The Ten Item Personality Inventory (TIPI) is a self-report questionnaire designed to quickly measure the Big-Five personality dimensions. The Big-Five framework that classifies individual differences into five broad, empirically derived domains enjoys considerable support and has become the most widely used and extensively researched model of personality (Costa & McCrae, 1992). The TIPI is particularly useful in non-psychiatric populations.
The TIPI consists of the following five factors:
1. Extraversion: Measures sociability, assertiveness, and energy level
2. Agreeableness: Assesses interpersonal orientation and cooperation
3. Conscientiousness: Evaluates self-discipline, organization, and goal-directed behaviour
4. Emotional Stability: Measures emotional regulation and stress tolerance
5. Openness to Experience: Assesses intellectual curiosity and aesthetic appreciation
Example TIPI Item
TIPI’s author (Gosling, 2003) intended that this instrument would only be used in place of longer personality instruments when time is in short supply and when only a brief measure of the Big Five is feasible. Short item scales can eliminate item redundancy therefore reducing fatigue, boredom and frustration associated with answering longer personality inventories (Burisch, 1997).
Scores for each factor (ranging from 1 to 7) represent the average of that factor’s two items. Higher scores indicate greater levels of that personality characteristic. Scores are also presented as percentile ranks based on combined gender-normed data, where the 50th percentile represents average responses relative to the comparison group.
Each factor is assessed using the following items:
*Reverse-scored items (2, 4, 6, 8, 10)
Low scores on Emotional Stability have been shown to correlate with psychopathology while higher extraversion and agreeableness is correlated with psychological well-being (Lamers et al., 2012).
The Ten Item Personality Inventory was derived by drawing most heavily on Goldbergs (1992) list of unipolar and bipolar Big-Five markers, adjectives from the BFI, and John and Srivastavas (1999) Adjective Checklist Big-Five markers. The TIPI was validated by comparing the 10-item instrument with the 44-item Big-Five Inventory (BFI; see Benet-Martınez & John, 1998; John & Srivastava, 1999). The aim was to retain the brevity of the Five Item Personality Inventory (FIPI), while diminishing the limitations associated with it. Each item of the TIPI represents each pole (e.g., Extraversion vs. Introversion) of the five factor dimensions. In contrast to multi-item scales, the TIPI (with only two items per scale) emphasizes more on content validity considerations, resulting in lower inter-item correlations that is typical of more homogenous scales. The TIPI reached adequate levels in each of the criteria against which it was evaluated: convergent and discriminant validity, test–retest reliability and patterns of external correlates (Gosling et al., 2003).
The Gosling et al., 2003 data was used for norming purposes (calculation of percentiles) and are based upon 633 males and 1,173 females.
The TIPI is a brief 10-item measure of the Big Five personality dimensions: Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Emotional Stability, and Openness to Experience. Each dimension is assessed using just two items, making it one of the shortest validated personality measures available. Respondents rate how well paired personality traits apply to them on a 7-point scale, even if one characteristic in the pair applies more strongly than the other. Despite its brevity, the TIPI maintains reasonable psychometric properties and correlates well with longer personality measures.
The TIPI serves as a quick personality screening tool that can inform treatment planning and therapeutic relationships. It helps clinicians rapidly understand a client’s personality profile, which can guide intervention choices – for example, highly agreeable clients may respond well to collaborative approaches, while those low in conscientiousness might benefit from structured goal-setting.
TIPI scores range from 1-7 for each personality dimension, representing the average of that factor’s two items. Higher scores indicate greater levels of that personality characteristic. Scores are typically presented as percentile ranks compared to normative data, where the 50th percentile represents average responses. It’s important to remember that personality traits exist on a continuum – there are no “good” or “bad” scores, just different patterns that reflect individual differences in thinking, feeling, and behaving.
While the TIPI’s brevity is both its strength and limitation, research demonstrates it provides adequate reliability for research purposes and brief clinical screening. Each Big Five dimension is measured with only two items, which naturally limits reliability compared to longer measures. However, the TIPI shows good convergent validity with comprehensive personality inventories and maintains stable factor structure across different populations. It’s best used as a quick screening tool rather than for high-stakes decisions requiring precise personality assessment.
The TIPI prioritizes efficiency over comprehensiveness – it can be completed in under two minutes compared to 5 to 20+ minutes for the NFFPS- 30 or IPI-NEO-120. While longer measures provide detailed facet scores within each Big Five dimension (the NFFPS- 30 and IPI-NEO-120 has 6 facets per domain), the TIPI gives only broad domain scores. This makes the TIPI ideal for situations requiring quick personality screening, research with time constraints, or routine monitoring where the burden of longer assessments would be prohibitive. For detailed personality assessment or high-stakes applications, comprehensive measures remain preferable.
Gosling, S. D., Rentfrow, P. J., & Swann, W. B. (2003). A very brief measure of the Big-Five personality domains. Journal of Research in Personality, 37(6), 504–528. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0092-6566(03)00046-1
Benet-Martınez, V., & John, O. P. (1998). Los Cinco Grandes Across cultures and ethnic groups: Multitrait-multimethod analyses of the Big Five in Spanish and English. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 75, 729–750. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.75.3.729
Burisch, M. (1997). Test length and validity revisited. European Journal of Personality, 11, 303–315.
Costa, P. T., Jr., & McCrae, R. R. (1992). Revised NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-PI-R) and NEO Five-Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI) professional manual. Odessa, FL: Psychological Assessment Resources.
Costa, S., & Oliva, P. (2012). Examining relationship between personality characteristics and exercise dependence. Review of Psychology, 19(1), 5–12. https://hrcak.srce.hr/91383
Goldberg, L. R. (1992). The development of markers for the Big-Five factor structure. Psychological Assessment, 4, 26–42. https://doi.org/10.1037//1040-3590.4.1.26
John, O. P., & Srivastava, S. (1999). The Big Five trait taxonomy: History, measurement, and theoretical perspectives. In L. A. Pervin, & O. P. John (Eds.), Handbook of personality: Theory and research (pp. 102–138). New York: Guilford Press.
Lamers, S. M. A., Westerhof, G. J., Kovács, V., & Bohlmeijer, E. T. (2012). Differential relationships in the association of the Big Five personality traits with positive mental health and psychopathology. Journal of Research in Personality, 46(5), 517–524. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrp.2012.05.012
