2.2.3. External correlates
To test whether the patterns of external correlates of the FIPI matched the patterns
of external correlates of the BFI, we correlated both instruments with each
of the other constructs assessed in the testing battery. These patterns of external correlates
are shown separately for each of the Big-Five dimensions in Table 4. As one
would expect for such a broad array of constructs the magnitude of correlations varied
greatly. To test whether the patterns of correlations were similar across instruments,
we computed column-vector correlations for each of the five dimensions.
Specifically, we transformed the correlations using Fishers r-to-z formula and then
computed the correlation between the two columns of transformed correlations. As
shown by the column-vector correlations in Table 4, the FIPI displayed patterns of
correlations that were virtually identical to the BFI; column-vector correlations ranged
from .819 for Openness to .997 for Extraversion.4 Overall, the FIPI exhibited
patterns of correlations that matched very closely those obtained for the BFI. However,
because the FIPI was less reliable than the BFI the absolute magnitude of thecorrelations should be weaker. As shown in the bottom row of Table 4, the BFI consistently
yielded stronger correlations than the FIPI, although the magnitude of the
difference was small.
2.2.4. Convergence across self- and observer-reports
To examine the convergence between self- and observer-reports, we correlated
the self-reports with observer-reports obtained 2–9 weeks later. Recall that the observer-reports
were made on the basis of only a 15-min getting acquainted exercise
so we did not expect the magnitude of the correlations to be very strong. For the
purposes of evaluating the FIPI, we were primarily interested in comparing the
self-observer correlations obtained using the FIPI with those obtained using
the BFI. As shown in Table 5, the pattern of FIPI correlations generally matched
those of the BFI. However, the magnitude of the BFI correlations was stronger
than that of the FIPI correlations, especially for Extraversion, Agreeableness,
and Openness.