An analysis of the MCMI-I at the item level

The study reports on principal component analyses of the MCMI-1 at the item level. The 175 items of the MCMI were separated for analysis into 100 descriptive of personality and 75 that represent clinical symptoms. The data analyzed came from a sample of 253 psychiatric outpatients and a sample of 185 inpatient alcoholics. The scree test was applied to decide on the number of factors to retain. The factors retained in the four analyses were rotated by the Varimax and Direct Oblimin procedures. The results were similar across the two samples. The six personality dimensions isolated were interpreted as Social Introversion-Extraversion, Dependency on Others, Verbal Hostility, Need to Please Others, Self-Dramatization, and Orderliness. These have some resemblance to Millon's eight personality styles. Four of the five symptom factors were similar to Millon's clinical symptom scales. In addition to a very large Depression factor, there were factors of Manic Excitement, Drug Abuse, Alcoholic Misuse, and Suicidal Ideation.