Search results

Die für die angloamerikanische Version des Big Five Inventory (BFI) entwickelte und validierte Facettenstruktur (Soto & John, 2009) wurde für die deutsche Adaptation des BFI übertragen und auf ihre Angemessenheit geprüft. Basierend auf drei umfangreichen Stichproben - einer studentischen, einer bildungsheterogenen Stichprobe und einer bevölkerungsrepräsentativen Zufallsstichprobe - konnte gezeigt werden, dass die 10 Facetten des deutschen BFI substantielle und mit der angloamerikanischen Version vergleichbare Reliabilitäten und Konvergenzen zwischen Selbst- und Bekanntenurteil und mit den entsprechenden Facetten und Globalskalen des NEO-PI-R (NEO-Personality Inventory) und NEO-FFI (NEO-Five Factor Inventory) aufweisen. Ferner konnte eine diskriminante Validität zu den jeweils anderen Facetten der gleichen sowie zu den Facetten der anderen Big Five Dimensionen gezeigt werden. Die Nützlichkeit der Verwendung dieser Facetten, zusätzlich zu den Globalskalen, wurde durch deren spezifische Zusammenhänge mit verschiedenen soziodemografischen und Einstellungsmerkmalen nachgewiesen. Insofern existiert auch für den deutschen Sprachraum ein ökonomisches Maß, um spezifischere Persönlichkeitsaspekte abzubilden.

Grit (effortful persistence) has received considerable attention as a personality trait relevant for success and performance. However, critics have questioned grit's construct validity and criterion validity. Here we report on two studies that contribute to the debate surrounding the grit construct. Study 1 (N = 6,230) examined the psychometric properties of a five-item grit scale, covering mainly the perseverance facet, in a large and representative sample of German adults. Moreover, it investigated the distribution of grit across sociodemographic subgroups (age groups, genders, educational strata, employment statuses). Multiple-group measurement models demonstrated that grit showed full metric, but only partial scalar, invariance across all sociodemographic subgroups. Sociodemographic differences in the levels of grit emerged for age, education, and employment status but were generally small. Study 2 investigated how grit relates to career success (income, job prestige, job satisfaction) and career engagement (working overtime, participation in continuing professional development courses, attitudes toward lifelong learning) in an employed subsample (n = 2,246). When modeled as a first-order factor, grit was incrementally associated with all indicators of career success and especially of career engagement (.08 ≤ β ≤ .75) - over and above cognitive ability and sociodemographic characteristics. When modeled as a residual facet of conscientiousness, grit largely retained its criterion validity for success but only partly for engagement (–.14 ≤ β ≤ .61). Our findings offer qualified support for the psychometric quality of the short grit scale and suggest that grit may provide some added value in predicting career outcomes. We critically discuss these findings while highlighting that grit hardly differs from established facets of conscientiousness such as industriousness/perseverance.

The present paper investigates the power of personality to predict important life outcomes in the context of the Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC). On the most global level, personality can be described by the Big Five dimensions, extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, emotional stability, and openness to experience. These five dimensions were assessed in the German PIAAC longitudinal study (N = 4122) and can thus be directly related to the central competence and outcome indicators measured in PIAAC. In a first step, we report the relationships between the Big Five dimensions and the basic competencies literacy and numeracy. In a second step, we investigate the extent to which the five personality dimensions can contribute to explaining six important life outcomes, above and beyond competencies and sociodemographic characteristics. Our results indicate that personality is substantially related to all six life outcomes. The portion of variance explained by personality was similar to, and sometimes larger than, that explained by competencies. After adjusting for competencies, personality was incrementally predictive of life satisfaction and health, in particular, and, to a lesser extent, of educational attainment, employment status, and income. The only outcome of which personality was not incrementally predictive over and above competencies was participation in continuing education. Overall, these findings highlight the merit of including measures for the Big Five personality domains in upcoming cycles of PIAAC.

Acquiescence has been found to distort the psychometric quality of questionnaire data. Previous research has identified various determinants of acquiescence at both the individual and the country level. We aimed to synthesize the scattered body of knowledge by concurrently testing a multilevel model encompassing a set of presumed predictors of acquiescence. Based on a representative sample comprising almost 40,000 respondents from 20 European countries, we analyzed the effects of the country-level indicators economic wealth, corruption level, and collectivism and the individual-level indicators age, gender, educational attainment, and conservatism. Results revealed that 15% of the variance in acquiescence was due to country-level variations in corruption levels and collectivism. Differences among individuals within countries could be partially explained by conservatism and educational attainment.

To examine the relationship between the Big Five and cognitive ability, we investigated whether we could replicate in a heterogeneous population sample the positive association between cognitive ability and Openness and Emotional Stability and its negative association with Conscientiousness. Besides analyzing the pure associations, we shed further light on sources of these associations by investigating potential moderating effects of education and labor force participation. Our results clearly replicate the previously found positive association between cognitive ability and Emotional Stability and Openness and the negative relationship between Conscientiousness and cognitive ability. The correlation between cognitive ability and Openness was found to be moderated by educational attainment, the negative association between Conscientiousness and cognitive ability was moderated by labor force participation.

Prospective memory, the ability to remember to execute an intended action at the appropriate moment in the future, is frequently assessed with standardized questionnaires. Prospective-memory abilities strongly depend on the different strategies people use to remember their intentions. In this study, we introduce the short version of the Metacognitive Prospective Memory Inventory (MPMI-s) that allows for a quick assessment of individual differences in self-reported prospective-memory abilities as well as in the use of mnemonic strategies (e.g., intention rehearsal) and external memory aids (e.g., calendars). Based on data from two waves of the GESIS longitudinal panel, we provide evidence that this novel questionnaire offers reliable and valid measures of prospective-memory abilities as well as of internal and external strategy use. As the panel sample is representative of the German population, we are further able to provide reference data that allow evaluating individual PM ability and strategy-use scores obtained with the MPMI-s.

Reliability describes the precision of a measurement. This contribution begins by defining the concept of reliability and explaining why the reliability of a measurement is relevant. It then discusses the model assumptions that must be made in order to estimate the reliability of a measurement, and it presents five methods of estimating reliability: the test-retest method, the parallel-forms method, the split-half method, the internal consistency method, and the estimation of reliability using structural equation modelling. The contribution concludes with a brief outline of the commonalities and differences between classical test theory and the item response theory and the importance of these theories for the estimation of reliability.

Die Reliabilität beschreibt die Genauigkeit einer Messung. In diesem Beitrag wird das Konzept Reliabilität definiert und es wird erläutert, warum die Reliabilität einer Messung relevant ist. Danach wird diskutiert, welche Modellannahmen getroffen werden müssen, um die Reliabilität einer Messung zu schätzen und es werden fünf Methoden zum Schätzen der Reliabilität vorgestellt: die Re-Test Korrelation, die Parallel-Test Korrelation, die Split-Half Korrelation, die interne Konsistenz und das Schätzen der Reliabilität mit Strukturgleichungsmodellen. Abschließend wird in knapper Form auf Gemeinsamkeiten und Unterschiede der klassischen Testtheorie und der Item-Response Theorie und deren Bedeutung für die Schätzung der Reliabilität eingegangen.

When formulating questionnaire items, generally accepted rules include: Keeping the wording as simple as possible and avoiding double-barreled items. However, the empirical basis for these rules is sparse. The present study aimed to systematically investigate in an experimental design whether simplifying items of a personality scale and avoiding double-barreled items (i.e., items that contain multiple stimuli) markedly increases psychometric quality. Specifically, we compared the original items of the Big Five Inventory-2 - most of which are either double-barreled or can be regarded as complexly formulated - with simplified versions of the items. We tested the two versions using a large, heterogeneous sample (N = 2,234). The simplified versions did not possess better psychometric quality than their original counterparts; rather, they showed weaker factorial validity. Regarding item characteristics, reliability, and criterion validity, no substantial differences were identified between the original and simplified versions. These findings were also replicated for the subsample of lower-educated respondents, who are considered more sensitive to complex item formulations. Our study thus suggests that simplifying item wording and avoiding double-barreled items in a personality inventory does not improve the quality of a questionnaire; rather, using simpler (and consequently more vague) item formulations may even decrease factorial validity.

Educational transitions play a pivotal role in shaping educational careers, and ultimately social inequality. Whereas parental socioeconomic status (SES) and cognitive ability have long been identified as key determinants of successful educational transitions, much less is known about the role of socio-emotional skills. To address this gap, the present study investigated whether Big Five personality traits predict success in the transition from secondary school to vocational education and training (VET) above and beyond SES, cognitive ability, and other covariates. Using data from Starting Cohort 4 of the German National Educational Panel Study (NEPS; N = 4,137), we defined seven indicators of successful transition: obtaining a VET position, number of acceptances for VET positions, starting a VET position, (the absence of) dropout intentions and actual dropout, final VET grade, and satisfaction with VET. The results revealed that some Big Five traits were incrementally associated with several indicators of transition success. Conscientiousness emerged as the single most relevant trait, predicting all the transition success indicators but 1 (dropout intentions). The other Big Five traits had much weaker and less consistent links with transition success. Extraversion predicted the final VET grade and obtaining a VET position; Agreeableness was linked to a higher risk of dropout. Openness and Emotional Stability had no incremental effects on transition success. There was also some evidence for both compensatory and synergistic interactive effects, with Openness moderating mainly the effects of parental SES (on dropout intentions, actual dropout, and number of acceptances), and Agreeableness moderating the effects of cognitive ability (on obtaining a VET position, number of acceptances, and satisfaction with VET). Although individual effect sizes were small, the Big Five's joint contribution to transition success was non-negligible, and often larger than that of sociodemographic characteristics and cognitive ability. Our results suggest a hitherto underappreciated contribution of personality to successful transitions to VET.

To test whether the onset of functional ability decline in early old age is related to change in speed of cognitive processing and personality characteristics. Among 500 randomly sampled participants, the 230 cases that did not show impairment in functional ability were selected. Mean age at Time I was 62.4 years. For this subsample, the emergence of functional ability decline was tracked across a 12-year observation period. The emergence of functional ability decline was related to change in speed of
cognitive processing. Decline in functional ability was also related to increased neuroticism and external control, whereas this was not the case regarding extraversión and internal control. Cognitive processing speed was shown to be a predictor of functional disability decline; in addition, the results provided initial evidence that functional ability decline in the early aging phase could be accompanied by changes in personality, particularly neuroticism and external control. (author's abstract)

Personality can be described at different levels of abstraction. Whereas the Big Five domains are the dominant level of analysis, several researchers have called for more fine-grained approaches, such as facet-level analysis. Personality facets allow more comprehensive descriptions, more accurate predictions of outcomes, and a better understanding of the mechanisms underlying trait–outcome relationships. However, several methodological issues plague existing evidence on the added value of facet-level descriptions: Manifest facet scale scores differ with respect to their reliability, domain-level variance (variance that is due to the domain factor) and incremental facet-level variance (variance that is specific to a facet and not shared with the other facets). Moreover, manifest scale scores overlap substantially, which affects associations with criterion variables. We suggest a structural equation modelling approach that allows domain-level variance to be separated from incremental facet-level variance. We analysed data from a heterogeneous sample of adults in the USA (N = 1193) who completed the 60-item Big Five Inventory-2. The results illustrate how the variance of manifest personality items and scale scores can be decomposed into domain-level and incremental facet-level variance. The association with criterion variables (educational attainment, income, health, and life satisfaction) further demonstrates the incremental predictive power of personality facets.

Crowd employment is a new form of short-term and flexible employment that has emerged during the past decade. To understand this new form of employment, it is crucial to illuminate the underlying motivations of the workforce involved in it. This article introduces the Multidimensional Crowdworker Motivation Scale (MCMS), a scale for measuring the motivation of crowdworkers on microtask platforms. The MCMS is theoretically grounded in self-determination theory and tailored specifically to the context of paid crowdsourced microlabor. The scale measures the motivation of crowdworkers along six motivational dimensions, ranging from amotivation to intrinsic motivation. We validated the MCMS on data collected in ten countries and three income groups. Factor analyses demonstrated that the MCMS's six dimensions showed good model fit, validity, and reliability. Furthermore, our measurement invariance tests showed that motivations measured with the MCMS are comparable across countries and income groups, and we present a first cross-country comparison of crowdworker motivations. This work constitutes an important first step toward understanding the motivations of the international crowd workforce.