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Development and Validation of the Temperament and Affectivity Inventory (TAI)
David Watson1, Sara M Stasik2, Michael Chmielewski3
1University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN, USA db.watson@nd.edu.
Assessment
|November 15, 2014
Summary
The new Temperament and Affectivity Inventory (TAI) offers a reliable method for assessing trait affectivity, overcoming limitations of older scales. This inventory shows strong validity and stability for personality and psychopathology assessment.
Area of Science:
- Psychological assessment
- Personality psychology
- Clinical psychology
Background:
- Trait affect scales have been used for over 50 years in assessment literature.
- Existing scales show construct validity but suffer from retrospective biases, lower temporal stability, and reduced self-other agreement.
Purpose of the Study:
- To introduce the Temperament and Affectivity Inventory (TAI) as a novel instrument for assessing trait affectivity.
- To address the limitations identified in traditional trait affect scales.
Main Methods:
- Developed 12 TAI scales using a traditional personality format (full sentences).
- Conducted factor analyses in two initial samples.
- Validated the TAI scales across four additional independent samples.
Main Results:
- The TAI scales demonstrated internal consistency and high temporal stability.
- The inventory exhibited strong convergent, discriminant, and incremental validity.
- Results were consistent across self-report and interview-based measures of personality and psychopathology.
Conclusions:
- The Temperament and Affectivity Inventory (TAI) presents a promising advancement in the assessment of trait affectivity.
- The TAI overcomes key limitations of previous measures, offering enhanced reliability and validity in psychological assessment.
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