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Investigating Validity of Semantic Measures vs Rating Scales in Assessing Personality

Gustavsson, Sofie LU and Plate, Henrietta LU (2023) PSYK11 20222
Department of Psychology
Abstract
Within personality research, self-report questionnaires are a common approach. This study takes aim at investigating whether self-report questionnaires are enough, or if semantic measures, through Natural Language Processing, could be a substitute or complementary method, in assessing personality. Based on the Five Factor Model of personality, this study has been divided into two phases. Participants originating from the U.S. were instructed to either describe and rate their own or someone else's personality (Phase 1, N=264), or read personality narratives from Phase 1 (Phase 2, N=399) then, in both phases, participants were asked to answer a semantic question as well as a IPIP-NEO rating scale. Prediction scores from the two phases were... (More)
Within personality research, self-report questionnaires are a common approach. This study takes aim at investigating whether self-report questionnaires are enough, or if semantic measures, through Natural Language Processing, could be a substitute or complementary method, in assessing personality. Based on the Five Factor Model of personality, this study has been divided into two phases. Participants originating from the U.S. were instructed to either describe and rate their own or someone else's personality (Phase 1, N=264), or read personality narratives from Phase 1 (Phase 2, N=399) then, in both phases, participants were asked to answer a semantic question as well as a IPIP-NEO rating scale. Prediction scores from the two phases were used to analyze semantic measures in comparison to rating scales. The results suggest that semantic measures, on their own, categorize personality traits more accurately (53%) than rating scales (44%). To conclude, complementary approaches while assessing personality have shown to be of great value. Future research would be benefitted by investigating the possibility of applying this method in other fields of psychology, in favor of further assessing the method's validity, and determining whether it can offer novel understandings of constructs. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
Gustavsson, Sofie LU and Plate, Henrietta LU
supervisor
organization
course
PSYK11 20222
year
type
M2 - Bachelor Degree
subject
keywords
Rating scales, semantic measures, Five Factor Model of personality, The Big Five, IPIP-NEO 30, Natural Language Processing
language
English
id
9112591
date added to LUP
2023-03-20 10:08:46
date last changed
2023-03-20 10:08:46
@misc{9112591,
  abstract     = {{Within personality research, self-report questionnaires are a common approach. This study takes aim at investigating whether self-report questionnaires are enough, or if semantic measures, through Natural Language Processing, could be a substitute or complementary method, in assessing personality. Based on the Five Factor Model of personality, this study has been divided into two phases. Participants originating from the U.S. were instructed to either describe and rate their own or someone else's personality (Phase 1, N=264), or read personality narratives from Phase 1 (Phase 2, N=399) then, in both phases, participants were asked to answer a semantic question as well as a IPIP-NEO rating scale. Prediction scores from the two phases were used to analyze semantic measures in comparison to rating scales. The results suggest that semantic measures, on their own, categorize personality traits more accurately (53%) than rating scales (44%). To conclude, complementary approaches while assessing personality have shown to be of great value. Future research would be benefitted by investigating the possibility of applying this method in other fields of psychology, in favor of further assessing the method's validity, and determining whether it can offer novel understandings of constructs.}},
  author       = {{Gustavsson, Sofie and Plate, Henrietta}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{Investigating Validity of Semantic Measures vs Rating Scales in Assessing Personality}},
  year         = {{2023}},
}