Press release: "Assessing Personality States: What to Consider when Constructing Personality State Measures"
Dr. Kai Horstmann and Dr. Matthias Ziegler recently published their article titled, “Assessing Personality States: What to Consider when Constructing Personality State Measures” in the European Journal of Personality. In this paper, the authors suggest guidelines for the development of personality state measures, and highlight possible ways to examine validity and reliability of state measures more generally. In addition, they provide an example of how personality theory can be used to inform the development of state measures of conscientiousness. The study is scheduled for an upcoming issue of the European Journal of Personality.
In their work, Dr. Horstmann and Ziegler examined what a personality state is, how they are currently being used, and whether some best practices can be identified in the development and assessment of personality state measures. The researchers define a personality state as the momentary manifestation of a personality trait, that is, how a person is thinking, feeling, or behaving in a particular moment. They reviewed 24 studies that made use of personality state measures, and showed that previous work has developed quite a few measures, and has most often examined the validity of such measures by correlating an average of the state measures with a trait measure. They conclude by offering guidelines for the development of valid and reliable state measures of personality.
In an interview with the European Journal of Personality, Dr. Horstmann gave an example of how the validity of a state measure of neuroticism may be determined: “If one were to validate a state measure for neuroticism, it would be possible to examine students before and after the exam. The state neuroticism score of the students should be higher before the exam than after the exam. Of course, this requires the assumption that facing an exam leads to higher neuroticism, in the short term.”
The authors go on to show how theory can inform the initial development of state measures, by providing clues about the mechanism that may link a trait to a certain outcome. As an example, the researchers use theory on conscientiousness to create state measures (i.e., making a workout plan, buying groceries) that would link the trait to an outcome (i.e., better physical health).
Correspondence about the study may be addressed to Dr. Horstmann. Dr. Horstmann can be contacted at the Department of Psychology, Faculty of Life Sciences, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Germany, or via email at kai.horstmann@hu-berlin.de.
The full interview with Dr. Horstmann can be accessed here.