Brief Report: Second-Order Cluster Analysis of Personal Orientation Inventory Items in a Prison Sample

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Criminology
• Psychometrics

Background:

• The Personal Orientation Inventory (POI) is a widely used measure of self-actualization.
• Understanding the psychological characteristics of incarcerated populations is crucial for rehabilitation efforts.
• Clustering analysis offers a method to identify underlying structures in complex datasets.

Purpose of the Study:

• To explore the structure of responses to the Personal Orientation Inventory within a male prisoner population.
• To identify distinct clusters of responses that may represent meaningful psychological profiles.
• To evaluate the reliability of these identified clusters.

Main Methods:

• Hierarchical linkage analysis was employed to cluster the responses of 500 male prisoners.
• The Personal Orientation Inventory, comprising 150 items, was administered.
• Internal consistency (K-R 20 reliability) was calculated for the derived clusters.

Main Results:

• Six second-order clusters emerged, encompassing all 150 items of the POI.
• The K-R 20 reliabilities for these six clusters were found to be comparable to those of the original POI scales.
• This suggests a robust and potentially more parsimonious structure within the POI responses for this population.

Conclusions:

• The study successfully identified a six-cluster structure for the Personal Orientation Inventory in male prisoners.
• The reliability of these cluster scores indicates their potential utility in psychological assessment.
• Further research is needed to determine the relative validity of cluster scores versus traditional scale scores.