Circumplex structure of the Impact Message Inventory (IMI-C): an empirical test with the dutch version

The Impact Message Inventory-Circumplex (IMI-C; Kiesler & Schmidt, 2006) is an interpersonal personality measure purporting to capture the command and relationship messages experienced by the IMI-C respondent in her or his interactions with a target person. Mixed support for the circumplex structure of the American IMI-C was found by Schmidt, Wagner, and Kiesler (1999). In this study, we sought to establish the circumplex structure of the Dutch IMI-C adaptation (Hafkenscheid, 2003) in a group of clinician raters assessing a total of 350 psychiatric patient targets. The Dutch IMI-C exhibited closer fit to circumplex models in this study than in the Schmidt et al. (1999) study of the English language IMI-C. However, using the most stringent and conservative circumplex criteria, the circumplex structure of the Dutch IMI-C could not unequivocally be confirmed. Our findings do not justify the generation of 8 separate octant scores when the IMI-C is used as an interpersonal measurement tool. Clinical use of the IMI-C for interpersonal assessment and diagnosis should probably be limited to the location of patient targets on the 2 main dimensions of Control and Affiliation, sacrificing the specificity of octant level interpersonal assessment.