Introduction

With assessment techniques, ipsativity refers to the comparisons made between two or more dimensions being measured, rather than comparing them to a larger group, such as what normative approaches do.

Generalities

Ipsativity is intrapersonal as it deals with various attributes of a single individual. The peculiar name “Ipsative” comes from the Latin word ipse, which means "of the self." Ipsative assessments typically ask questions requiring forced choices, such as True/False, Yes/No, or by ranking the attributes presented in order.

With ipsative measures, we are dealing with "within-person" comparisons, rather than comparisons with other people, as is the case with normative measures. The results of the same person’s various attributes are compared with each other at one point in time, or an attribute’s value is compared with other values at different times.

GRI Measures

The GRI survey is a free-choice survey that combines the advantages of ipsativity with normative distributions. Respondents may choose as many or as few adjectives as they like in responding to the two questions. They both check and don’t check.

Once scored, the results are standardized. This process converts the measures to a scale with a mean of 0 and a standard deviation of 1. The new values are called z-scores, and the resulting distribution is called a standard normal distribution.

A profile is then analyzed by comparing the results of each factor to the larger population and by comparing each factor with the three others. The standardization puts the four factors on the same scale and allows for direct comparison of scores that have very different means and standard deviations.

Notes