1. Defining a Construct and Writing Items Let’s suppose you want to design a scale of your own to measure a personality construct. For practice, start with something familiar like Agreeableness or Jealousy or Self-Esteem. Your task is now to write items that tap your construct. But first try to define what you mean by, for example, the concept agreeableness. For this purpose, use a comprehensive dictionary or use Google on the Internet and search for meanings and definitions for the word you have chosen. After you have a working definition, usually one or two sentences, you can use a dictionary or Google or Microsoft Word (Tools, Language, Thesaurus) to search for synonyms (and antonyms) and meanings where the meanings are in a natural context. You might also search for articles in psychology journals using APA PsycINFO and look at how the authors describe the construct and associated contexts in the Introduction and in the Discussion sections. In the case of Agreeableness, the context is usually other people Then construct sentences, often starting with the word I, around the adjectives and use different situations. For example, “I am always pleasant toward other people.” Or, “When somebody says something I don’t agree with, I just let it go and don’t say anything about it.” After you have written a set of 10–12 items, go to somebody you know who really exemplifies the construct you are measuring—for example, the most agreeable, kindhearted, pleasant person you know—and explain to him or her what you are trying to do and ask for personal anecdotes and examples of when she or he was very agreeable. Use these as ideas for writing more items. After you have gone through your final list of items and eliminated phrases and words that are repetitive or redundant, look at the whole array of concepts and make sure that you have adequately represented the construct and range of situations, and included some negatively worded items. Then develop your final scale, give it a neutral title, make copies, and give it to a sample of 20–30 people. Tell some of the people who complete it what you are doing and ask for feedback on the wording of the items. Examine the responses and see how consistent the answers are and if there is a range of responses on each item. You might also want to do Exercise 2 below using the responses you have obtained in your sample to check out coefficient alpha for your scale and to see which items should be deleted to improve coefficient alpha.