Skip to contents

LikertMakeR Validation

This paper reports on a study that compares data produced using LikertMakeR with original data from a published and publicly-available source.

Abstract

The LikertMakeR::lfast() function generally produces surprisingly good replications of existing data.

Data distributions usually are unimodal, so multimodal (or wiggly) data are poorly represented.

Highly leptokurtic data (pointy with wide tails) also may be poorly represented.

These exceptions are likely to occur when more than one utility function is included in the original sample data. That is, when different groups of respondents are joined together.

Validation against real data

One objective of the LikertMakeR package (Winzar 2022) is to “reproduce” or “reverse engineer” rating-scale data for further analysis and visualization when only summary statistics are available. In such a role, the synthetic data should accurately represent the original data, meaning both should plausibly originate from the same population.

To validate synthetic data, we choose a data set that is readily available, and which can be filtered to represent rating-scale data that may be commonly seen in published reports.

We should compare data with variations in:

  • sample sizes,
  • number of increments in a scale. Number of increments may be defined by:
    • number of items in the scale
    • length of the scale item (1 to 5; 0 to 10; etc.)
  • modality: the extent that a distribution shows bumps or something other than a smooth hill.

SPI (SAPA Personality Inventory)

For convenience and reproducibility, I chose a subsample of the SAPA Personality Inventory (Condon 2023) data available from the psych (Revelle 2024) and psychtools (William Revelle 2024) packages for R. The data set holds 4000 observations of 145 variables.

Variable/ scale selection

The SPI is based on a hierarchical framework for assessing personality at two levels. The higher level has the familiar “Big Five” factors that have been studied in personality research since the 1980s.

In the SPI, each of these five dimensions is represented by the average of fourteen 6-point agree-disagree items. That is, scale values have a scale with 14 * 6 = 84 possible values.

Big Five Personality Dimensions
Conscientiousness
Agreeableness
Neuroticism
Openness
Extraversion

The lower level has 27 factors, made by averaging five 6-point items, most of which are sub-scales of the Big Five. These give scales with 5 * 6 = 30 possible values.

List of SPI Facets
Adaptability Anxiety ArtAppreciation
AttentionSeeking Authoritarianism Charisma
Compassion Conformity Conservatism
Creativity EasyGoingness EmotionalExpressiveness
EmotionalStability Honesty Humor
Impulsivity Industry Intellect
Introspection Irritability Order
Perfectionism SelfControl SensationSeeking
Sociability Trust WellBeing

Finally, these dimensions and facets are made by averaging subsets of 135 items (individual questions). Each item then is a scale with 1 * 6 = 6 possible values.

Scale properties under consideration
Property Dimensions Facets Items
Number of scales 5 27 135
Items per scale 14 5 1
Discrete values per scale 84 30 6

Measures of Difference

The function LikertMakeR::lfast() produces a vector of values with predefined first and second moments usually correct to two decimal places. Vectors also have exact minima & maxima, and scale intervals.

To determine whether synthetic data are no different from the data that produced the original summary statistics, we need something more than just equal mean and standard deviation. We need measures that can accommodate third and fourth moments (skewness and kurtosis) as well. Further, a comparison should accommodate occasional bimodal distributions that may occur.

Choice of Test for Equal Distributions

To assess the similarity between synthetic data generated by LikertMakeR and real survey data, we evaluate the agreement between their empirical distributions using nonparametric two-sample tests.

Several tests are available for comparing continuous distributions:

  • The Kolmogorov–Smirnov (KS) test focuses on the maximum vertical distance between the empirical cumulative distribution functions (ECDFs) of the two samples. The KS test has reduced sensitivity near the centre of the distribution and excessive sensitivity to extreme values (Lilliefors 1967).

  • The Baumgartner–Weiß–Schindler (BWS) test (Baumgartner, Weiß, and Schindler 1998)
    improves upon the KS test by incorporating differences across the entire distribution, using a rank-based test statistic derived from integrated spacing differences. The BWS test is more powerful than either the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test or the Wilcoxon test (Pav 2023), as shown in Baumgartner, Weiß, and Schindler (1998). It is sensitive to both location and shape differences and generally has greater power across a variety of alternatives (Neuhäuser 2001; Neuhäuser and Ruxton 2009).

  • The Neuhäuser modification of the BWS test introduces a weighting function that emphasizes differences in the central region of the distribution while reducing the influence of the tails (Neuhäuser 2001). This makes it more robust to small discrepancies in the extremes — a desirable property in large samples where minor tail mismatches can lead to false positives (Neuhäuser 2005).

Overall, The researcher might want to use the BWS test to see if LikertMakeR::lfast() gives an exact replication of a scale, and use the Neuhäuser test option to see if the function produces a “pretty good” dataframe. So, we present summary results for both tests in this study.

Comparison of BWS and Neuhäuser Methods
Feature method = “BWS” method = “Neuhäuser”
Test Statistic Based on comparing quantiles Based on comparing ranks.
Sensitivity More sensitive to shape differences. Less sensitive to shape differences.
Robustness to Outliers Less robust to outliers. More robust to outliers.
Focus Sensitive to general differences across the ranks Less sensitive to tail differences.
Type of Differences More likely to pick up on subtle differences Less likely to pick up on subtle differences

Research Design

We suspect that the accuracy of data created by LikertMakeR::lfast() will be affected by:

  • the shape of the true distribution
  • sample-size
  • number of discrete intervals in a scale

That is, highly skewed and multimodal distributions, and smaller sample sizes, are likely to be less well replicated by synthetic data generated by LikertMakeR::lfast().

Data selection

The SPI dataset includes demographic information on which we can filter the 4000 observations down to sample-sizes that we are more likely to find in normal social research. Somewhat arbitrarily, I decided to use Age, Gender, and Education as filters.

Small sample

Young highly-educated men

young_highly_educated_men <- spi |>
  filter(age < 24 & sex == 1 & education == 7)

## where, sex==1 = 'male'
##        education == 7 = 'postgraduate degree'

This filtering produced a sample of 19 observations.

Medium sample

Young educated women

young_educated_women <- spi |>
  filter(age < 24 & sex == 2 & education >= 5)

## where, "sex==2" = 'female'
##        "education >= 5" = 'undergraduate degree or higher'

This filtering produced a sample of 99 observations.

Large sample

Young school-leavers

under_18_highschool <- spi |>
  filter(age < 18 & education == 1)

## where, "education == 1" = 'Less than 12 years schooling'

This filtering produced a sample of 314 observations.

Procedure

We have three samples with small, medium and large sample-sizes.

  • small, 19 observations
  • medium, 99 observations
  • large, 314 observations

And we have three levels of data aggregation:

  • 5 dimensions, each of 14 items
  • 27 factors, each of 5 items
  • 135 individual items

This gives us (3 * (5 + 27 + 135) = 501) data subsets.

For each combination of sample and data-level we find the mean and standard deviation of the data subset, then apply the LikertMakeR::lfast function to produce 2^10 = 1024 simulated dataframes to compare with the true original dataframes from the SPI data.

We compare the Empirical Cumulative Density Function (ECDF) of each simulated dataframe with the ECDF of the original dataframe using both the BWS and Neuhäuser methods. With more than 1000 tests on each of 501 original dataframes we should be able to see how accurate our simulations are.

Original Data

We present charts as summary information about the three levels of data under consideration. These are bar-charts for each measurement level combined with kernel density estimates.

SPI Big Five Dimensions

Each of the Big Five measures is the average of 14 six-point items. So there are 14 * 6 = 84 potential values in each scale. Note then, how a small sample size has much more sparse values than a larger sample.

Otherwise, the distributions tend to be unimodal, with fairly smooth kernel density curves.

Bar and kernel density plots of Big 5 for three samplesBar and kernel density plots of Big 5 for three samplesBar and kernel density plots of Big 5 for three samples

Big 5 Dimensions for three samples

SPI 27 Facets

Each of the SPI facets is the average of five six-point items, giving 5 * 6 = 30 potential values in each facet measure.

Again, the distributions tend to be unimodal, with smooth kernel density curves.

Bar and density plots of 27 facets for three samplesBar and density plots of 27 facets for three samplesBar and density plots of 27 facets for three samples

SPI facets for three samples

Selected SPI items

We simulated data for 135 individual items - too many to show meaningfully. We present here a sample of those few that showed unusual results in the simulations.

In these cases data were either highly skewed, or bimodal (or at least flat in parts).

Bar and density plots for selected SPI items for three samplesBar and density plots for selected SPI items for three samplesBar and density plots for selected SPI items for three samples

Selected SPI items for three samples

Results

The following tables list the dimension under consideration and the proportion of cases in each of the three samples that ere ‘statistically significant’ (ρ\rho < 0.05).

Tables show the BWS test / Neuhäuser test.

Big Five Dimensions validity

Fourteen six-point items (84 levels in scale)

Proportion of statistically-significant simulations (BWS/Neuhäuser)
young men
postgrad
n=19
young women
graduates
n=99
under-18
highschool
n=314
Agreeableness 0.00 / 0.00 0.00 / 0.00 0.00 / 0.00
Conscientiousness 0.00 / 0.00 0.00 / 0.00 0.01 / 0.00
Extraversion 0.00 / 0.00 0.00 / 0.00 0.00 / 0.00
Neuroticism 0.00 / 0.00 0.00 / 0.00 0.00 / 0.00
Openness 0.00 / 0.00 0.00 / 0.00 0.04 / 0.00

With smooth kernel density estimates, as we saw above, all cases were non-significant, suggesting that such data are well-reproduced by the LikertMakeR::lfast() function.

SPI Facets (Subscale) validity

Five six-point items (30 potential values in scale)

Proportion of statistically-significant simulations (BWS/Neuhäuser)
young men
postgrad
n=19
young women
graduates
n=99
under-18
highschool
n=314
Adaptability 0.00 / 0.00 0.00 / 0.00 1.00 / 0.00
Anxiety 0.00 / 0.00 0.01 / 0.00 1.00 / 0.00
ArtAppreciation 0.00 / 0.00 0.00 / 0.00 1.00 / 0.00
AttentionSeeking 0.00 / 0.00 0.00 / 0.00 1.00 / 0.03
Authoritarianism 0.00 / 0.00 0.00 / 0.00 1.00 / 0.00
Charisma 0.00 / 0.00 0.00 / 0.00 1.00 / 0.00
Compassion 0.00 / 0.00 0.86 / 0.00 1.00 / 0.00
Conformity 0.00 / 0.00 0.00 / 0.00 1.00 / 0.00
Conservatism 0.00 / 0.00 0.08 / 0.00 1.00 / 0.00
Creativity 0.00 / 0.00 0.10 / 0.00 1.00 / 0.00
EasyGoingness 0.00 / 0.00 0.16 / 0.00 1.00 / 0.00
EmotionalExpressiveness 0.00 / 0.00 0.00 / 0.00 1.00 / 0.00
EmotionalStability 0.00 / 0.00 0.08 / 0.00 1.00 / 0.04
Honesty 0.00 / 0.00 0.05 / 0.00 1.00 / 0.00
Humor 0.02 / 0.00 0.40 / 0.00 1.00 / 0.00
Impulsivity 0.00 / 0.00 0.00 / 0.00 1.00 / 0.00
Industry 0.00 / 0.00 0.00 / 0.00 1.00 / 0.00
Intellect 0.00 / 0.00 0.22 / 0.00 1.00 / 0.00
Introspection 0.99 / 0.00 1.00 / 0.00 1.00 / 0.00
Irritability 0.00 / 0.00 0.00 / 0.00 1.00 / 0.00
Order 0.00 / 0.00 0.00 / 0.00 1.00 / 0.00
Perfectionism 0.00 / 0.00 0.15 / 0.00 1.00 / 0.00
SelfControl 0.00 / 0.00 0.19 / 0.00 1.00 / 0.00
SensationSeeking 0.00 / 0.00 0.00 / 0.00 1.00 / 0.00
Sociability 0.00 / 0.00 0.00 / 0.00 1.00 / 0.00
Trust 0.00 / 0.00 0.00 / 0.00 1.00 / 0.00
WellBeing 0.00 / 0.00 0.00 / 0.00 1.00 / 0.00

When the BWS test is applied to the larger sample, all simulations are significantly different from the original data. This is probably due to the smaller standard error produced by a larger sample.

Interestingly, the Neuhäuser test, which is less sensitive to outliers, suggested that all simulations are good representations of the original.

The facet, Introspection, stands out as one that is rarely accurately reproduced by the LikertMakeR::lfast() function, using the BWS test, regardless of sample size.

Other facets that are worth exploring in more detail are: Compassion, Humor, Intellect, SelfControl, EasyGoingness, and Perfectionism. These facets have high rates of significance in the mid-sample-size condition.

Focus on “Introspection” facet

The following chart shows kernel density plots for facet Introspection in the three samples.

Each of the 1024 synthetic dataframes is represented by a grey/black line, and the original “true” dataframe is represented by a blue/cyan line.

density plots for 'Introspection' facet for three samplesdensity plots for 'Introspection' facet for three samplesdensity plots for 'Introspection' facet for three samples

Introspection facet: Density plot for small, medium and large samples

We see that the synthetic data never match the true data, especially in the middle and large sample sizes.

The original, true, data are highly left-skewed, and this has been nicely captured by the synthetic data. Note, however, that the true dataframe is not unimodal. The kernel density estimate appears rough and slightly multimodal. It’s more wobbly.

focus on “Compassion” facet

The following chart shows kernel density plots for facet Compassion in the three samples.

Again, each of the 1024 synthetic dataframes is represented by a grey/black line, and the original “true” dataframe is represented by a blue/cyan line.

kernel density plots for 'Compassion' facet for three sampleskernel density plots for 'Compassion' facet for three sampleskernel density plots for 'Compassion' facet for three samples

Compassion facet: Kernel Density plots for small, medium and large samples

For this factor the BWS test showed no cases where the synthetic data were significantly different from the original data for the smaller sample. But for the medium and large samples, the original data are not unimodal, and the BWS test suggests that all synthetic replications are different from the original.

Other notable facets
Humor
kernel density plots for 'Humor' facet for three sampleskernel density plots for 'Humor' facet for three sampleskernel density plots for 'Humor' facet for three samples

Humor facet: Kernel Density plots for small, medium and large samples

Intellect
kernel density plots for 'Intellect' facet for three sampleskernel density plots for 'Intellect' facet for three sampleskernel density plots for 'Intellect' facet for three samples

Intellect facet: Kernel Density plots for small, medium and large samples

SelfControl
kernel density plots for 'SelfControl' facet for three sampleskernel density plots for 'SelfControl' facet for three sampleskernel density plots for 'SelfControl' facet for three samples

SelfControl facet: Kernel Density plots for small, medium and large samples

EasyGoingness
kernel density plots for 'EasyGoingness' facet for three sampleskernel density plots for 'EasyGoingness' facet for three sampleskernel density plots for 'EasyGoingness' facet for three samples

EasyGoingness facet: Kernel Density plots for small, medium and large samples

Perfectionism
kernel density plots for 'Perfectionism' facet for three sampleskernel density plots for 'Perfectionism' facet for three sampleskernel density plots for 'Perfectionism' facet for three samples

Perfectionism facet: Kernel Density plots for small, medium and large samples

SPI Item validity

Each scale is a single six-point item.

In almost all cases, the Baumgartner–Weiß–Schindler (BWS) test showed a statistically significant difference between actual data and synthetic data. In most cases, however, the Neuhäuser test, which is more robust to outliers, was not statistically significant.

The appendix table shows summary results for the three data sets for all 135 items, indicating the proportion of cases where distribution comparison tests were ‘statistically significant’ (ρ\rho < 0.05).

In about 37 of the 135 items (27%) did the BWS test show proportion of significant simulations less than 80%.

The following are some sample item results for each of the three samples

Original data histograms

kernel density plots for young highly-educated men

Selected items

kernel density plots for young educated women

Selected items

kernel density plots for under-18 high-school education

Selected items

Synthetic data density plots

q_1685 ‘Seldom joke around’

kernel density plots for 'q_1685 Seldom joke around' item for three sampleskernel density plots for 'q_1685 Seldom joke around' item for three sampleskernel density plots for 'q_1685 Seldom joke around' item for three samples

q_1685 ‘Seldom joke around’: Kernel Density plots for small, medium and large samples

q_1896 ‘Use others for my own ends’

kernel density plots for 'q_1058 Use others for my own ends' item for three sampleskernel density plots for 'q_1058 Use others for my own ends' item for three sampleskernel density plots for 'q_1058 Use others for my own ends' item for three samples

q_1058 ‘Use others for my own ends’: Kernel Density plots for small, medium and large samples

q_1989 ‘Worry about things’

kernel density plots for 'q_1058 Use others for my own ends' item for three sampleskernel density plots for 'q_1058 Use others for my own ends' item for three sampleskernel density plots for 'q_1058 Use others for my own ends' item for three samples

q_1989 ‘Worry about things’: Kernel Density plots for small, medium and large samples

q_755 ‘Enjoy examining myself and my life’

kernel density plots for 'q_755 Enjoy examining myself and my life' item for three sampleskernel density plots for 'q_755 Enjoy examining myself and my life' item for three sampleskernel density plots for 'q_755 Enjoy examining myself and my life' item for three samples

q_755 ‘Enjoy examining myself and my life’: Kernel Density plots for small, medium and large samples

Summary Results

Results are much as we might expect:

Unimodal data are good, multimodal less so

Multimodal data are not well-represented by the LikertMakeR::lfast() function, which consistently generates unimodal data.

Larger sample sizes produce smoother unimodal data distributions

Original data in the very small sample size in the 19-subjects group frequently were multimodal, whereas original data from the medium-sized and large-sized groups were more often unimodal.

Sample size alone does not affect accuracy of data synthisis.

There did not seem to be much difference in results for different sample sizes.

Third and Fourth moments can affect accurcy

Leptokurtic (pointy) distributions and platykurtic (flatter) distributions seem to affect results. We shouldn’t be surprised since the generating algorithm focuses on first (mean) and second (standard deviation) moments.

Appendix

Summary results for individual items

Rating scale items ranging from ‘1’ to ‘6’ from the SPI data set, for three samples of different sizes.

Proportion of statistically-significant simulations (BWS/Neuhauser)
young men
postgrad
n=19
young women
graduates
n=99
under-18
highschool
n=314
q_253 1.000 / 0.021 1.000 / 0.003 1.000 / 0.003
q_952 1.000 / 0.001 1.000 / 0.002 1.000 / 0.077
q_1904 0.399 / 0.000 1.000 / 0.020 1.000 / 0.025
q_578 1.000 / 0.002 1.000 / 0.009 1.000 / 0.026
q_1367 1.000 / 0.000 1.000 / 0.013 1.000 / 0.026
q_4252 0.185 / 0.001 1.000 / 0.025 1.000 / 0.283
q_4296 1.000 / 0.001 1.000 / 0.010 1.000 / 0.073
q_904 0.948 / 0.005 1.000 / 0.039 1.000 / 0.005
q_240 1.000 / 0.000 1.000 / 0.001 1.000 / 0.062
q_2745 1.000 / 0.008 1.000 / 0.011 1.000 / 0.036
q_35 1.000 / 0.003 1.000 / 0.011 1.000 / 0.122
q_565 0.662 / 0.003 1.000 / 0.008 1.000 / 0.058
q_1201 1.000 / 0.000 1.000 / 0.033 1.000 / 0.070
q_1624 0.094 / 0.001 1.000 / 0.000 1.000 / 0.013
q_1045 1.000 / 0.006 1.000 / 0.084 1.000 / 0.119
q_1855 1.000 / 0.000 1.000 / 0.027 1.000 / 0.077
q_1243 1.000 / 0.075 1.000 / 0.019 1.000 / 0.170
q_219 0.496 / 0.001 1.000 / 0.004 1.000 / 0.036
q_610 1.000 / 0.001 1.000 / 0.040 1.000 / 0.535
q_1389 1.000 / 0.000 1.000 / 0.009 1.000 / 0.002
q_530 0.662 / 0.000 1.000 / 0.026 1.000 / 0.156
q_56 0.351 / 0.001 1.000 / 0.024 1.000 / 0.083
q_152 0.294 / 0.003 1.000 / 0.020 1.000 / 0.062
q_566 1.000 / 0.001 1.000 / 0.012 1.000 / 0.010
q_1329 1.000 / 0.002 1.000 / 0.024 1.000 / 0.007
q_979 0.998 / 0.001 1.000 / 0.000 1.000 / 0.002
q_345 1.000 / 0.000 1.000 / 0.000 1.000 / 0.015
q_90 1.000 / 0.017 1.000 / 0.000 1.000 / 0.006
q_1357 1.000 / 0.001 1.000 / 0.002 1.000 / 0.021
q_312 0.823 / 0.000 1.000 / 0.011 1.000 / 0.004
q_811 1.000 / 0.000 1.000 / 0.000 1.000 / 0.001
q_1664 1.000 / 0.001 1.000 / 0.001 1.000 / 0.009
q_1989 0.072 / 0.001 1.000 / 0.007 1.000 / 0.833
q_1812 1.000 / 0.007 1.000 / 0.002 1.000 / 0.000
q_1744 0.881 / 0.001 1.000 / 0.048 1.000 / 0.035
q_1253 1.000 / 0.004 1.000 / 0.021 1.000 / 0.052
q_128 1.000 / 0.000 1.000 / 0.014 1.000 / 0.103
q_1173 1.000 / 0.000 1.000 / 0.021 1.000 / 0.043
q_1027 0.284 / 0.000 1.000 / 0.011 1.000 / 0.058
q_1254 1.000 / 0.000 1.000 / 0.001 1.000 / 0.000
q_1867 0.664 / 0.002 1.000 / 0.000 1.000 / 0.004
q_254 0.192 / 0.003 1.000 / 0.030 1.000 / 0.121
q_4289 1.000 / 0.000 1.000 / 0.011 1.000 / 0.093
q_1244 1.000 / 0.005 1.000 / 0.005 1.000 / 0.035
q_1081 0.111 / 0.002 1.000 / 0.000 1.000 / 0.009
q_348 1.000 / 0.000 1.000 / 0.007 1.000 / 0.241
q_1738 1.000 / 0.096 1.000 / 0.028 1.000 / 0.000
q_1915 0.067 / 0.000 1.000 / 0.007 1.000 / 0.089
q_736 1.000 / 0.001 1.000 / 0.003 1.000 / 0.033
q_1300 0.153 / 0.008 1.000 / 0.078 1.000 / 0.103
q_689 1.000 / 0.031 1.000 / 0.056 1.000 / 0.031
q_1281 1.000 / 0.000 1.000 / 0.041 1.000 / 0.014
q_174 1.000 / 0.000 1.000 / 0.001 1.000 / 0.000
q_660 1.000 / 0.000 1.000 / 0.000 1.000 / 0.013
q_1763 1.000 / 0.014 1.000 / 0.160 1.000 / 0.002
q_1683 0.228 / 0.006 1.000 / 0.053 1.000 / 0.099
q_1923 1.000 / 0.003 1.000 / 0.005 1.000 / 0.000
q_2765 1.000 / 0.014 1.000 / 0.021 1.000 / 0.102
q_1781 0.308 / 0.000 1.000 / 0.066 1.000 / 0.113
q_4249 0.110 / 0.003 1.000 / 0.012 1.000 / 0.042
q_501 1.000 / 0.000 1.000 / 0.017 1.000 / 0.036
q_1444 1.000 / 0.018 1.000 / 0.004 1.000 / 0.000
q_493 1.000 / 0.000 1.000 / 0.009 1.000 / 0.039
q_2754 1.000 / 0.036 1.000 / 0.009 1.000 / 0.120
q_1424 0.851 / 0.010 1.000 / 0.062 1.000 / 0.076
q_1416 0.275 / 0.009 1.000 / 0.010 1.000 / 0.003
q_1483 0.729 / 0.003 1.000 / 0.013 1.000 / 0.000
q_1609 0.958 / 0.001 1.000 / 0.015 1.000 / 0.000
q_1242 1.000 / 0.027 1.000 / 0.011 1.000 / 0.147
q_377 1.000 / 0.001 1.000 / 0.002 1.000 / 0.065
q_1248 1.000 / 0.007 1.000 / 0.019 1.000 / 0.060
q_803 1.000 / 0.000 1.000 / 0.011 1.000 / 0.100
q_607 1.000 / 0.001 1.000 / 0.071 1.000 / 0.510
q_755 1.000 / 0.000 1.000 / 0.005 1.000 / 0.141
q_571 1.000 / 0.000 1.000 / 0.024 1.000 / 0.063
q_1590 1.000 / 0.060 1.000 / 0.022 1.000 / 0.012
q_1653 1.000 / 0.004 1.000 / 0.030 1.000 / 0.092
q_39 1.000 / 0.018 1.000 / 0.031 1.000 / 0.061
q_1052 0.684 / 0.003 1.000 / 0.059 1.000 / 0.077
q_793 1.000 / 0.001 1.000 / 0.001 1.000 / 0.000
q_1824 1.000 / 0.000 1.000 / 0.000 1.000 / 0.000
q_851 1.000 / 0.015 1.000 / 0.003 1.000 / 0.025
q_1585 0.248 / 0.032 1.000 / 0.038 1.000 / 0.017
q_4243 0.061 / 0.007 1.000 / 0.022 1.000 / 0.121
q_820 1.000 / 0.000 1.000 / 0.033 1.000 / 0.090
q_598 0.502 / 0.001 1.000 / 0.051 1.000 / 0.065
q_1505 1.000 / 0.039 1.000 / 0.030 1.000 / 0.021
q_2853 0.906 / 0.001 1.000 / 0.000 1.000 / 0.001
q_1452 0.579 / 0.000 1.000 / 0.007 1.000 / 0.018
q_422 1.000 / 0.000 1.000 / 0.018 1.000 / 0.021
q_1392 1.000 / 0.000 1.000 / 0.020 1.000 / 0.050
q_4276 1.000 / 0.000 1.000 / 0.013 1.000 / 0.092
q_1296 1.000 / 0.002 1.000 / 0.006 1.000 / 0.019
q_1290 1.000 / 0.003 1.000 / 0.006 1.000 / 0.006
q_369 0.354 / 0.000 1.000 / 0.034 1.000 / 0.068
q_901 0.315 / 0.004 1.000 / 0.020 1.000 / 0.004
q_379 0.817 / 0.044 1.000 / 0.040 1.000 / 0.089
q_296 1.000 / 0.000 1.000 / 0.015 1.000 / 0.003
q_1635 1.000 / 0.011 1.000 / 0.001 1.000 / 0.044
q_612 1.000 / 0.003 1.000 / 0.002 1.000 / 0.230
q_1880 1.000 / 0.206 1.000 / 0.223 1.000 / 0.006
q_1694 1.000 / 0.033 1.000 / 0.016 1.000 / 0.012
q_1462 1.000 / 0.041 1.000 / 0.000 1.000 / 0.000
q_747 1.000 / 0.004 1.000 / 0.037 1.000 / 0.108
q_1542 1.000 / 0.000 1.000 / 0.023 1.000 / 0.051
q_1024 0.268 / 0.011 1.000 / 0.030 1.000 / 0.229
q_797 0.118 / 0.008 1.000 / 0.008 1.000 / 0.000
q_1825 1.000 / 0.000 1.000 / 0.000 1.000 / 0.000
q_1832 0.947 / 0.001 1.000 / 0.008 1.000 / 0.072
q_176 1.000 / 0.037 1.000 / 0.027 1.000 / 0.101
q_684 1.000 / 0.000 1.000 / 0.002 1.000 / 0.002
q_1371 1.000 / 0.000 1.000 / 0.009 1.000 / 0.163
q_1662 1.000 / 0.001 1.000 / 0.005 1.000 / 0.024
q_808 0.225 / 0.000 1.000 / 0.006 1.000 / 0.057
q_1896 0.021 / 0.014 1.000 / 0.000 1.000 / 0.032
q_1979 1.000 / 0.000 1.000 / 0.000 1.000 / 0.019
q_1834 1.000 / 0.001 1.000 / 0.006 1.000 / 0.043
q_1058 1.000 / 0.000 1.000 / 0.008 1.000 / 0.545
q_4223 1.000 / 0.002 1.000 / 0.104 1.000 / 0.018
q_1555 0.375 / 0.002 1.000 / 0.078 1.000 / 0.094
q_169 0.245 / 0.000 1.000 / 0.009 1.000 / 0.034
q_398 0.370 / 0.004 1.000 / 0.006 1.000 / 0.065
q_131 1.000 / 0.000 1.000 / 0.004 1.000 / 0.015
q_871 0.802 / 0.000 1.000 / 0.020 1.000 / 0.085
q_1685 1.000 / 0.005 1.000 / 0.009 1.000 / 0.548
q_1706 1.000 / 0.005 1.000 / 0.035 1.000 / 0.059
q_1132 1.000 / 0.001 1.000 / 0.010 1.000 / 0.042
q_1310 1.000 / 0.000 1.000 / 0.013 1.000 / 0.192
q_142 0.546 / 0.001 1.000 / 0.033 1.000 / 0.114
q_1461 0.645 / 0.002 1.000 / 0.016 1.000 / 0.013
q_2005 1.000 / 0.002 1.000 / 0.003 1.000 / 0.000
q_1303 1.000 / 0.074 1.000 / 0.045 1.000 / 0.012
q_1280 1.000 / 0.008 1.000 / 0.022 1.000 / 0.075
q_1840 0.188 / 0.000 1.000 / 0.017 1.000 / 0.027
q_1328 1.000 / 0.000 1.000 / 0.004 1.000 / 0.014

References

Baumgartner, W., P. Weiß, and H. Schindler. 1998. “A Nonparametric Test for the General Two-Sample Problem.” Biometrics 54 (3): 1129–35. http://www.jstor.org/stable/2533862.
Condon, David M. 2023. SAPA-Project | Your Customized Personality Profile Report — Sapa-Project.org.” https://www.sapa-project.org/.
Lilliefors, Hubert W. 1967. “On the Kolmogorov–Smirnov Test for Normality with Mean and Variance Unknown.” Journal of the American Statistical Association 62 (318): 399–402. https://doi.org/10.1080/01621459.1967.10482916.
Neuhäuser, Markus. 2001. “One-Sided Two-Sample and Trend Tests Based on a Modified Baumgartner-Weiss-Schindler Statistic.” Journal of Nonparametric Statistics 13 (5): 729–39. https://doi.org/10.1080/10485250108832874.
———. 2005. “Exact Tests Based on the Baumgartner-Weiß-Schindler Statistic—a Survey.” Statistical Papers 46 (1): 1–29. https://doi.org/10.1007/bf02762032.
Neuhäuser, Markus, and Graeme D. Ruxton. 2009. “Distribution-Free Two-Sample Comparisons in the Presence of Heteroscedasticity.” Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 62 (3): 453–60. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-008-0683-4.
Pav, Steven E. 2023. BWStest: Baumgartner Weiß Schindler Test of Equal Distributions. https://github.com/shabbychef/BWStest.
Revelle, William. 2024. Psych: Procedures for Psychological, Psychometric, and Personality Research. Evanston, Illinois: Northwestern University. https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=psych.
William Revelle. 2024. psychTools: Tools to Accompany the ’Psych’ Package for Psychological Research. Evanston, Illinois: Northwestern University. https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=psychTools.
Winzar, Hume. 2022. LikertMakeR: Synthesise and Correlate Likert-Scale and Related Rating-Scale Data with Predefined First & Second Moments (version 1.1.0 (2025)). The Comprehensive R Archive Network (CRAN). https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=LikertMakeR.