Big Five Aspect Scales

The Big Five Aspect Scales (DeYoung, Quilty, & Peterson, 2007) split each Big Five domain into two intermediate 'aspects' — ten scales in all, measured here by the 100-item public-domain IPIP version. The aspect level sits between broad domains and narrow facets, capturing, for example, the difference between the two sides of Extraversion (Enthusiasm vs Assertiveness).

Each 10-item aspect is scored in its keyed direction and compared with Eugene–Springfield Community Sample reference values in the norms section.

The notes below are reproduced from the platform's psychometrics register for this instrument — the same source-cited reliability, validity, and norms text that accompanies its downloadable report.

DeYoung, Quilty & Peterson (2007) report Cronbach's alphas for the 10 aspect scales of .71–.84 in a student sample, and the 5 Big Five domain composites (formed by summing two aspects each) show alphas of .85–.89.

The 10 aspects sit between facets and domains in the Big Five hierarchy and show incremental predictive validity over domain scores for multiple criteria. Confirmatory factor analyses support the two-aspect-per-domain structure within each domain (DeYoung et al., 2007; DeYoung, 2006).

Scores are expressed as percent-of-maximum on the 1–5 accuracy scale. Normative reference data are not published for this specific public-domain IPIP-BFAS operationalization; scores are interpreted via Higher/Average/Lower bands.

“Get angry easily.”

Illustrative only. During administration items are presented one screen-set at a time; response-key direction is never shown to respondents.

Item responses are summed within each scale (reverse-keyed items recoded first) and expressed as a population percentile against the cited reference sample, with a reliability-based confidence range where α is published.

Norms computed from the Eugene-Springfield Community Sample (ESCS) — Lewis R. Goldberg’s adult community panel from Eugene and Springfield, Oregon (Harvard Dataverse, doi:10.7910/DVN/UF52WY). This is a community sample and is NOT nationally representative. The mean, standard deviation, reference N and Cronbach’s α were computed directly from the raw IPIP item-level responses on THIS scale’s exact item set and reverse-keying (complete cases); reference N varies by scale and is shown with each scale below. The confidence range uses the standard error of measurement (SEM = SD·√(1−α)) from that computed α.

DeYoung, C. G., Quilty, L. C., & Peterson, J. B. (2007). Between facets and domains: 10 aspects of the Big Five. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 93, 880–896. Items via the International Personality Item Pool (ipip.ori.org).