Gender Differences on Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire(MPQ): A study of Differential Item Functioning(DIF) with Mantel-Haenszel Statistic

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

In the present study, we explored whether there are items that function differently across women and men on Tellegen’s Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire(MPQ; Tellegen, 1982; Tellegen & Waller, In Press) by using Mantel-Haenszel(MH) statistic. For the purpose of the study, we applied MHITER program to a sample of responses to the 300-item MPQ personality test. The subjects were 300 individuals(137 men and 163 women, with a mean age of 39.72). The findings of the present study are as following. Firstly, some of the MPQ scales showed significant mean differences across gender; these were Social Potency, Social Closeness, Stress Reaction, Aggression, Harm Avoidance, and Absorption scales. Secondly, six MPQ scales showed more than three items functioning differently. Among others, the Traditionalism scale had the most DIF items, which is followed by Stress Reaction, Aggression, Social Potency, Achievement, and Harm Avoidance. In conclusion, there was a non-negligible number of DIF items across gender in MPQ scales, implying that there may be many DIF items in other personality tests that are currently used. The fact that men and women differently responded to some items reflect a socio-cultural impact in their perspectives on the personality items/tests.

참고문헌 (Reference)

1 Ackerman, T. A., "Using multidimensional item response theory to evaluate educational and psychological tests" 22 : 37-53, 2003

2 Thissen, D., "Use of item response theory in the study of group differences in trace lines in Test validity" Erlbaum 147-169, 1988

3 Francis,L.J, "The dual nature of the Eysenckian neuroticism scales: a question of sex differences?" 15 (15): 43-59, 1993

4 Horney,K, "The distrust between the sexes in Feminine psychology" Norton 107-118, 1967

5 Lykken, D. T., "The Minnesota Twin Family Registry: some initial findings" 39 : 35-70, 2000

6 Wilson, D., "TESTFACT: Test scoring, item statistics, and item factor analysis" Scientific Software International 1991

7 Tellegen,A, "Structure of mood and personality and their relevance to assessing anxiety, with an emphasis on self-report in Anxiety and the Anxiety Disorders" LEA 681-706, 1985

8 Marascuilo, L. A., "Statistical procedures for identifying possible sources of item bias based on statistics" 18 : 229-248, 1981

9 Mantel, N., "Statistical aspects of the analysis of data from retrospective studies of disease" 22 : 719-748, 1959

10 Tellegen, A., "Personality similarity in twins reared apart and together" 54 (54): 1031-1039, 1988

11 Houtman,I, "Personal coping resources and sex differences" 11 : 53-63, 1990

12 Smith,L.L, "On the usefulness of item bias analysis to personality psychology" 28 : 754-763, 2002

13 Becker,G, "NEO-FFI scores in college men and women: A view from McDonald's unified treatment of test theory" 40 : 911-941, 2006

14 Kwak,N.H, "MHITER version 1.0" Minneapolis, MN. 1997

15 Madden, M. E., "Jealousy, gender, sex roles, and dependency"

16 Huang, C. D., "Identifying cultural differences in items and traits: differential item functioning in the NEO personality inventory" 28 (28): 192-218, 1997

17 Cole,N.S, "History and development of DIF in Differential Item Functioning" Lawrence Erlbaum Associates 25-29, 1993

18 Bouchard,T.J.Jr, "Genes, environment, and personality" 264 (264): 1700-1701, 1994

19 Smith, L. L., "Gender differences on negative affectivity: an IRT study of differential item functioning on the Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire Stress Reaction scale" 75 (75): 1350-1362, 1998

20 Hambleton, R. K., "Fundamentals of item response theory" Sage 1991

21 Tellegen, A., "Exploring personality through test construction: development of the Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire in The SAGE Handbook of Personality Theory and Assessment, Vol 2" Sage 261-292, 2008

22 Buss,D, "Evolutionary personality psychology" 42 : 459-491, 1991

23 Holland, P. W., "Differential item performance and the Mantel- Haenszel procedure in Test validity" Erlbaum 129-145, 1988

24 Holland, P. W., "Differential item performance and Mantel- Haenszel procedure"

25 Schnohr, C. W., "Differential Item Functioning of a family affluence scale: validation study on data from HBSCC 2001/02" 89 : 79-95, 2008

26 Mellenberg,G.J, "Contingency table models for assessing item bias" 7 : 105-118, 1982

27 McBroom,W.H, "Changes in role orientations of women: A study of sex role traditionalism over a five-year period" 7 : 149-159, 1986

28 Tellegen,A, "Brief manual of the Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire"

29 Zwick, R., "A simulation study of methods for assessing differential item functioning in computerized adaptive tests" 18 : 121-140, 1994

30 Scheuneman,J.D, "A method of assessing bias in test items" 16 (16): 143-152, 1979

31 Scheuneman, J. D., "A consumer's guide to statistics for identifying differential item functioning" 2 (2): 255-275, 1989

32 Rogers, H. J., "A comparison of logistic regression and Mantel-Haenszel procedures for detecting differential item functioning" 17 (17): 105-116, 1993