Structure of the Coolidge Axis II Inventory Personality Disorder Scales from the five-factor model perspective

Coolidge, et al. in 1994 tested the generality and comprehensiveness of the five-factor model of personality as applied to personality disorder by performing a canonical correlation analysis for the scales from the Coolidge Axis II Inventory and the NEO Personality Inventory testing 178 undergraduates (106 men and 72 women). Their results did not support the generality and comprehensiveness of the five-factor model for interpreting the structure of personality disorders. A major problem with this study was that the data did not show good simple structure and meaningfulness because no rotation was performed for the canonical variates. The present study tested the hypothesis that the results of Coolidge, et al. might be attributed to the failure to rotate canonical variates to obtain good simple structure. For 220 students in introductory psychology (104 men and 116 women), canonical correlation analysis with varimax rotation was performed for scores on the Coolidge Axis II Inventory scales and the NEO Five-Factor Inventory scales. The analysis indicated five canonical variate pairs which were interpreted as Neuroticism, Extraversion, Openness, Disagreeableness, and Conscientiousness, supporting the tested hypothesis as well as the generality and comprehensiveness of this model for describing the structure of personality disorders.