CLUSTER ANALYSIS OF PERSONAL ORIENTATION INVENTORY ITEMS IN A PRISON SAMPLE

Area of Science:

• Psychological assessment
• Criminal justice psychology

Background:

• The Personal Orientation Inventory (POI) is a widely used measure of self-actualization.
• Understanding the psychological profiles of incarcerated populations is crucial for effective rehabilitation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To explore the underlying structure of the Personal Orientation Inventory (POI) within a male prisoner population.
• To identify distinct clusters of responses that may represent meaningful psychological constructs.

Main Methods:

• Elementary linkage analysis was employed to cluster responses from 500 male prisoners on the 150-item POI.
• Internal consistency (Kuder-Richardson 20) was calculated for identified clusters and compared to original POI scales.

Main Results:

• Five major clusters encompassing 74 POI items were identified.
• These clusters demonstrated K-R 20 reliabilities comparable to the original POI scales.
• Predictive accuracy of original POI scale scores from cluster scores was found to be only fair.

Conclusions:

• The identified clusters offer a potentially more parsimonious structure for understanding POI responses in this population.
• Further research is needed to establish the invariance and relative validity of these cluster scores compared to traditional scale scores.