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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.

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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.

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