Preface
Along with scientific advancements in quantitative assessment in personality and social psychology has come
an explosion in both researchers’ interests in self-report/rating scales and objective performance test measures,as well as the ever increasing number of scales/measures available. The need for a comprehensive collection ofup-to-date leading instruments is clearly evident. This book builds on the volume edited by John P. Robinson,Phillip R. Shaver and Lawrence S. Wrightsman, in 1991. The editors of the previous book noted the proliferationof scales/measures at that time. Subsequent work has generated new and improved versions of existing scales,as well as entirely new areas of investigation. The task of providing a systematic review of social-personalitymeasures is no less daunting than it must have been in 1991 (prior to the advent of the internet).
We may echo also the statement by the previous editorial team that a book of this kind is a guide to the
researcher’s investigations, not an end-point of study. As Robinson et al. stated: ‘Whenever possible /C0given
copyright restrictions and authors’ justifiable reservations /C0we have included actual scale items and scoring
instructions. Nevertheless, these materials and our brief comments on them are no substitute for reading the orig-inal sources and subjecting the instruments to further item analyses and validation studies. This book is meant tobe a starting point, an idea generator, a guide /C0not the last stop on the way to a perfect measure.’ (1991, p. xiii)
We are privileged to have worked with some of the world’s leading researchers in editing this volume, which
would not have been possible without the diligence, commitment, and patience of the contributors. Producing a
book of this magnitude has also illuminated for us the impressive scope and depth of research involving contem-
porary social-personality measurement. Modern notions of validity encompass the use of scales/measures for aspecified purpose, and we hope readers will apply their own expertise in using this book as a resource. At thesame time, the evidence for reliability, validity, and utility of specific scales/measures remains variable, and amajor focus of this work has been to provide the detailed psychometric information necessary for the researcheror psychological practitioner to compare and contrast and to weigh up the various scales/measures available foreach construct covered. We have tried also to provide as much information as possible on locating the respectiveinstruments.
In line with ongoing advances in scientific technology and the contemporary trend towards the use of objective
measures in psychological research, our book also discusses the reliability, validity, and utility of behavioral,psychophysiological, chemical, and neuroscientific methods for measuring specific social-personality constructssuch as empathy or forgiveness. We are optimistic that their use, in the coming decades, in conjunction with themore traditional self-report and rating scales/measures, will enable significant advances in both personality andsocial psychology. We are especially excited about the prospects for using a combination of measures in appliedresearch, in line with the growing cultural acceptance of evidence-based approaches to a range of social-personality issues.
We thank the editorial team at Elsevier, especially Nikki Levy and Barbara Makinster, for their unstinting sup-
port of this project, and guiding us through the maze of obtaining permissions for scales.
Gregory J. Boyle
Donald H. Saklofske
Gerald Matthews
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