Normative Versus Ipsative Measurement

When you type “ipsative” in Microsoft Word, it may be flagged as a potential misspell. This goes to show how widely or well it is known. But actually, ipsative measurement is very useful in some circumstances. Ipsative personality measurement is simply an alternative format for presenting option sets in personality or attitudinal questionnaires. Ipsative personality measurement is not as famous as the popular normative measurement. Therefore, in this entry the characteristics of normative measures are introduced first then the ipsative measures follow.

Normative measures provide inter-individual differences assessment, whereas ipsative measures provide intra-individual differences assessment. Normative measurement is very popular and prominent in the United States, but ipsative measurement is getting wider use in Europe and Asia.