This assessment directly implements the Mini-IPIP (Donnellan, Oswald, Baird, & Lucas, 2006), a rigorously validated short-form measure of the Big Five personality domains: Openness/Intellect, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism (OCEAN). The Mini-IPIP was designed specifically for high-efficiency assessment contexts.
Construct Validity
The Mini-IPIP was derived from the 50-item IPIP-FFM (Goldberg, 1999) using exploratory factor analysis in a large development sample (N = 2,663). Items were selected based on discrimination indices, defined as the difference between the primary factor loading and the mean of cross-loadings, ensuring high factor purity. The final 20-item instrument retains the canonical five-factor structure, which has been replicated using confirmatory factor analysis.
Internal Consistency
Across five independent validation studies, the Mini-IPIP demonstrated consistent internal reliability. Cronbach’s α typically ranged from .65 to .82 across traits.
Test–Retest Reliability
Temporal stability has been demonstrated across multiple timeframes (Short-term retest reliability: r = .62–.87; Longer-term stability: r = .68–.86).
Convergent Validity
The Mini-IPIP shows convergence with the 44-item Big Five Inventory (BFI) (r = .81, .49, .66, .80, .68 for Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Neuroticism, and Openness with Intellect/Imagination, respectively).
Criterion-Related Validity
The Mini-IPIP predicts psychologically and behaviorally meaningful outcomes with a pattern comparable to longer Big Five instruments.
Observed predictive relationships include:
Neuroticism predicting anxiety, depression, and behavioral inhibition
Extraversion predicting behavioral approach and positive affect
Agreeableness and Conscientiousness predicting lower hostility
Resource
Donnellan, M., Brent, O., Baird, F. L., Lucas, B. M., & Richard, E. (2006). The Mini-IPIP Scales: Tiny-yet-effective measures of the Big Five Factors of Personality. Psychological Assessment, 18(2). 192-203.