Definitions for "Ipsative"
The Kolbe index is an ipsative instrument. 'Ipsative' means 'measured against itself.' An ipsative result is not compared to other results and then put in the context of an average or expected result (as is done with 'normative' instruments). An ipsative score expresses results in terms of the relative strength of need rather than absolute terms and each person thus provides his or her own frame of reference.
This simply means 'forced choice'. For example, in a question the respondent is given five options and they need to choose the option that is most like them and also the one that is least like them. Such questionnaires are not easy to norm as one is only getting an internal measure of their personal likes/dislikes. For example, an individual may keep selecting influencing as something they do not like doing relative to other items. But we do not know how low his/her influencing is relative to other people's liking for influencing.
Ipsative literally means "of the self" (Latin derivation), and is used in psychology as in the phrase "ipsative measure" to indicate a specific type of measure in which respondents compare two or more desirable options and pick the one which is most preferred (sometimes called a "forced choice" scale). This is contrasted with measures that use Likert-type scales, in which respondents choose the score (e.g. 1 to 5) which best represents the degree to which they agree with a given statement.