Improving the Measurement of the Big Five via Alternative Formats for the BFI-2

The Big Five Inventory-2 (BFI-2) is a recent scale developed by Soto and John (2017) to improve upon the limitations of the original BFI by balancing the number of positively- and negatively-worded items and establishing a hierarchical structure for the Big Five traits. However, as the BFI-2 employs a Likert format with agree-disagree options scale, it suffers from common problems of the Likert format, including acquiescence bias and method effects due to the negatively-worded items. In this research, we converted the BFI-2 in the Likert format into three alternative formats: Expanded, Item-Specific-Full, and Item-Specific-Light. These formats have tailored response options for each item and avoid the use of negatively-worded items, thereby addressing the issues associated with the Likert format. Across two studies, we compared the factor structure, reliability, validity, and careless responding between the BFI-2 in the Likert vs alternative formats. Our findings revealed that while the Likert and alternative formats exhibit similar validity, the alternative formats—particularly the Expanded format—showed better psychometric properties, including enhanced factor structure, increased reliability, and reduced careless responding. We recommend that researchers consider using the BFI-2 in these alternative formats or adapting other Likert scales to these alternative formats.