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Table of contents
1. The Eysenck Personality Questionnaire Brief Version: Factor Structure and Reliability.............................. 1

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Document 1 of 1

The Eysenck Personality Questionnaire Brief Version: Factor Structure and Reliability
Author: Sato, Toru
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Abstract: The short scale of the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire-Revised (EPQR-S; H. J. Eysenck &S. B. G.
Eysenck, 1992) is a 48-item personality questionnaire primarily designed to measure an individual's level of
extraversion (vs. introversion) and neuroticism. Although L. J. Francis, L. B. Brown, and R. Philipchalk (1992)
created the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire Revised-Abbreviated (EPQR-A), an even briefer version of the
EPQR-S, the reliability coefficients of some of the measures have been less than satisfactory (S. Forrest, C. A.
Lewis, &M. Shevlin, 2000). Because brevity and reliability are both extremely important, the author of the
present study created a briefer version of the EPQR-S, more reliable than the EPQR-A, by making slight
alterations in the item content as well as the response format of the EPQR-S. Two hundred and sixty eight
participants completed the original EPQR-S and the 24-item newly revised briefer version of the EPQR-S (EPQBV) twice. The findings revealed that the EPQ-BV has good internal consistency, test-retest reliability, and
concurrent validity. A principal component analysis revealed a solution with factor loadings that accurately
reflected the primary measures of the EPQR-S. These findings are discussed in relation to the psychometric
properties of the EPQR-A and the original version of the EPQR-S. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]
Full text: Headnote
ABSTRACT.
The short scale of the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire-Revised (EPQR-S; H. J. Eysenck &S. B. G. Eysenck,
1992) is a 48-item personality questionnaire primarily designed to measure an individual's level of extraversion
(vs. introversion) and neuroticism. Although L. J. Francis, L. B. Brown, and R. Philipchalk (1992) created the
Eysenck Personality Questionnaire Revised-Abbreviated (EPQR-A), an even briefer version of the EPQR-S, the
reliability coefficients of some of the measures have been less than satisfactory (S. Forrest, C. A. Lewis, &M.
Shevlin, 2000). Because brevity and reliability are both extremely important, the author of the present study
created a briefer version of the EPQR-S, more reliable than the EPQR-A, by making slight alterations in the item
content as well as the response format of the EPQR-S. Two hundred and sixty eight participants completed the
original EPQR-S and the 24-item newly revised briefer version of the EPQR-S (EPQ-BV) twice. The findings
revealed that the EPQ-BV has good internal consistency, test-retest reliability, and concurrent validity. A
principal component analysis revealed a solution with factor loadings that accurately reflected the primary
measures of the EPQR-S. These findings are discussed in relation to the psychometric properties of the EPQRA and the original version of the EPQR-S.
Key words: assessment, introversion-extraversion, neuroticism, personality
THERE ARE THREE CENTRAL "SUPERTRAITS" essential in understanding individual differences in
personality, according to Eysenck (1990). These personality traits are extraversion (vs. introversion),
neuroticism, and psychoticism. Extraverted individuals naturally have a lower arousal level than do introverts,
which causes extraverted individuals to seek stimulation to raise their arousal level. In contrast, the naturally
high arousal level of introverted individuals causes them to avoid stimulation as much as possible. This is why
introverts tend to like quiet activities whereas extraverts tend to like stimulating activities (Eysenck, 1990).
Individuals high in neuroticism tend to have a highly reactive autonomie nervous system, making them
emotionally unstable. In contrast, the autonomie nervous systems of individuals who are low in neuroticism are
not very reactive, and they are therefore more emotionally stable (Eysenck, 1990). Individuals high in
psychoticism tend to disregard common sense and behave impulsively (Eysenck, 1990). However, although
psychoticism is considered to be the third trait in Eysenck's theory, most interest in this work has focused on
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extraversion and neuroticism (e.g., Fink &Neubauer, 2004; Geen, 1984; Ramirez-Maestre, Martinez,
&Zarazaga, 2004).
For many years, researchers have continued to carefully develop questionnaires designed to measure
individuals on these three personality traits (Eysenck, 1952, 1959; Eysenck &Eysenck, 1964, 1975, 1992;
Francis, Brown, &Philipchalk, 1992). These researchers extended their efforts as far as embedding a lie Scale
into the questionnaire. Since the creation of the original version, many efforts have been made to revise and
improve the questionnaire (Eysenck, 1952, 1959; Eysenck &Eysenck, 1964, 1975, 1992). These revisions have
typically caused the inclusion of increasingly more items, so that the questionnaire takes longer to administer.
As a response to this trend, recent researchers have attempted to create briefer versions for practical purposes
(Eysenck &Eysenck, 1975, 1992; Francis et al., 1992). One of the briefer versions is known as the Eysenck
Personality Questionnaire-Revised Short form (EPQR-S; Eysenck &Eysenck, 1992). The EPQR-S is a 48-item
personality questionnaire primarily designed to measure an individual's level of extraversion (vs. introversion),
neuroticism, and psychoticism. Francis et al. later created the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire RevisedAbbreviated (EPQR-A), an even briefer version of the EPQR-S. Although the brevity of this scale makes it very
useful, some researchers have found that the reliability coefficients of the measures (especially the
Psychoticism and lie scales) have been less than satisfactory (Forrest et al., 2000; Shevlin, Bailey, &Adamson,
2002).
Furthermore, because the original version was created in Great Britain, some of the items in the EPQR-S are
more suitable for a British population than for an American population. Because this measure is also
administered in the United States, it seemed useful to reword some of these items so that the EPQR-S would
be suitable for both American and British populations. And because brevity, reliability, and item content are all
extremely important factors in the development of a questionnaire, the goal of the present research project was
to create a briefer version of the EPQR-S that would be both suitable to an American population and more
reliable than the EPQR-A.
To create this new briefer version (EPQ-BV), I made a number of adjustments (Sato, 2004). First, the
psychoticism measure, which is both rarely used (e.g.. Fink &Neubauer, 2004; Geen, 1984; Ramirez-Maestre et
al., 2004) and is associated with various psychometric problems (Ferrando, 2003; Forrest et al., 2000), was
removed from the scale. Furthermore, because the lie Scale can be replaced by embedding items from other
scales measuring social desirability if necessary (e.g., Crowne &Marlowe, 1960), this scale was also eliminated
for the sake of brevity. In addition, the response format was changed from a yes-no response to a 5-point Likerttype scale to increase the reliability of the measures. Last, because one of the items on the extraversion
measure included an expression rarely used in the United States, it was slightly reworded. With the exception of
this wording change, the remaining items of the EPQ-BV were identical to the Extraversion and Neuroticism
scales of the original EPQR-S (Eysenck &Eysenck, 1992). The purpose of the present study was to examine
the concurrent validity, internal consistency, and test-retest reliability of the EPQ-BV.
Method
Participants
A total of 309 (129 men, 177 women, 3 unspecified) undergraduate university students participated in this study.
Of the original 309 participants, I obtained data that was complete and suitable for analysis from 268 (98 men,
168 women, 2 unspecified) of them (see procedure section for details). The mean age of the 268 participants
was 19.4 years.
Measures
The EPQR-S form is a questionnaire that consists of three measures corresponding to the three personality
traits in Eysenck's (1990) theory plus a lie scale (Eysenck &Eysenck, 1992). Each of the four measures
contains 12 items. There are 2 reversed items in the extraversion measure, 7 reversed items in the
psychoticism measure, and 9 reversed items in the lie Scale. There are no reversed items in the neuroticism
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measure. The response format for all items is dichotomous (yes or no). With the exception of the psychoticism
measure, all measures have good internal consistency and test-retest reliability (see Eysenck &Eysenck, 1992).
The EPQ-BV is a newly revised version of the EPQR-S to measure individuals on two primary personality traits
in Eysenck's (1990) theory. It consists of two measures, one for extraversion and one for neuroticism. The
psychoticism and lie measures are not included in the EPQ-BV.
In addition to these changes, to increase internal consistency, I changed the response format of the EPQ-BV
from a yes-no format to a 5-point Likert-type scale with responses ranging from not at all (1), slightly (2),
moderately (3), very much (4), to extremely (5). Last, because one of the items for the extraversion measure
included an expression rarely used in the United States, it was slightly reworded. The word "bustle" in the item
"Do you like plenty of bustle and excitement around you?" is a term rarely used in United States. Therefore, this
item was changed to "Do you like plenty of action and excitement around you?" With the exception of this
wording change, the remaining items are identical to the Extraversion and Neuroticism scales of the original
EPQR-S (Eysenck &Eysenck, 1992). The final version of the EPQ-BV consists of 24 items (12 extraversion and
12 neuroticism).
Procedure
The entire data collection process continued for 5 weeks. The questionnaires were completed in three sessions
separated by 2 weeks between each session. In the first session, participants were randomly divided into two
groups. In the first group, 153 undergraduate university students completed the EPQR-S. In the second group,
156 undergraduate university students completed the EPQ-BV. Participants in both groups signed a consent
form prior to completing the questionnaire in the first session. In the second session, 143 students who had
completed the EPQR-S in the first session completed the EPQ-BV, and 147 students who completed the EPQBV in the first session completed the EPQR-S. In the third and final session, 271 of the participants who had
completed the questionnaires in both previous sessions completed the EPQ-BV once again. All the participants
were fully debriefed after the third session. Of the 271 participants with complete data, 3 scored 6 or higher on
the lie Scale of the EPQR-S. The data of these participants were omitted in all subsequent analyses.
Results
An examination of the order effect of the questionnaires administered in the first two sessions (using I tests) did
not yield any significant effects. The coefficient alphas for the Extraversion, Neuroticism, Psychoticism, and lie
scales in the EPQR-S were .80, .78, 59, and .73, respectively. The coefficient alphas for the Extraversion and
Neuroticism scales in the EPQ-BV were .92 and .90, respectively. The test-retest reliability values of the two
scales of the EPQ-BV used in the present study were .92 for both the extraversion and neuroticism measures.
Consistent with most research concerning the extraversion and neuroticism measures (e.g., Eysenck, Eysenck,
&Barrett, 1985; Francis, 1993), t tests revealed that there were no significant gender differences on the
Extraversion Scale, but women scored higher than men on the Neuroticism Scale on both the EPQR-S, t(262) =
4.08, p <.01, and the EPQ-BV, /(262) = 4.21, p <.01.
To test the concurrent validity of the new measures in the EPQ-BV, I examined the correlations between the
new measures and the corresponding original measures. The results of the correlation analyses are reported in
Table 1. The measures of the EPQ-BV were highly correlated (.88 and .89) with the corresponding measures in
the original EPQR-S. The correlations between extraversion and neuroticism ranged between -.25 and -.29.

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I conducted a principal components analysis on all items in the EPQ-BV administered in the third session. An
examination of the scree plot of eigenvalues revealed that the curve leveled off after the first two factors. These
two factors (both with eigenvalues above 4) were retained, and I then conducted an oblique rotation factor
analysis restricted to two factors. The two factors combined accounted for approximately 51.8% of the total
variance. Factor loadings generated by these analyses are presented in Table 2. All of the 24 items loaded
above .48 on one of the two factors.
The first factor accounted for approximately 31.4% of the variance. All 12 items loading on this factor were the
items intended to measure extraversion. The factor loadings for all of the items in this factor were .60 or above
(see Table 2). As expected, all items for the neuroticism measure loaded lower than .30 on this first factor.
Furthermore, the reworded extraversion item, "Do you like plenty of action and excitement around you?" also
loaded highly on this factor (factor loading of .73). The second factor accounted for approximately 20.4% of the
variance. It consisted of all 12 items intended to measure neuroticism. Item loadings for all the items in this
factor were .48 or above (see Table 2). As expected, all items for the extraversion measure loaded lower than
.30 on this second factor.
Discussion
In the present study, the coefficient alphas for the Extraversion and Neuroticism scales in the EPQ-BV were
higher than those of the original EPQR-S. These values were also higher than values reported for the EPQR-S
and the EPQR-A in the past (Eysenck &Eysenck, 1992; Francis et al., 1992). The coefficient alphas for the
Extraversion and Neuroticism scales of the EPQR-S are typically in the .78 to .87 and .79 to .83 range,
respectively (Eysenck &Eysenck, 1992; Francis et al., 1992). Depending on the population sampled, the
coefficient alphas for the extraversion and neuroticism measures of the EPQR-A are .74 to .84 and .73 to .77,
respectively (Francis et al., 1992). The test-retest reliability values of the two scales of the EPQ-BV (.92) are
comparable to other measures of extraversion and neuroticism such as the EPQR-S (Eysenck &Eysenck,
1992).

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The Extraversion Scale of the EPQ-BV was correlated highly with the extraversion measure in the original
EPQR-S. Likewise, the Neuroticism Scale of the EPQ-BV was correlated highly with the neuroticism measure in
the original EPQR-S. These correlations are comparable to the correlations reported with the measures in the
EPQR-A by Francis et al. (1992). in which the correlations between the EPQR-S and the EPQR-A for
extraversion and neuroticism ranged between .92 and .95 and between .92 and .94, respectively. Perhaps the
2- to 4-week time lag in between the two questionnaires contributed to the slightly lower correlations in my
present study.
In the present study, the EPQ-BV correlations between extraversion and neuroticism were comparable to the
correlations typically reported with the measures in the EPQR-S and the EPQR-A. Although there has been
much variability, the correlations between extraversion and neuroticism typically range between -.01 and -.37
(Aluja, Garcia, &Garcia, 2003; Eysenck &Eysenck, 1992; Francis et al., 1992; Shevlin et al., 2002).
To examine its factor structure, I conducted a principal components analysis on the EPQ-BV The results
revealed a solution with factor loadings accurately reflecting the primary measures of the EPQR-S (extraversion
and neuroticism). Although further replication using wider populations is necessary, the EPQ-BV, which takes
less than 5 minutes to complete, seems to have high internal consistency, test-retest reliability, and a relatively
robust factor structure. The next step for these new measures is to examine their convergent and divergent
validity. For instance, examining individuals who score high and low on the extraversion measure in response to
varying levels of sensory stimulation may be useful in examining the convergent validity of that measure.
Overall, despite the fact the further examination of the EPQ-BV is necessary, this briefer version consisting of
the most commonly used measures of the original EPQR-S (extraversion &neuroticism) with only half of the
number of items may serve as a suitable alternative for use in elaborate research that consists of additional
experimental and time-consuming procedures.
References

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REFERENCES
Aluja, A., Garcia, O., &Garcia, L. (2003). A psychometric analysis of the revised Eysenck Personality
Questionnaire short scale. Personality and Individual Differences, 35, 449-460.
Crowne, D. P., &Marlowe, D. (1960). A new scale of social desirability independent of psychopathology. Journal
of Consulting Psychology, 24, 355-360.
Eysenck, H. J. (1952). The scientific study of personality. London: Routledge.
Eysenck, H. J. (1959). Manual of the Maudsley Personality Inventory. London: University of London Press.
Eysenck, H. J. (1990). Biological dimensions of personality. In L. A. Pervin (Ed.), Handbook of personality:
Theory and research (pp. 244-276). New York: Guilford Press.
Eysenck, H. J., &Eysenck, S. B. G. (1964). Manual of the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire. London:
University of London Press.
Eysenck, H. J., &Eysenck, S. B. G. (1975). Manual of the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire. London: Hodder
&Stoughton.
Eysenck, H. J., &Eysenck. S. B. G. (1992). Manual for the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire-Revised. San
Diego, CA: Educational and Industrial Testing Service.
Eysenck, S. B. G., Eysenck, H. J., &Barrett, P. (1985). A revised version of the Psychoticism Scale. Personality
and Individual Differences, 6, 21-29.
Ferrando, P. J. (2003). The accuracy of the E, N, and P trait estimates: An empirical study using the EPQ-R.
Personality and Individual Differences, 34, 665-679.
Fink, A., &Neubauer, A. C. (2004). Extraversion and cortical activation: Effects of task complexity. Personality
and Individual Differences, 36, 333-347.
Forrest, S., Lewis. C. A., &Shevlin, M. (2000). Examining the factor structure and differential functioning of the
Eysenck Personality Questionnaire Revised-Abbreviated. Personality and Individual Differences, 29, 579-588.
Francis, L. J. (1993). The dual nature of the Eysenckian neuroticism scales: A question of sex differences.
Personality and Individual Differences, 15, 43-59.
Francis, L. J., Brown, L. B., &Philipchalk, R. (1992). The development of an abbreviated form of the revised
Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQR-A): Its use among students in England, Canada, the USA, and
Australia. Personality and Individual Differences, 13, 443-449.
Geen, R. G. (1984). Preferred stimulation levels in introverts and extraverts: Effects on arousal and
performance. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 46, 1303-1312.
Ramirez-Maestre, C., Martinez, A. E. L., &Zarazaga, R. E. (2004). Personality characteristics as differential
variables of the pain experience. Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 27, 147-165.
Sato, T. (2004). The Eysenck Personality Questionnaire: A briefer and more reliable version. Paper presented
at the 2004 annual convention of the Canadian Psychological Association, St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada.
Shevlin, M., Bailey, F., &Adamson, G. (2002). Examining the factor structure and sources of differential
functioning of the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire Revised-Abbreviated. Personality and Individual
Differences, 32, 479-487.
Original manuscript received July 8, 2004
Final revision accepted December 28, 2004
AuthorAffiliation
TORU SATO
Department of Psychology Shippensburg University
AuthorAffiliation
Address correspondence to Toru Sato, Department of Psychology, 213 Franklin Science Center, Shippensburg
University, Shippensburg, PA 17257-2299; tosato@ship.edu (e-mail).

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Subject: Self evaluation; Psychology; Personality traits; Mental disorders; Questionnaires;

MeSH: Adult, Factor Analysis, Statistical, Female, Humans, Male, Psychometrics, Reproducibility of Results,
United States, Personality Inventory (major)
Publication title: The Journal of Psychology
Volume: 139
Issue: 6
Pages: 545-52
Number of pages: 8
Publication year: 2005
Publication date: Nov 2005
Year: 2005
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Inc.
Place of publication: Provincetown
Country of publication: United States
Publication subject: Psychology
ISSN: 00223980
CODEN: JOPSAM
Source type: Scholarly Journals
Language of publication: English
Document type: PERIODICAL
Document feature: Tables References
Accession number: 16419443
ProQuest document ID: 213831522
Document URL: http://search.proquest.com/docview/213831522?accountid=15859
Copyright: Copyright HELDREF PUBLICATIONS Nov 2005
Last updated: 2011-08-31
Database: ProQuest Central

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