Factor structure of the basic personality inventory with incarcerated offenders

The item and scale factor structure of the Basic Personality Inventory (BPI) was examined in a sample of 486 offenders incarcerated for violent and sexual crimes. Separate principal-component analyses of the items for each of the 11 clinical scales, critical item scale, and social desirability scale indicated a one-dimensional factor solution for all scales except Depression and Persecutory Ideation. The Depression scale's two factors were Hopelessness and Depressive Affect and the Persecutory Ideation scale's two factors were General Paranoia and Perception of External Control. Although the factors for these two scales may assist in interpretation, the correlations between the factors and the total score of their respective scale were high. Confirmatory factor analysis of the 220 items from the 11 clinical scales supported the factorial logic of the scoring key. Analysis of the 11 clinical scales resulted in two factors: General Psychopathology/Adjustment and Antisocial Orientation. The results suggest that all but two scales can be viewed as unidimensional thereby allowing for a straightforward clinical interpretation. These analyses support the internal structure of the BPI and lend credence to external validity work with forensic populations.     

Factor structure of the MCMI basic personality scales and common-item artifact

The eight basic personality scales of the Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory (MCMI) were derived from Millon's theory of personality, but the adequacy of the MCMI for measuring Millon's personality constructs has never been assessed. One major problem with using factor analysis to illuminate the structure of the MCMI personality scales is that artifactual structure may result from item overlap among the scales. To analyze this, item-overlap coefficients were factored and compared to the factor structures of five subject samples. For the eight basic personality scales, three factors emerged for the overlap matrix and each of the five sample matrices: Aloof-Social, Aggressive-Submissive, and Lability-Restraint. It was concluded that these three factors are inconsistent with Millon's theory and that they will be found artifactually across a wide variety of populations due to overlapping items.     

Factor analysis and personality theory

This article deals with the factor analytic approach to personality. More specifically, it deals with problems in factor analyses of personality questionnaires which contribute to factorial confusion. It is stated that in fact the factorial results make better sense than is usually admitted. The apparent disparity of results can be accounted for by technical defects in the chosen factor analytic method. Furthermore, it is shown that another source of disagreement lies in the interpretation of what are essentially the same factors.     

Factor structure of the psychopathic personality inventory: validity and implications for clinical assessment

Psychopathy is a personality disorder characterized by impulsive antisocial deviance in the context of emotional and interpersonal detachment. A factor analysis of the subscales of the Psychopathic Personality Inventory (PPI) yielded evidence for 2 factors. One factor showed relations with external criteria mirroring those of the emotional-interpersonal facet of psychopathy, including high dominance, low anxiety, and venturesomeness. The other factor showed relations paralleling those of the social deviance facet of psychopathy, including positive correlations with antisocial behavior and substance abuse, negative correlations with socioeconomic status and verbal ability, and personality characteristics including high negative emotionally and low behavioral constraint. Findings support using the PPI to assess these facets of psychopathy in community samples and to explore their behavioral correlates and genetic-neurobiological underpinnings.     

Factor structure and measurement invariance of a short measure of the Big Five personality traits

The main purpose of this study is to assess the factor structure and the measurement invariance of the Mini-International Personality Item Pool (Mini-IPIP; Donnellan, Oswald, Baird, & Lucas, 2006). The Mini-IPIP is a brief instrument evaluating personality traits according to the Big Five models. Two samples were collected comprising nearly 800 participants. Confirmatory factor analyzes revealed a five-factor solution consistent with the Big Five model. Measurement invariance analyses showed that the Mini-IPIP was reasonably invariant across samples, genders and age groups. Overall, results pointed to a satisfactory factorial structure and an adequate invariance of the measure.     

Factor structure of items from the personality Adjective Check List in a sample of normal adolescents

We present the results of a principal-components analysis of the Personality Adjective Check List (PACL) at the item level, rather than at the scale level. The PACL was constructed by Strack (1987) to evaluate the personality scales proposed by Millon (1981). Data were obtained from a sample of normal adolescents. A scree test was applied to determine the number of factors to be extracted, and the retained factors were then rotated using a varimax procedure. Using the data from this second analysis, congruence coefficients were calculated by correlating the factor weights from the two analyses of men and women. Results reveal the existence in the whole sample of five unipolar personality factors, which we have called: Aggressive, Conscientious, Inhibited, Impulsive and Gregarious. These are not similar to those obtained from a sample of normal adults.     

Psychodiagnosis of personality structure: psychotic personality organization.

Recent developments in Rorschach psychology, including nomothetic approaches focused on scores, ratios, and indices and idiographic approaches focused on content emerging from psychoanalytic theory, offer the Rorschach clinician a rich and potent interpretive methodology. This article examines the structural diagnosis of personality organization with a focus on psychotic personality structure. Rorschach approaches to the differential diagnosis of psychotic personality organization are presented. The Rorschach is viewed as indispensible in the differential diagnosis of personality organization, especially in the so-called "borderline" cases.     

Factor analytic approaches to personality item-level data

Factor analysis models have played a central role in formulating conceptual models in personality and personality assessment, as well as in empirical examinations of personality measurement instruments. Yet, the use of item-level data presents special problems for factor analysis, applications. In this article, we review recent developments in factor analysis that are appropriate for the type of item-level data often collected in personality. Included in this review are discussions of how these developments have been addressed in the context of two different (but formally related) statistical models item response theory (IRT: Hambleton, Swaminathan, & Rogers, 1991) and structural, equation modeling (Bollen 1989) for item-level data. We also discuss the relevance of item scaling in the context of these models. Using the restandardization data for the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 Scale (cf. Butcher, Dahlstrom, Graham, Tellegen, & Kaemmer, 1989), we show brief examples of the utility of these approaches to address basic questions about responses to personality scale items regarding: (a) scale, dimensionality and general item properties, (b) the "appropriateness" of the observed responses, and (c) differential item functioning across subsamples. implications for analyses of personality item-level data in the IRT and factor analytic traditions are discussed.     

Towards a refined structure of personality traits

In this article we pursue two goals. The first is a further articulation of the dimensionality of the Dutch trait domain. The second is a detailed mapping of the factorial trait structure, one which includes intelligible and proper niches for various nuances of the trait language and for different interpretations of the main factors of personality language. In realizing these goals, we discuss the reliance on theory in structuring and modelling the domain in question, the type of model to be used, and the comprehensiveness versus the economy of domain representation. The advantages and disadvantages of the simple structure model and the circumplex model are commented upon, and a new framework that integrates these two models is presented. The present results provide confirmation of the existence of five major dimensions that cover the trait domain: (I) Extraversion or Surgency, (II) Agreeableness, (III) Conscientiousness, (IV) Emotional Stability, and (V) Intellect or Openness to Experience. The newly developed representational model, revealing a refined structure of personality characteristics, not only clarifies some of the problems faced in interpreting the Big Five factors, but also forms a starting point for applications.     

Dispositional empathy and the hierarchical structure of personality

Personality psychology has recognized a fundamental 5-factor structure that has integrated and organized theory and research. Nevertheless, personality-like differences beyond that structure have been identified. In heretofore unrelated research, dispositional empathy has been an essential construct in understanding human development, behavior, and interpersonal relationships. Addressing a gap in the literature, we map multidimensional dispositional empathy into 2 versions of the 5-factor space. Empathic concern is closely related to agreeableness, and personal distress is closely related to neuroticism. Perspective taking has complex, interstitial relationships with the 5 factors. In contrast, fantasy is not well explained by the 5 factors. We discuss the implications of these findings for understanding dispositional empathy and for understanding the 5-factor structure, its correlates in emotional processes and experiences, and its limits.     

On ego development and the structure of personality

present a theory of ego development as composed of several substructures related so that achievement of a given stage in one substructure is necessary but not sufficient for achieving the corresponding stage of another. The postulation of an exact relation belies what is known of the texture of human behavior and is premature in the absence of precise measurement of the several substructures and precise matching of stages. An alternative, the empirical method of simultaneously constructing a measure of ego development and portraits of the several stages, which Snarey et al. criticize for lack of strict logical coherence, is in the best tradition of contemporary science. The stage portraits are “prototypes” or “fuzzy sets.” Any mental structure can be divided into substructures, but the most general, superordinate structure is likely to prove most useful.     

Relationships between personality structure, structure of word meaning, and cognitive ability: a study of cultural mechanisms of personality

Native-born Estonian men (N=912), 17-68 years old, participated in a study on relationships between personality characteristics, dominant structure of word meaning ("everyday concepts" thinking or "scientific concepts" thinking), and level of cognitive ability. Individuals who primarily used everyday concepts thinking or who possessed relatively low levels of cognitive ability did not reveal a coherent Big Five personality structure, whereas individuals who primarily used scientific concepts thinking or possessed high levels of cognitive ability did. Thus, personality may be shaped by a cultural factor--word meaning structure. Earlier studies, which seem to support the idea that Big Five personality structure is a biologically determined human universal, suffer from serious sampling problems and insufficient data analyses.     

Birth order, family structure and personality variables

The birth order and family structure variables assessed included first or only child, position in multi-child family, position in dyadic family, age of parents at birth of given child, whether reared by one or both parents, whether reared under permissive or authoritarian family atmosphere. The personality variables assessed included Sociability, Anxiety, Dominance, Superego, Phlegmatic Temperament, Involvement, Self-Regard and other scales measured by the Howarth Personality Questionnaire. One hundred seventy female and 142 male undergraduates were tested. Significant relationships found included: anxiety lower in firstborns; superego higher in firstborns; persistence higher in those not dominated by elder sibling; phlegmatic temperament higher in permissive families; involvement and phlegmatic temperament lower in single parent families; self-pride higher in the elder of a sibling pair; individual tolerance higher in children reared by both rather than single parent.