Tailored Interviewing: An Application of Item Response Theory for Personality Measurement

Despite recent technological advances in mass survey administration, surveys seeking to measure personality traits still employ procedures identical to the traditional paper-and-pencil scales, in which every respondent is asked exactly the same items, regardless of his or her trait level. We present an empirical application of personality measurement in which the number and sequence of scale items are tailored to the trait level of each respondent and show that the total number of questions asked of each respondent could be reduced substantially, with a measurable and controllable increase in the standard error of measurement.