Sp. Reise et Ng. Waller, TRAITEDNESS AND THE ASSESSMENT OF RESPONSE PATTERN SCALABILITY, Journal of personality and social psychology, 65(1), 1993, pp. 143-151
Scalability statistics are used to measure the degree to which an exam
inee's item responses to a self-report measure conform to a specified
pattern. This article proposes that a scalability index based on item
response theory, called Z(L), offers promise for detecting individual
differences in traitedness. The Z(L) index is described and applied to
data from 1,000 Ss who were administered the Multidimensional Persona
lity Questionnaire (A. Tellegen, 1982). Low split-half reliabilities w
ere found for Z(L) index scores computed within 11 personality scales.
However, further data scrutiny revealed that valuable information abo
ut an individual's trait structure can still be gleaned from a scalabi
lity analysis. It is concluded that scalability indices can be used, a
lbeit judiciously, to explore the fit between an individual's behavior
and a personality trait construct.