Expanding the Scope of Implicit Personality Assessment: An Examination of the Questionnaire-Based Implicit Association Test (qIAT)

Abstract

Self-report questionnaires can only yield information that people are able and willing to report, but implicit assessment methods are not commonly used in mainstream personality research. The Questionnaire-based Implicit Association Test (qIAT) was designed to address the limitations associated with the conventional self-concept IAT, and it enables an indirect assessment that is based on the items of standard self-reports. The present studies examined the psychometric properties of the qIAT across two personality constructs. Study 1 (N = 528) provided support for the internal consistency, test-retest reliability and convergent and discriminant validity of the qIAT that measured extraversion. Study 2 (N = 164) supported the reliability and validity of the qIAT assessment of conscientiousness, which predicted who returned to complete the second session of the study two weeks later, for which participants were paid in advance. This same prediction effect was marginally significant in Study 3 (N = 200), and across both Studies 2 and 3 the qIAT prediction of the criterion behavior was incremental to the parallel self-report questionnaire. Taken together, findings support the reliability and validity of the qIAT, which enables the indirect measurement of a wide variety of distinct personality constructs, currently measured only by self-report scales.

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“…They completed a series of self-report questionnaires related to reinforcement sensitivity, emotion regulation and affective pathology. At the end of the survey, they also completed unrelated behavioral tasks (e.g., see Friedman et al, 2020 for similar procedure). Participants were only included in the study if they had an approval rate of 95% or above with a history of at least 50 completed tasks.…”

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“…This also supports the approach that implicit FP represents a dimensional variable comparable to explicitly measured ED-specific psychopathology [ 36 , 37 ]. The correlation of qIAT D-scores with the EDI-2 subscales drive for thinness and body dissatisfaction may additionally be explained by the proximity of the qIAT to those explicit measures due to relatedness of item content [ 33 , 51 ], which might also be partly the case for EDE subscales restraint, eating, weight and shape concern [ 12 ]. The lack of correlations between the pIAT and most explicit ED-specific psychopathological measures could be explained by different types of indicators for the measured target construct [ 51 ].…”

“…The correlation of qIAT D-scores with the EDI-2 subscales drive for thinness and body dissatisfaction may additionally be explained by the proximity of the qIAT to those explicit measures due to relatedness of item content [ 33 , 51 ], which might also be partly the case for EDE subscales restraint, eating, weight and shape concern [ 12 ]. The lack of correlations between the pIAT and most explicit ED-specific psychopathological measures could be explained by different types of indicators for the measured target construct [ 51 ]. Semantically complex stimuli, such as those in the qIAT, activate a wider range of self-referential psychological constructs, which then more closely correspond to the assessment in self-reports [ 51 ].…”

“…The lack of correlations between the pIAT and most explicit ED-specific psychopathological measures could be explained by different types of indicators for the measured target construct [ 51 ]. Semantically complex stimuli, such as those in the qIAT, activate a wider range of self-referential psychological constructs, which then more closely correspond to the assessment in self-reports [ 51 ]. On a related note, while statements in the qIAT made it possible to map the thematic range of the four EDE subscales, the pIAT primarily addressed the shape concern subscale.…”

“…Compared to the pIAT results, the qIAT with its self-referential statements might have led to a greater relevance for their own body images and implicit beliefs. In addition, Friedman et al [ 51 ] support that the qIAT is a more appropriate measure of attitudes about the self—with better convergent validity with explicit measures—compared to other implicit measures. Due to the increased self-relevance and proximity to actual attitudes, the qIAT seems to provide more information regarding the implicit measurement of drive for thinness [ 33 ].…”