Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Meta-Analysis
. 2014 Jun;21(3):272-85.
doi: 10.1177/1073191113498267. Epub 2013 Aug 30.

Meta-analytic guidelines for evaluating single-item reliabilities of personality instruments

Matthias Spörrle  1 , Magdalena Bekk  2
Affiliations
Meta-Analysis

Meta-analytic guidelines for evaluating single-item reliabilities of personality instruments

Matthias Spörrle et al. Assessment. 2014 Jun.

Abstract

Personality is an important predictor of various outcomes in many social science disciplines. However, when personality traits are not the principal focus of research, for example, in global comparative surveys, it is often not possible to assess them extensively. In this article, we first provide an overview of the advantages and challenges of single-item measures of personality, a rationale for their construction, and a summary of alternative ways of assessing their reliability. Second, using seven diverse samples (Ntotal = 4,263) we develop the SIMP-G, the German adaptation of the Single-Item Measures of Personality, an instrument assessing the Big Five with one item per trait, and evaluate its validity and reliability. Third, we integrate previous research and our data into a first meta-analysis of single-item reliabilities of personality measures, and provide researchers with guidelines and recommendations for the evaluation of single-item reliabilities.

Keywords: Big Five personality model; SIMP; foreign language translation; meta-analysis; single-item measures of personality; test reliability; test validity.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of Conflicting Interests: The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Alwin D. F. (2007). Margins of error: A study of reliability in survey measurement. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
    1. Bäccman C., Carlstedt B. (2010). A construct validation of a profession-focused personality questionnaire (PQ) versus the FFPI and the SIMP. European Journal of Psychological Assessment, 26, 136-142.
    1. Barrick M. R., Mount M. K. (1991). The Big Five personality dimensions and job performance. A meta-analysis. Personnel Psychology, 44, 1-26.
    1. Bekk M., Spörrle M. (2010). The influence of perceived personality characteristics on positive attitude towards and suitability of a celebrity as a marketing campaign endorser. Open Psychology Journal, 3, 54-66.
    1. Bergkvist L., Rossiter J. R. (2007). The predictive validity of multiple-item versus single-item measures of the same constructs. Journal of Marketing Research, 44, 175-184.

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources