Glossary
A reference for the concepts, measurements, and frameworks TraitLab uses. Written in plain language, with examples.
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Foundational concepts
The core ideas that show up across every personality assessment.
The Big Five is the most well-supported model of personality structure, describing individual differences along five broad dimensions: Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism.
Classical test theory is a foundational framework in psychometrics holding that any observed test score is made up of a person's true score plus random measurement error.
A construct is a theoretical concept, like intelligence or extraversion, that can't be observed directly but is inferred from patterns in observable behavior.
Face validity is whether a test appears, on the surface, to measure what it claims to measure — regardless of whether it actually does.
Factor analysis is a statistical method for finding a small number of underlying dimensions that explain the pattern of correlations among a larger set of measured variables.
Item response theory is a modern approach to psychometrics that models how the probability of a specific answer relates to a person's underlying trait level, item by item.
A latent variable is an unobserved factor, like a personality trait or attitude, that is inferred statistically from patterns among variables that can be directly observed.
Personality is the relatively enduring pattern of traits, motives, and characteristic ways of thinking, feeling, and behaving that makes each person distinct.
Reliability is the consistency of a measurement — whether it produces the same result when nothing about what's being measured has actually changed.
A self-report measure is an assessment in which people answer questions about their own thoughts, feelings, or behaviors, rather than being observed or rated by someone else.
A state is a temporary psychological or emotional condition, such as feeling anxious or energized, that fluctuates within a person from moment to moment.
A trait is a relatively stable pattern of thinking, feeling, and behaving that differs from person to person and persists across time and situations.
Validity is whether a test actually measures the thing it claims to measure, rather than something else entirely.
All terms
Every term, alphabetical.
