Exploring Issues of Personality Measurement and Structure Through the Development of a Short Form of the Eysenck Personality Profiler PETRIDES, JACKSON, FURNHAM, LEVINE PERSONALITY MEA UREMENT AND THE EPP–SF

In this study, we developed a revised short form of the original Eysenck Personality Profiler (EPP; H. J. Eysenck & Wilson, 1991). In addition, in this article we address topics of broad theoretical importance such as the recurrent empirical finding of correlations between conceptually orthogonal personality dimensions and the possibility that gender differences in these dimensions are partly spurious. After we demonstrate that the existing short form of the EPP (EPP–SF; H. J. Eysenck, Wilson, & Jackson, 1996) provided a poor fit to the data, we developed a well-fitting version and present this in Study 1 (N = 227). In Study 2, this version was retested on an independent new sample (N = 3,374) in which it was again found to fit the data well. We show that most of the structural and measurement parameters of the revised EPP–SF are invariant across genders. Structured means analysis indicated a significant gender difference in Psychoticism, with men scoring higher than women, but no differences in Extraversion or Neuroticism. Our discussion focuses on issues concerning personality measurement and structure, including an examination of the role of confirmatory factor analysis in personality research.