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Factor structure of the MCMI basic personality scales and common-item artifact
1Veterans Administration Medical Center, Tampa, Florida.
Journal of Personality Assessment
|January 1, 1987
Summary
The Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory (MCMI) personality scales may not accurately measure personality constructs due to item overlap. Three artifactual factors, inconsistent with theory, emerged from analysis.
Area of Science:
- Psychological assessment
- Personality theory
- Psychometrics
Background:
- The Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory (MCMI) is based on Millon's theory of personality.
- The adequacy of MCMI scales for measuring these constructs has not been previously evaluated.
- Item overlap among scales can create artificial structure in factor analysis.
Purpose of the Study:
- To assess the adequacy of the Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory (MCMI) personality scales.
- To investigate the impact of item overlap on the factor structure of MCMI personality scales.
- To compare the empirical factor structure with Millon's theoretical constructs.
Main Methods:
- Factor analysis of item-overlap coefficients.
- Comparison of overlap matrix factor structure with five independent subject samples.
- Analysis focused on the eight basic personality scales of the MCMI.
Main Results:
- Three distinct factors consistently emerged across the overlap matrix and all five subject samples.
- The identified factors were labeled Aloof-Social, Aggressive-Submissive, and Lability-Restraint.
- These empirical factors were found to be inconsistent with Millon's personality theory.
Conclusions:
- The factor structure of the MCMI's basic personality scales appears to be artifactual, driven by item overlap.
- The observed factors do not align with Millon's theoretical personality constructs.
- This artifactual structure may be present across diverse populations due to inherent item overlap in the MCMI scales.
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