title: Effect of personality item writing on psychometric properties of ideal-point and likert scales.
abstract: The present study was designed to investigate personality item-writing practices and their effect on the psychometric properties of personality items and scales. Personality items were developed based on ideal-point and dominance models, analyzed using the generalized graded unfolding model, and empirically classified as having an ideal-point or dominance form. Results suggested that writing dominance items were slightly easier (more successful) than writing ideal-point items, but this varied slightly by personality dimensions. Of 3 ideal-point item writing tactics, the "neutral" tactic was least successful; success writing "double-barreled" and "average" ideal-point items was comparable to that of dominance items. Three personality scales were then constructed using successful ideal-point and dominance items. Scales constructed using ideal-point items had substantially inferior psychometric properties, including lower score reliability, lower correlations with important criteria, and mixed test information results. However, lower predictive validity of ideal-point scale scores may be due to lower reliability of the scores. Practical and methodological implications were also discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved).
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Illinois Institute of Technology.
authors.forename: Jialin
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Illinois Institute of Technology.
authors.forename: Alan D
authors.initials: AD
authors.lastname: Mead
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010551:Personality; D010552:Personality Assessment / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011594:Psychometrics; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D014956:Writing; D055815:Young Adult