Big Five personality test: method

What it measures

Self-reported standing on the five broad personality domains: Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Emotional Stability (the opposite pole of Neuroticism) and Intellect/Imagination (shown as Openness).

Procedure

The 50 public-domain IPIP statements in the published order, one at a time. The only edit is a full sentence with 'I' added (e.g. 'Am the life of the party.' becomes 'I am the life of the party.'). Instruction (IPIP wording): describe yourself as you generally are now, not as you wish to be, as you honestly see yourself, in relation to people you know of the same sex and roughly the same age. Answer scale: Very inaccurate, Moderately inaccurate, Neither accurate nor inaccurate, Moderately accurate, Very accurate. Answers by button or keys 1–5; 'Back' (or Backspace) returns to change an answer. Untimed; the time to each final answer is recorded only for quality flags.

Parameters

Scoring

Answers are coded 1–5; reverse-keyed items are recoded as 6 − x (IPIP key). Trait mean = average of the trait's 10 keyed answers (1–5). Trait score = round(100 × (mean − 1) / 4), from 0 (lowest possible answers) to 100 (highest); this is not a percentile. Higher means more of the trait (higher Emotional Stability = lower Neuroticism). The main result shows the five 0–100 scores. A separate report page shows approximate percentiles: from a normal curve on the published means and SDs for the same 50 items (Gow et al., 2005, a Scottish volunteer sample, n ≈ 207, mean age 55), until at least 100 eligible first runs exist on the site for the same item version, and from those site players after that. Report bands: low = 30th percentile or below, high = 70th or above.

Valid-run rules

Every statement must be answered exactly once, with the item-set version the page received; otherwise the run is rejected. Quality flags are stored with the run, never shown and never blocking: 'straight_lining' (all 50 answers identical) and 'too_fast' (at least half of the answers under 700 ms). Flagged runs are left out of site comparisons.

Differences from the classic task

Same items, order, answer scale and scoring key as the published IPIP-50, with 'I' added to each statement. Given online without supervision. Translations into other languages are new translations made for this site, not the official IPIP translations, and have not been validated.

Limitations

Self-report, so answers reflect self-view, mood and response style (acquiescence, social desirability). The 0–100 score is a position on the answer scale, not a comparison with other people. The published reference sample is small, older and from one country, and it applies only approximately to translated versions. Not a clinical, hiring or mental-health instrument.

Languages and review status

English IPIP text; translations into 99 further languages (machine-assisted translation with automated script and spelling checks; item IDs, polarity and scoring key unchanged; no local validation or norms). Each language has its own item-set version, and the English reference is marked approximate when applied to a translation.