Internet-Based Personality Testing : Equivalence of Measures and Assesses' Perceptions and Reactions

New information technology (e.g., Internet) allows some personnel selection procedures to be adapted to or developed with this new framework. However, the process of adaptation or development of new procedures produces new questions for research. This paper has three main objectives. First, to examine whether the paper-and-pencil version of a Big Five personality questionnaire can be translated to an Internet-based version without loss of psychometric properties. Second, to explore the perception and reactions of the examinees to the new version of the questionnaire. Third, to analyze the relationship among the individual's personality characteristics and the perceptions and reactions to the Internet-based version of the questionnaire. Two studies investigated these objectives. Study 1 showed that both versions were completely equivalent in terms of distributions, reliability, and factor structure. Study 2 showed that the examinees perceived the Internet-based version as more comfortable, less intimidating, and they prefer the Internet-based version. This study also showed that there are no relevant relationships among the individual's personality characteristics and their perceptions and reactions. The implications for research and practice are discussed