A study to investigate the reliability and validity of the Ten-Item Personality Inventory, when compared with two robust inventories, within a British sample

Personality inventories are commonly used instruments for the assessment of personality domains at various levels, whether it is the higher order factors or the facets underlying them. There are numerous inventories available for researchers to choose from, but a common disadvantage is the length of the inventory and consequently the completion time. The Ten-Item Personality Inventory (TIPI) aimed to address these issues. Short inventories are convenient and advantageous methodologically, but there are questions of reliability and validity, when compared with longer inventories. The aim of the current study is to investigate the validity and reliability of the TIPI, within a British sample (N = 81), when compared with the sixty item NEO-FFI and the forty-eight item EPQR short measure. The reliability indices of the TIPI closely corresponded to those found in the original literature. The convergent correlations indicated that the TIPI is valid within a British sample, a mean correlation of rs = .61, compared with Furnham’s (2008) r = .53. It is not recommended that the TIPI, or similar, supersede longer personality inventories, but the convenience of a short reliable and valid instrument is recognised for utilisation where time is limited or when personality is not the prime focus of research. Further psychometric investigation of the TIPI within various populations is warranted.