Discussion: View Thread

Dear all,

in recent years we have seen a sharp increase in the number of available
Big 5 instruments, from very short (5 items, e.g. Woods and Hampson,
2005) to very long (240 items). When choosing an instrument there is of
course always the trade-off between brevity and depth. I was wondering
which Big 5 instrument has in your view the best cost/benefit ratio, or,
put it differently, which is the most frequently used Big 5 instrument
out there?

I would highly appreciate if you could share your experience: Which
instrument have you used most frequently and what are the pros and cons
in your view? The answer to my question depends of course on the purpose
of the study, it would therefore be great if you could also briefly
indicate in which research context you are using the Big 5. I will of
course prepare a summary document with all answers for the list and we
may also prepare a short research note for the wider community.

I have frequently used the TIPI (Gosling et al., 2003) in combination
with economic experiments. Pro: short, widely used, acceptable
psychometric properties. Con: provides no facet-level scores, obviously
low Cronbach’s alphas and inter-item correlations (in particular for
Agreeableness), which is frequently picked up by reviewers.

Many thanks in advance,
Stefan

--
Dr. Stefan Volk
Assistant Professor

Tübingen University
Department of International Business
Melanchthonstr. 30
72074 Tübingen
Germany

Phone +49 7071 29 74050
Fax +49 7071 29 5534

Hi Stefan,

I remember that Mike Johnson invited an active discussion on the most
popular short Big5 instruments in this list a few years ago. When you
search OB listserv archives for "Big 5" then you might find it. I
googled and found a short summary of this discussion here in doc file
below:
http://aomlists.pace.edu/scripts/wa.exe?A2=ind0710&L=OB&P=R67302&I=-3

Rgds,
Marko

Marko Rillo
-----
Lecturer
Chair of Organisation and Management
Tallinn University of Technology

E-mail: marko(a)rillo.ee
Phone: +3725040260 (Estonia)
Skype: markorillo
URL: www.rillo.ee


On Wed, Jan 19, 2011 at 2:44 PM, Stefan Volk
<stefan.volk@uni-tuebingen.de> wrote:
> Dear all,
>
> in recent years we have seen a sharp increase in the number of available Big
> 5 instruments, from very short (5 items, e.g. Woods and Hampson, 2005) to
> very long (240 items). When choosing an instrument there is of course always
> the trade-off between brevity and depth. I was wondering which Big 5
> instrument has in your view the best cost/benefit ratio, or, put it
> differently, which is the most frequently used Big 5 instrument out there?
>
> I would highly appreciate if you could share your experience: Which
> instrument have you used most frequently and what are the pros and cons in
> your view? The answer to my question depends of course on the purpose of the
> study, it would therefore be great if you could also briefly indicate in
> which research context you are using the Big 5. I will of course prepare a
> summary document with all answers for the list and we may also prepare a
> short research note for the wider community.
>
> I have frequently used the TIPI (Gosling et al., 2003) in combination with
> economic experiments. Pro: short, widely used, acceptable psychometric
> properties. Con: provides no facet-level scores, obviously low Cronbach’s
> alphas and inter-item correlations (in particular for Agreeableness), which
> is frequently picked up by reviewers.
>
> Many thanks in advance,
> Stefan
>
> --
> Dr. Stefan Volk
> Assistant Professor
>
> Tübingen University Department of International Business
> Melanchthonstr. 30
> 72074 Tübingen
> Germany
>
> Phone +49 7071 29 74050
> Fax +49 7071 29 5534
>

Stefan,

I have used the IPIP most frequently. http://ipip.ori.org/ipip/

In a recent study of 74 employees, my reliabilities ranged from .77 (Openness to Exp.) to .90 (Extraversion) for the 50-item scale. In a study with 369 students, reliabilities ranged from .88 (Openness to Exp.) to .93 (Extraversion & Emotional Stability) for the 100-item scale.

Laura


-----Original Message-----
From: Organizational Behavior Division Listserv [mailto:OB@AOMLISTS.PACE.EDU] On Behalf Of Stefan Volk
Sent: Wednesday, January 19, 2011 7:45 AM
To: OB@AOMLISTS.PACE.EDU
Subject: [OB-LIST] Which is the most frequently used Big 5 instrument?

Dear all,

in recent years we have seen a sharp increase in the number of available
Big 5 instruments, from very short (5 items, e.g. Woods and Hampson,
2005) to very long (240 items). When choosing an instrument there is of
course always the trade-off between brevity and depth. I was wondering
which Big 5 instrument has in your view the best cost/benefit ratio, or,
put it differently, which is the most frequently used Big 5 instrument
out there?

I would highly appreciate if you could share your experience: Which
instrument have you used most frequently and what are the pros and cons
in your view? The answer to my question depends of course on the purpose
of the study, it would therefore be great if you could also briefly
indicate in which research context you are using the Big 5. I will of
course prepare a summary document with all answers for the list and we
may also prepare a short research note for the wider community.

I have frequently used the TIPI (Gosling et al., 2003) in combination
with economic experiments. Pro: short, widely used, acceptable
psychometric properties. Con: provides no facet-level scores, obviously
low Cronbach’s alphas and inter-item correlations (in particular for
Agreeableness), which is frequently picked up by reviewers.

Many thanks in advance,
Stefan

--
Dr. Stefan Volk
Assistant Professor

Tübingen University
Department of International Business
Melanchthonstr. 30
72074 Tübingen
Germany

Phone +49 7071 29 74050
Fax +49 7071 29 5534