Personality traits are central to understanding individual differences in health, well-being, and psychopathology. However, comprehensive assessments like the Factorial Personality Battery (BFP) are time-consuming, limiting their practical application. This study aimed to develop and validate a short version of the BFP (BFP-short) to efficiently measure the Five-Factor Model (FFM) traits while maintaining psychometric robustness. Study 1 included 85,297 Brazilian adults (Mage = 33.2), and employed exploratory factor analysis and Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) to select the most informative items from the original BFP. Study 2 involved 1,259 adults (Mage = 35.6) and evaluated the internal structure and external validity of the BFP-short. Seven items were linguistically revised and the response format was reduced from seven to four categories for better usability. The BFP-short retained the five-domain FFM structure with 63 items across 17 specific factors. Confirmatory factor analysis indicated satisfactory model fit and internal consistency (α and ω ≈ 0.65–0.85). Correlations with the BFI-2-S supported convergent and discriminant validity, with expected strong domain-level associations and meaningful factor-level nuances. Some factors showed modest reliability due to brevity, but factorial and external validity indicators remained strong. The BFP-short is a psychometrically sound, time-efficient instrument for assessing the FFM traits. It offers practical advantages for research and clinical settings, with promising potential for broader implementation and cross-cultural adaptation.
Lucas Oliveira Rodrigues de Carvalho (Wed,) studied this question.