The Analysis of Consistency in Personality Assessment

ABSTRACT In recent years psychologists have treated not only the mean (or sum) but also the variability of a person's item scores on multi‐item scales as significant individual attributes Variability measures and comparable statistics, interpreted as indicators of (in)consistency, have been used as a basis for rejecting test results or trait constructs In cognitive assessment the concern has been with test results, in personality assessment the emphasis has been primarily on traits and “traitedness” Some of the assessment procedures are described and discussed For personality assessment the main conclusions are ( a ) the use of intra‐individual variability measures for identifying invalid test data could be explored and exploited more, ( b ) intra‐individual variability is for many reasons to be considered a poor indicator of low traitedness rather than its hallmark, and ( c ) traitedness itself is a promising concept and certain alternative approaches to traitedness assessment seem promising and integrative