Abstract
A previous study demonstrated that the Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire (MPQ) scales are highly robust and can be recaptured when the items (True/False format) are embedded in a large and diverse pool of individual difference items. We called this scale robustness test the “recaptured scale technique”. Those results strongly supported the exploratory scale construction technique used to create the MPQ. This study generalizes our earlier findings by demonstrating that the 11 MPQ constructs are also highly robust—as evaluated by the recaptured scale technique—and also can be recovered when they are measured by self-rated (5 point scale) adjectives or brief descriptors. Specifically, using data from a large sample of participants of the Minnesota Twin Registry (N = 3968), we factor analyzed the 63-item Minnesota Personality Self-Rating Scales and recovered 17 interpretable factors, 11 of which strongly resembled the 11 MPQ primary scales. The 11 recovered scales were scored on a new data set from the Minnesota Study of Twins Reared Apart (MISTRA) (N = 310) and shown to have high convergent and discriminant validity. These recovered scales were also shown to have a factor structure similar to that of the MPQ.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 77-82 |
Number of pages | 6 |
Journal | Personality and Individual Differences |
Volume | 109 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Apr 15 2017 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:We thank all the participants in the Minnesota Study of Twins Reared Apart and the Minnesota Twin Registry and who contributed their time to the study as well as the numerous colleagues and students without whom the research would not have been possible. The MISTRA was funded by a large number of sources over a 20-year period. The funding sources are described in detail in Segal (2012). The MTR was supported by U.S. Public Health Service Grants AG06886 and MH37860. A research grant from the Office of the Vice President for Research and the University of Minnesota Retirees Association to the first author supported this project. Informed consent was obtained from all participants as per the Institutional Review Board of the University of Minnesota requirements. The authors have no conflict of interests and do not derive royalties from the use of any of the instruments administered in the study.
Keywords
- Exploratory scale construction technique
- Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire
- Personality
- Recaptured scale technique