Forced choice (testing method)

Ipsative literally means "of the self" (Latin derivation), and is used in psychology as in the phrase "ipsative measure" to indicate that the measure was a self-reporting measure, as contrasted to nomothetic. The term idiothetic (Greek derivation) is also used in psychology to convey a similar meaning; however, ipsative is preferred as idiothetic has a different meaning in navigation research.

Examples of ipsative measures include questions that ask the participant to rate their preferences, or to give a score between 1 and 7 indicating how they feel about a particular statement.

In education, "ipsative assessment" is the practice of assessing present performance against the prior performance of the person being assessed. In athletics for example, "personal best" is an ipsative assessment.