Rethinking the PERMA-Profiler: A multidimensional Item Response Theory (MIRT) evaluation

The PERMA-Profiler is a self-report instrument designed to assess personal psychological well-being, including PERMA (Positive Emotions, Engagement, Relationships, Meaning, and Accomplishment). Despite consistent validation of its descriptive utility and latent five-factor measurement structure, debates persist regarding the distinctiveness and incremental validity of these dimensions. This study applied multidimensional Item Response Theory (MIRT) to evaluate the instrument’s between-item multidimensionality and the functioning of its 11-point rating scale using Category Boundary Discriminations (CBDs). Data represented a culturally diverse sample (N = 2,337), including several previously published datasets. Results indicated that a Rasch-compliant MIRT model did not fit, raising questions about the scientific validity of observed mean or sum scores. Attempts to model the intended five-factor PERMA structure were unsuccessful. This appears to stem from unmodeled latent factor associations, which in turn led to inflated residuals, likely reflecting convergence issues caused by generally high correlations among items and factors. Local stochastic dependencies within Meaning also emerged, which may have systematically inflated previously reported reliability and validity indices.These dependencies suggested that the globally framed item M1 might need revision. Analyses of the 11-point rating scale revealed that participants predominantly used the upper end of the scale, with categories 5 through 10 accounting for 84% of responses, suggesting redundancy of response categories. Categories from 0 to 3 therefore showed minimal incremental discrimination. Reducing the number of response categories, and experimenting with alternative labeling and scale formats, could enhance measurement precision and discrimination.