The Development and Validation of a Multidimensional Forced-Choice Format Character Measure: Testing the Thurstonian IRT Approach

Abstract

There has been reemerging interest within psychology in the construct of character, yet assessing it can be difficult due to social desirability of character traits. Forced-choice formats offer one way to address response bias, but traditional scoring methods (i.e., ipsative) associated with this format makes comparing scores between people problematic. Nevertheless, recent advances in modeling item responding (Thurstonian IRT) enable scoring that recovers absolute standing on latent traits and allows for score comparisons between people. Based on recent work in character measurement (CIVIC), we developed a multidimensional forced-choice measure of character (CIVIC-MFC) and scored it using Thurstonian IRT. Initial validation using a sample of 798 participants demonstrated good support for factorial, convergent, and concurrent validity for scores on the CIVIC-MFC, although they did not demonstrate more faking resistance than scores on a Likert-type format version. Potential explanations are discussed.

Notes

1 Ng et al.’s (2017) Study 3 reduced the number of lower-order character traits from 31 to 29. Perseverance and willpower were combined because they were highly correlated and modeling them as two distinct factors did not significantly improve fit. Propriety was dropped because unidimensionality did not replicate in Study 3.

2 Due to mislabeling, we discovered in retrospect that a negatively keyed item intended to measure one (i.e., trustworthiness) of two character traits used to represent the broad dimension of sincerity was accidentally used to measure the other (i.e., authenticity). We do not believe this to be a significant issue since scores on both are used to score the same broad dimension.

3 Items, associated materials, and data analysis scripts are available upon request from the first author.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the John Templeton Foundation under Grant #48287.