Short measurements of personality – Validity and reliability of the GSOEP Big Five Inventory (BFI-S)

In the last decade, an upward trend in the use of short measurements for personality can be observed. The goal of this study was to explore the psychometric characteristics of the GSOEP Big Five Inventory (BFI-S; Gerlitz & Schupp, 2005), a 15-item instrument. We compared the BFI-S with the NEO-PI-R (Costa and McCrae, 1992a, Costa and McCrae, 1992b) in a sample of 598 German adults (mean age = 42 years). Despite shortcomings for Agreeableness, the short scales generally showed acceptable levels of: (1) internal consistency, (2) stability over a period of 18 months, (3) convergent validity in relation to the NEO-PI-R and (4) discriminant validity. We conclude that in research settings with a pronounced need for parsimony, the BFI-S offers a sufficient level of utility.