Methods matter: Testing competing models for designing short-scale Big-Five assessments
Abstract Many psychological instruments are psychometrically inadequate because derived person-parameters are unfounded and models will be rejected using established psychometric criteria. One strategy towards improving the psychometric properties is to shorten instruments. We present and compare the following procedures for the abbreviation of self-report assessments on the Trait Self-Description Inventory in a sample of 14,347 participants: (a) Maximizing reliability/main loadings, (b) Minimizing modification indices/cross loadings, (c) the PURIFY Algorithm in Tetrad, (d) Ant Colony Optimization, and (e) a genetic algorithm. Ant Colony Optimization was superior to all other methods in imp…
The immediate impact of lockdown measures on mental health and couples’ relationships during the COVID-19 pandemic
BackgroundLockdown measures during the COVID-19 pandemic are expected to have negative effects on mental health and relationship quality. However, little is known about the magnitude of these psychological effects on a population level and for vulnerable subgroups.MethodsA representative sample (N = 2503; 50.2% female; mean age = 49.5) of the German population was assessed face-to-face during the COVID-19 pandemic (February 10-April 25, 2020). They were examined for differences in mental health (BSI-18) and relationship quality (PFB) in a pre-lockdown and lockdown subsamples. After testing and establishing the measurement models in confirmatory factor analyses, we added covariates as predic…