known about associations between personality and chronotype in older adults. We examined the association between personality and objective sleep midpoint (a measure of chronotype) in 463 older adults aged 73.5 ±7.7 from the National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project who completed the Midlife Developmental Inventory Personality scale and three nights of wrist actigraphy, from which we derived participants’ average sleep midpoints. After adjusting for demographics, higher conscientiousness was associated with earlier sleep midpoint (B=-0.53, SE=0.02, p<0.01). Associations for other traits were not significant. Findings link conscientiousness to chronotype and raise the possibility that earlier sleep timing may partially account for associations of conscientiousness with health outcomes. Further studies are needed investigating the role of personality in links of sleep and circadian factors with health.

Child Sex Offenders' Cognitive Distortions and Related Personality Traits

<p>Research has identified that child sex offenders hold thematically distinct cognitive distortions, which Ward and Keenan (1999) call Implicit Theories. The aim of the study was to investigate the relationship between offenders' Implicit Theories and their personality related cognitions. The variables were measured using the Implicit Theory Questionnaire and Millon's (1990) MCMI-III personality scales. Participants comprised 28 male child sex offenders serving a custodial sentence in New Zealand, who elected to have treatment. Majority of participants' personality scale scores reached the clinical threshold. Results identified dependant, depressive and schizoidal personality traits to significantly correlate with three Implicit Theories. Significant personality scale score differences were also revealed between Maori and NZ/European offenders. Clinical and theoretical implications are discussed.</p>

Child Sex Offenders' Cognitive Distortions and Related Personality Traits

<p>Research has identified that child sex offenders hold thematically distinct cognitive distortions, which Ward and Keenan (1999) call Implicit Theories. The aim of the study was to investigate the relationship between offenders' Implicit Theories and their personality related cognitions. The variables were measured using the Implicit Theory Questionnaire and Millon's (1990) MCMI-III personality scales. Participants comprised 28 male child sex offenders serving a custodial sentence in New Zealand, who elected to have treatment. Majority of participants' personality scale scores reached the clinical threshold. Results identified dependant, depressive and schizoidal personality traits to significantly correlate with three Implicit Theories. Significant personality scale score differences were also revealed between Maori and NZ/European offenders. Clinical and theoretical implications are discussed.</p>

Validating brand identification and personality scale within the South African retail-banking context

While marketing experts agree that brand personality is important for brand identification, there is no evidence of a validated brand-identification-and-personality scale in the context of retail banking in South Africa. To address this literature gap, this study’s purpose was to explain the process used to validate brand identification and personality within the retail-banking context of South Africa. A convenience sample of Generation Y banking consumers was selected, and a descriptive and single cross-sectional research design was followed. Self-administered questionnaires were used as a data collection tool and a sample size was chosen (N = 235). Data analysis entailed descriptive and confirmatory factor analysis. The confirmatory factor analysis results validated brand identification and brand personality in retail banking as a five-factor structure that includes bank identification and brand personality dimensions such as successfulness, sophistication, sincerity and ruggedness. Furthermore, the results of the study indicate the internal consistency and composite reliability of the measurement model, as well as construct, convergent, discriminant and nomological validity. In addition, the measurement model revealed no signs of multicollinearity between the factors, and the model fit index values of IFI, TLI, CFI, SRMR and RMSEA showed a good fitting model. This study concluded that this five-factor model is a reliable and valid instrument of brand identification and personality in retail banking and is the first validated brand-identification-and-personality scale within the retail-banking context of South Africa.

Hubungan Antara Personaliti Jenama dan Keinginan Untuk Membeli Produk Berjenama Mewah Tiruan dalam Kalangan Pelajar Universiti

This study aimed to examine the relationship between the brand personality and the intention to buy counterfeit luxury branded products among University ‘X’ students. Researchers have used the Brand Personality Scale introduced by Aaker (1997) to measure brand personality. Meanwhile, the Attitude Survey, Buy Genuine Luxury Fashion Products or Counterfeits introduced by Yoo and Lee (2009) was used to measure the buying intention of counterfeit luxury branded products. This study involved 118 respondents from University ‘X’ students. The data collected was analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 20. The findings showed that there is no significant relationship between the brand personality and the intention to buy counterfiet luxury branded products among University ‘X’ students.

Examining the validity and reliability of the revised developmental work personality scale (RDWPS)-traditional Chinese version

Background Work personality was found to relate to successful work adjustment, job readiness, work motivation and job maintenance. The revised developmental work personality scale (RDWPS) is a self-reported assessment to evaluate the work personality of the examinee which further psychometric study is required and needs to be applied to different culture. The aim of this study was to examine the theoretical structure, validity, and reliability of the traditional Chinese version of the RDWPS. Methods The subjects were 113 university students with no known physical or mental illness who aged between 19 and 22. Cluster analysis was used to examine the theoretical structure. Rasch analysis was applied to examine the psychometric properties. Results We dropped the unfit three items and found the 11 items of traditional Chinese version of the RDWPS was adequate to fit the theoretical construct. The results of the Rasch analysis showed that the 11 items with a three-point rating scale of the traditional Chinese version of the RDWPS had acceptable internal consistency (α = 0.76), moderate reliability, and met the criteria of unidimensionality. Conclusions The results of this study provided initial evidence that the traditional Chinese version of the RDWPS can be readily applied to research related to work behavior for those whose primary language is traditional Chinese, with adequate reliability and validity.

Rasch Analysis of the Proactive Personality Scale

The Proactive Personality Scale (PPS) is used widely to measure proactive personality. Previous research has evaluated the psychometric properties of the 6-item PPS (hereafter called PPS-6) using classical test theory. There is a need to provide further validity evidence for the PPS-6 using modern test theory. This study evaluated the psychometric properties of the PPS-6 using Rasch analysis. A total of 429 participants completed the PPS-6. Rasch rating scale model (RSM) was used to analyse the data. RSM showed that the PPS-6 fitted the Rasch model well. RSM demonstrated that the PPS-6 functioned as a unidimensional measure with good internal consistency reliability. Items on the PPS-6 did not show any noticeable differential item functioning across gender. RSM showed that the response rating scale of the PPS-6 is suitable. Results suggest that the PPS-6 is a reliable measure for the assessment of proactive personality.