A Psychometric Evaluation of a Student Personality Instrument for Academic Profiling

This paper reports the results of a pilot study designed to evaluate the psychometric properties of a student personality instrument for academic profiling at Universiti Malaysia Pahang Al-Sultan Abdullah (UMPSA). The instrument consists of five sections: demographic information, career interests based on the Self-Directed Search (SDS), career choices, perceived social support measured through the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support Malay version (MSPSS-M), and subjective well-being assessed using the Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS). Thirty-four undergraduate students participated in the pilot study, and 30 valid responses were included in the analysis. Descriptive statistics and reliability testing using Cronbach’s alpha indicated acceptable to strong internal consistency across the main subscales, namely career interest (α = 0.815), social support (α = 0.89), and subjective well-being (α = 0.85). Construct validity was examined through corrected item-total correlations, with most items meeting the recommended 0.30 threshold. Overall, the findings provide preliminary evidence of internal consistency and item-level suitability, particularly for the MSPSS-M, while indicating that the SDS and SWLS components require further item-level refinement and validation.