THE MAKING OF A PERSONALITY-INVENTORY - HELP FROM THE WWW

Data collected electronically from the World-Wide Web (WWW) in two sam ples (n = 429 and 1,657) were compared with traditional paper-and-penc il measure data from two university samples (n = 760 and 148) in three psychometric studies of a new measure of self-trust, the Self-Trust Q uestionnaire. With the exception of scale score variance, which was la rger in WWW samples, psychometric properties of the scale were compara ble across samples collected from the two sources. WWW samples were mo re similar to psychology student samples (predominantly young females) than to typical Internet users. On balance, findings indicate that th e advantages of the WWW as a data source, including large heterogeneou s samples, outweigh problems with data accuracy and generalizability, making the WWW an attractive source of data for researchers developing self-report personality inventories.