16PF5 Questionnaire - What's the Difference?
The fifth edition of the 16PF® questionnaire has been available for over 10 years, however a number of qualified users are still using the fourth edition. Here we look at the key developments of the fifth edition, which offers some significant advantages over preceding editions.
Key differences:
The questionsThe developers of the 16PF Version 5 have taken steps to make the questions clearer, shorter, less ambiguous and easier to read. Unnecessarily complicated questions have been re-phrased or removed. This was not about "dumbing down" the instrument but about making it fairer, clearer and more acceptable to respondents asked to take the questionnaire.
Some questions that could be challenged on the basis of gender, race, culture, religion or disability, or that showed statistical biases on these factors have been removed. The 16PF5 is less likely than the fourth edition to be challenged by respondents in this way. We have also removed those questions which were dated, or that were likely to become dated, giving the 16PF5 a more contemporary feel. Questions that were seen as extremely socially desirable or undesirable have been removed, as have questions where almost everyone picked the same option. This means that the fifth edition will be less prone to response biases than earlier versions.
Order & formatTo make the questionnaire easier to complete, all the questions (other than those relating to Reasoning) now have the same consistent response format, with "?" as the middle response.
All of the Reasoning (Factor B) questions have now been moved to the end of the questionnaire. As a result, respondents find the questionnaire more straightforward to complete, and it is also easier for administrators to ask respondents to omit these questions if so desired.
Scale reliability & norm tablesScale reliabilities have been improved, without significantly reducing the breadth of the factors. Higher reliabilities mean that 16PF users can have more confidence in the accuracy of the results they obtain from the questionnaire, and that there is less likelihood that respondents will disagree with their results.
The 16PF5 has been standardised on a representative sample of the UK population, meaning that large and representative norm groups are available. OPP Ltd has an ongoing programme of research, and is happy to work with clients to develop their own norm tables.
British validity data is available for the 16PF5, and OPP Ltd is keen to work with clients to develop this further.
New scale namesNew scale names have been developed; those being given feedback find these easier to understand and remember than the fourth edition scale names. An integrated profile chart and feedback sheet is now available.
Assessment methodsThe 16PF5 is now more accessible than ever before, with paper & pen self-scoreable sheets, OnSite PC-based software to administer at your desk, or on the Internet through 16PFworld.com. These methods have been developed specifically with high volume and international users in mind, helping to make the instrument more accessible and less time consuming to administer.
The paper based version of 16PF 5 questionnaire is available in English (UK), Danish, French (European), Norwegian, Swedish.
The online 16PFWorld.com gives you access to all of these languages and in addition, Danish, Dutch, English (for Australia), English (for Canada), English (for USA), German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish (Castilian) and Turkish.
For these and other reasons, IPAT Inc. and OPP Ltd believe that the fifth edition is a significant step forward, and would encourage any clients who are still using the fourth edition to change. Existing users may of course have some concerns, including:
Does the fifth edition actually measure the same thing as the fourth edition? Do the factors have the same meaning?The fifth edition was originally developed from a large pool of items taken from Forms A, B, C, D and E of the fourth edition, and a key aim of the project was to maintain the meaning of the factors. Most of the fifth edition scales show a high degree of correlation with the corresponding fourth edition scales; the median correlation is 0.53, very similar to the median internal consistency reliability of the fourth edition factors.
If the factors now have greater reliability, has this been achieved at the expense of making the factors narrower?In developing the fifth edition, special attention was paid to ensuring that all the important content areas for a factor were covered. While having acceptable internal consistency reliability was an important aim, this was secondary to maintaining the diversity of the factors. The median internal consistency reliability for the British version is 0.73, representing an effective balance between scale breadth and internal consistency.
What about existing client-specific fourth edition norms?Some clients may have collected norms or other data on the fourth edition, and are therefore reluctant to move to a version of the questionnaire where they are starting from scratch. Equations have been developed to convert fourth edition norms and scores to simulated fifth edition scores, and client data can therefore be recalibrated in order to facilitate a move to the fifth edition. OPP Ltd is very happy to help with this process and with developing new norms. |