CAN PERSONALITY TEST ITEM RESPONSE LATENCIES HAVE CONSTRUCT-VALIDITY - ISSUES OF RELIABILITY AND CONVERGENT AND DISCRIMINANT VALIDITY

The issue of the construct validity of personality test item response latencies was addressed using a sample of 92 university undergraduates responding to 800 items measuring five personality dimensions. Respon se latencies were statistically adjusted to remove extraneous sources of variance and were aggregated within a dimension of personality. Ana lyses on these resulting mean latencies indicated appropriate levels o f internal consistency reliability, convergent validity with self- and peer-generated reports on corresponding personality dimensions, and d iscriminant validity with self- and peer-generated scores on noncorres ponding dimensions of personality. Results were interpreted as indicat ing that personality test item response latencies can possess construc t validity. Implications and suggestions for further research are disc ussed.