Comrey Personality Inventory

Abstract

The Comrey Personality Inventory (CPI), developed by Andrew L. Comrey in 1964, is a comprehensive psychological assessment tool designed to measure a broad spectrum of human personality characteristics. The inventory assesses 33 distinct personality dimensions, alongside three crucial validation scales. These validation scales include the Truth scale (assessing willingness to disclose potentially unflattering information), the Validity scale (gauging the rationality of responses), and the Social Desirability scale (measuring the participant’s tendency to skew responses toward socially accepted norms).

The CPI is highly structured, consisting of 216 items in total, with each of the 33 personality dimensions being represented by six items. Subsequent factor analysis of the most salient dimensions identified four robust, underlying factors: Compulsion, Dependence, Hostility, and Neuroticism. This instrument is utilized primarily for research and teaching purposes to provide an in-depth, multi-dimensional view of an individual’s personality structure.

Keywords

Comrey Personality Inventory, Personality dimensions, Factor Structure, Test Development, Internal Consistency, Compulsion, Hostility, Neuroticism, Psychological Measurement

Authors

Comrey, Andrew L.

Purpose

The primary purpose of the Comrey Personality Inventory is to facilitate the systematic examination and measurement of a wide array of human personality dimensions. By utilizing 33 distinct scales, the inventory aims to provide a granular and comprehensive profile of an individual, moving beyond broad factor models to capture specific traits.

Furthermore, the inclusion of validation scales is integral to the instrument’s utility, ensuring that the collected data accurately reflects the respondent’s true self rather than being contaminated by response biases such as deliberate distortion or the desire to present oneself in a favorable light (as measured by the Social Desirability scale).

Construct

The central construct measured by the CPI is Personality Dimensions. Unlike instruments focused solely on higher-order factors (like the Big Five), the CPI emphasizes the measurement of multiple, potentially correlated primary traits. The subsequent analysis of these primary dimensions led to the identification of several key second-order factors, notably Compulsion, Dependence, Hostility, and Neuroticism, which represent core structural components of the personality construct as defined by Comrey.

Validity

The structural validity of the Comrey Personality Inventory was established through rigorous factor analysis applied to the intercorrelations among the total scores of the dimensions. This process was critical for confirming the underlying structure of the 33 measured traits.

Specifically, an initial extraction yielded 25 factors. These factors were then subjected to rotation using the varimax criterion. The subsequent analysis focused on the 17 factors that exhibited a loading of .3 or greater. These 17 factors were further analyzed and rotated using an oblique simple structure method, a technique designed to allow for correlation among the extracted factors, thereby establishing a robust and interpretable factor structure for the inventory.

Reliability

The CPI demonstrates strong levels of internal consistency across its primary personality dimensions. Internal consistency reliability estimates were calculated for 30 of the personality dimensions, yielding a median value of .835.

While the median is high, the range of reliability coefficients extended from a low of .62 to a high of .93, indicating variability in the precision of measurement across the different scales. The two key validation scales, the Truth Scale and the Social Desirability scale, exhibited lower reliability scores, specifically .69 and .58, respectively, suggesting that caution may be warranted when interpreting these specific measures.

Factor Analysis

The factor analysis of the Comrey Personality Inventory was a multi-step process designed to delineate the underlying structure of the 33 personality dimensions. Initially, 25 factors were statistically extracted from the correlation matrix of the dimension scores.

Following the initial extraction, 17 factors were identified as having significant loadings (at least .3 or more). These 17 factors were then rotated to an oblique simple structure. This approach suggests that the underlying personality factors are not entirely independent of one another, reflecting the complex, interrelated nature of personality traits.

Instrument

Test Type: Inventory/Questionnaire

Format: Responses are collected using two distinct 9-point Likert-type scales. Scale X ranges from 1 to 9, anchored by Never to Always. Scale Y also ranges from 1 to 9, anchored by Absolutely Not to Absolutely.

Language Available: English

Population Group: Human; Male; Female

Age Group: Not explicitly specified, but based on the sample, typically young adult and adult populations.

Population Details: The standardization and development sample consisted of university students and general community residents, ensuring representation from diverse adult groups.

Test Methodology: Paper-and-pencil administration method.

Keywords

Psychological Inventory, Trait Measurement, Validation Scales, Compulsion, Dependence, Hostility, Neuroticism, Oblique Rotation, Varimax Criterion

Authors

Author ORCID Identifier: Not provided in source content.

Affiliation Email addresses: Not provided in source content.

Correspondence Address: Not provided in source content.

Permissions & Fee and Test Year

The Test Year for the initial publication and development of the Comrey Personality Inventory was 1964. Regarding usage, the inventory is generally available for Research/Teaching purposes. The source content indicates that there is No Commercial use planned and No Fee associated with its use for academic and research endeavors.

Reference’s

• Comrey, A. L. (1964). Personality factors compulsion, dependence, hostility, and neuroticism. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 24(1), 75–84. DOI: 10.1177/001316446402400106

Items of the Comrey Personality Inventory

IMPORTANT: The following scale items must be preserved in their original language and must not be changed in any way.

The test items are Not Available in the public domain. To obtain the full set of 216 test items, users are advised to contact the original author, Andrew L. Comrey, or the publisher of the scale directly.