Item Banking for an adaptive measurement of Neuroticism

Abstract

The psychometric properties of a bank of 36 items are presented measuring Neuroticism based on the Five-Factor Model. These items pertain to the facets that were identified by the work of McCrae and Costa. The sample was comprised of 1133 adult subjects that reside in the Buenos Aires Metropolitan Area in Argentina. Women accounted for 52.1% of those subjects with an average age of 29.5 years (SD = 11.32). In order to get the items calibrated according to Item Response Theory (Graded Response Model), acquire the bank’s information functions and assess the estimated associations with other instruments, 70% of the cases were randomly selected. An adaptive administration simulation was made with the remaining 30% so as to test two stopping rules: a) using 18 items and b) standard error of ≤ 0.25. Correlations greater than .95 were found between the estimated bank scores and the two adaptive versions. The advantages of using the adaptive Neuroticism measurement over other well-renowned instruments that use conventional large formats, as well as abbreviated ones, are discussed.