Engineering & Science Education

Looking for a questionnaire for a personality trait or other “individual difference” measure?

The easiest way to find measures for these types of constructs is the Index of International Personality Item Pool (IPIP) Scales.

Users look up a trait and then are given a short list of items that have been shown to discriminate among levels of that construct. Add a Likert scale to the items and you have a questionnaire.

Citing the IPIP:

Name of Scale. Retrieved July 34, 2013, from International personality item pool: A scientific collaboratory for the development of advanced measures of personality traits and other individual differences: http://ipip.ori.org/

Tip: Limit your search term to TI (Title) or SU (Subjects)*

APA Citation will be at the top of each test PDF.  Example:
Stöber, J. (1999). Social Desirability Scale-17 [Database record]. Retrieved from PsycTESTS. doi: 10.1037/t03607-000

The quickest and most successful path to finding copies of very specific surveys and questionnaires is in the appendices of dissertations.

1. Include the words "test," "survey," or "questionnaire" in your search. For example:
   procrastination and college students and (test or survey or questionnaire)
   Facebook and self-esteem and (test or survey or questionnaire)
   
   
2. It's recommended you use the drop-down menu to the right to limit your search terms to  "Anywhere except full text – ALL"
   This means that a survey/ questionnaire will have to be mentioned in the abstract /title of the dissertation (and not just somewhere in the full text) to be retrieved.
   
   
3. Choose a likely title, click on the PDF of the dissertation, and scroll all the way to the end to check the appendices for relevant tests and measures.