Short Scales – Five Misunderstandings and Ways to Overcome Them

What do we know about short psychological scales? The idea for this special issue of the Journal of Individual Differences was born out of a common interest in short scales, defined as scales measuring a specific psychological construct with fewer than, say, 10 items. All editors of this special issue were recently either active in short scale construction themselves (Kemper, Beierlein, Kovaleva, & Rammstedt, 2013; Ziegler, Kemper, & Rammstedt, 2013) or evaluated the current status of short scales in the field (Kemper, Brahler, & Zenger, 2013; Kruyen, Emons, & Sijtsma, 2012, 2013a, 2013b, 2014). Based on discussions with other scientists about the challenges and caveats of short scales, they felt a strong need to share contemporary issues regarding short scales with a broader scientific audience. This special issue brings together a variety of researchers who have approached the topic of short scales from different angles. It is our ambition to resolve some misunderstandings and open questions regarding the construction, psychometric quality, and use of short scales by bringing together methodological, statistical, and constructionoriented perspectives. We aim at contributing to an ongoing debate regarding the utility as well as caveats concerning the use of short scales for the measurement of individual differences. At the same time we hope to dispel some existing misunderstandings.