Prospects for the assessment of normal and abnormal interpersonal behavior

The Interpersonal Adjective Scales (IAS) and the Inventory of Interpersonal Problems (IIP) are current representatives of a long-standing tradition and their use as assessment instruments is expected to become increasingly widespread in the near future and beyond. The IAS is a direct descendent of the interpersonal circumplex tradition and is characterized by an extraordinarily close relation between theory and method in the assessment of both normal and disordered personalities. The IIP stems from a more recent conceptual distinction between psychiatric symptoms and problems of living that has been linked directly to the interpersonal circumplex. This review is meant to alert clinicians to promising supplements to traditional intrapsychic and symptomatic psychodiagnostic batteries.