Common dimensions of psychopathology from the MMPI and the Basic Personality Inventory

The MMPI and the Basic Personality Inventory (BPI) were administered to 235 male hospitalized psychiatric patients who were undergoing treatment for alcoholism. The 13 validity and clinical scales from the MMPI and the 12 scales from the BPI were subjected to principal axes factor analysis and Varimax rotation. The five factors retained for interpretation, which accounted for more than 96% of the common variance, each had loadings from both the MMPI and the BPI. Factors were identified as Inadequate Impulse Control, Generalized Anxiety, Depression and Somatization, Psychotic Processes, and Depressed Withdrawal. Given the high percentage of variance accounted for by the factors, it was concluded that the MMPI and BPI measure the same broad domain of psychopathology.