Ten-Item Personality Inventory (TIPI)

Abstract

The Ten Item Personality Inventory (TIPI) is a highly concise psychological scale developed by Gosling, Rentfrow, and Swan in 2003 in the USA. Its primary design objective was to provide an extremely brief measure of the five major dimensions of personality, known as the Five Factor Model (FFM) or the Big Five. Recognizing that time constraints often limit research opportunities, the TIPI was engineered for quick administration, typically requiring only about one minute to complete. This brevity makes it particularly suitable for studies where space or respondent patience is limited.

The scale consists of ten items, with two items dedicated to measuring each of the five FFM domains (Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Emotional Stability, and Openness to Experience). Although the TIPI exhibits low internal consistency—a recognized trade-off for its ultra-brief format—it demonstrated strong psychometric properties regarding validity, showing substantial convergent correlations with established, longer instruments like the Big Five Inventory (BFI). Furthermore, the scale achieved adequate six-week test-retest reliability, reinforcing its utility as a quick, reliable snapshot of personality traits.

Keywords

Ten Item Personality Inventory, TIPI, Five Factor Model, FFM, Big Five, personality assessment, brief measure, psychometrics, survey instrument, abbreviated scale.

Authors

Samuel D. Gosling, Peter J. Rentfrow, William B. Swann, Jr.

Purpose

The central purpose of the Ten Item Personality Inventory (TIPI) is to provide an efficient and extremely brief measure of the Five Factor Model (FFM) of personality. The scale was specifically created to address situations in research settings where time and space are severely restricted, such as in large-scale epidemiological studies, online surveys, or studies involving multiple measurement points.

The researchers explicitly stated that the TIPI is not intended to replace established, multi-item instruments for comprehensive personality assessment. Instead, it serves as a pragmatic alternative when only an essential, rapid assessment of the Big Five domains is feasible. Its design allows researchers to quickly capture the breadth of the FFM dimensions without the administrative burden associated with lengthier measures.

Construct

The TIPI is designed to measure the five core dimensions of the Five Factor Model (FFM) of personality, often referred to as the Big Five. These five dimensions are universally recognized in personality psychology and are measured in the TIPI via two descriptive terms per factor. The five measured constructs are:

• Extraversion: Characterized by being extraverted, enthusiastic, reserved, or quiet.
• Agreeableness: Characterized by being critical, quarrelsome, sympathetic, or warm.
• Conscientiousness: Characterized by being dependable, self-disciplined, disorganized, or careless.
• Emotional Stability (Neuroticism Reversed): Characterized by being anxious, easily upset, calm, or emotionally stable.
• Openness to Experiences: Characterized by being open to new experiences, complex, conventional, or uncreative.

Each of the five constructs is represented by two items: one pair of desirable descriptors and one pair of undesirable descriptors (which are typically reverse-scored during analysis).

Validity

Given the TIPI’s constrained item count, the developers prioritized establishing strong validity over high internal consistency. The primary validation effort involved testing the scale against the widely accepted Big Five Inventory (BFI).

The results demonstrated substantial and significant convergent validity across all five domains, with correlations between the TIPI and the BFI falling within a highly acceptable range:

• Extraversion (E): r = .87
• Agreeableness (A): r = .70
• Conscientiousness (C): r = .75
• Emotional Stability (ES): r = .81
• Openness (O): r = .65

These findings indicate that despite its brevity, the TIPI successfully measures the same underlying personality factors as the longer, established BFI. Furthermore, the instrument has undergone successful cross-cultural validation in translated versions, including Spanish (TIPI-SPA), Catalan (TIPI-CAT), and German (TIPI-G), yielding results consistent with the original English-language study.

Reliability

As anticipated due to having only two items per scale, the TIPI reported relatively low estimates of internal consistency (Cronbach’s alpha). The reported alpha values for the initial validation study were: Extraversion (a = .68), Agreeableness (a = .40), Conscientiousness (a = .50), Emotional Stability (a = .73), and Openness (a = .45). The researchers acknowledged that short scales inherently compromise internal consistency because there are fewer items to overlap in content, a factor that typically bolsters this reliability metric in multi-item scales.

To provide a more appropriate measure of reliability for this ultra-brief instrument, the researchers employed a test-retest reliability procedure over a six-week interval, as recommended for scales with few items. The TIPI demonstrated adequate six-week test-retest reliability, with a correlation of r = .72. This indicates that the scale provides stable measurements of personality traits over time.

Factor Analysis

The TIPI was constructed specifically to map onto the established structure of the Five Factor Model. Rather than relying solely on exploratory factor analysis, the items were carefully selected (culled) from the descriptors used in existing, validated Big Five instruments, such as the Big Five Inventory (BFI). The design mandates a clear 5-factor structure, with two items (one positively keyed, one negatively keyed) designated for each of the five factors: Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Emotional Stability, and Openness.

Subsequent cross-cultural validation studies, such as the German adaptation (TIPI-G), confirmed that the scale maintains construct validity and the intended factorial structure across different populations, supporting the TIPI’s ability to briefly capture the core dimensions of the FFM.

Instrument

Test Type: Self-report personality inventory

Format: Ten items, each rated on a 7-point Likert scale.

Language Available: English, Spanish (TIPI-SPA), Catalan (TIPI-CAT), German (TIPI-G), and numerous other translations derived from subsequent research.

Population Group: General population (validated initially on university students).

Age Group: Adolescents and Adults (typically suitable for age 18+).

Population Details: The initial validation study included 1813 university students. Normative data for this sample were reported for all five factors (E: M = 4.44, SD = 1.45; A: M = 5.23, SD = 1.11; C: M = 5.40, SD = 1.32; ES: M = 4.83, SD = 1.42; O: M = 5.38, SD = 1.07).

Test Methodology: Respondents rate the extent to which a pair of traits applies to them on a scale ranging from 1 (disagree strongly) to 7 (agree strongly). The test is designed for extremely rapid administration, taking approximately one minute to complete.

Keywords

TIPI, Big Five Inventory, BFI, convergent validity, internal consistency, psychometric properties, short form, research instrument, university students, normative data.

Authors

Author ORCID Identifier: Not provided in source content.

Affiliation Email addresses: Not provided in source content.

Correspondence Address: Not provided in source content.

Permissions & Fee and Test Year

The TIPI was published in 2003. The instrument is freely accessible and can be utilized without explicit permission from the authors. The original PDF for the measure and scoring information is freely accessible online. The original PDF can be downloaded here: http://gosling.psy.utexas.edu/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/tipi.pdf.

Reference’s

• Gosling, S.D., Rentfrow, P.J., & Swann, W.B., Jr. (2003). A very brief measure of the Big Five personality domains. Journal of Research in Personality, 37, 504-528. doi: 10.1016/S0092-6566(03)00046-1
• Gosling, S.D., Rentfrow, P.J., & Swann, W.B., Jr. (2003). Ten Item Personality Inventory, accessed at http://gosling.psy.utexas.edu/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/tipi.pdf on 06/03/17.
• John, O. P., & Srivastava, S. (1999). The Big Five trait taxonomy: History, measurement, and theoretical perspectives. In L. A. Pervin, & O. P. John (Eds.), Handbook of personality: Theory and research (pp.102–138). New York: Guilford Press.
• Muck, P.M., Hell, B., & Gosling, S.D. (2007). Construct validation of a short Five Factor Model instrument: A self-peer study on the German adaptation of the Ten-Item Personality Inventory (TIPI-G). European Journal of Personality Assessment, 23, 166-175. doi: 10.1027/1015-5759.23.3.166
• Renau, V., Oberst, U., Gosling, S.D., Rusinol, J., & Chamarro, A. (2013). Translation and validation of the Ten-Item Personality Inventory into Spanish and Catalan. Aloma.Revista de Psicologia, Ciencies de l’Educacio I de l’Esport, 31, 85-97.

Items of the Ten Item Personality Inventory (TIPI)

Here are a number of personality traits that may or may not apply to you. Please write a number next to each statement to indicate the extent to which you agree or disagree with that statement. You should rate the extent to which the pair of traits applies to you, even if one characteristic applies more strongly than the other.

The 7-point Likert scale ranges from 1 (Disagree strongly) to 7 (Agree strongly):

• Disagree strongly 1
• Disagree moderately 2
• Disagree a little 3
• Neither agree nor disagree 4
• Agree a little 5
• Agree moderately 6
• Agree strongly 7

I see myself as:

1.           Extraverted, enthusiastic.
2.           Critical, quarrelsome.
3.           Dependable, self-disciplined.
4.           Anxious, easily upset.
5.           Open to new experiences, complex.
6.           Reserved, quiet.
7.           Sympathetic, warm.
8.           Disorganized, careless.
9.           Calm, emotionally stable.
10.           Conventional, uncreative.

TIPI scale scoring (“R” denotes reverse-scored items):

Extraversion: 1, 6R; Agreeableness: 2R, 7; Conscientiousness; 3, 8R; Emotional Stability: 4R, 9; Openness to Experiences: 5, 10R.