Resumen

DE LA IGLESIA, Guadalupe  y  CASTRO SOLANO, Alejandro. Psychometric analyses of the Five Continua Personality Inventory, Short Form (FCPI-SF). Interdisciplinaria [online]. 2023, vol.40, n.1, pp.98-114.  Epub 30-Jun-2022. ISSN 1668-7027.  http://dx.doi.org/10.16888/interd.2023.40.1.6.

This research aimed at developing a short version of the Five Continua Personality Inventory (FCPI; de la Iglesia y Castro Solano, 2021). The FCPI is a 120 item measure that operationalizes the Dual Personality Model (DPM). The DPM proposes that personality traits may and must be assessed in their pathological and positive aspects conjointly. DPM is based on the notion of traits conceived as dimensional and in the notion of continuum of traits. These two pillars allow to study the degree of presence of each trait (dimensionally) and their pathological and positive aspects (continuum). Pathological traits included in the model are negative affect, detachment, antagonism, disinhibition and psychoticism. Positive traits are serenity, humanity, integrity, moderation and sprightliness. An assessment of this kind would provide a notion of the total personality adjustment that considers both aspects of the phenomenon as well as an integrated view of personality functioning as a whole, in contrast to a dissociated one. The strengths of the DPM are: (1) the integrated view of personality that includes healthy and pathological aspects simultaneously; (2) the use of dimensional measures in contrast of categories; and (3) its link to current diagnostic nosologies (DSM-5). Since the FCPI could be considered too long for many instances of psychological assessment, the development of a shorter version could provide a more versatile measure. Shorter versions of this type of instruments are recommended for long research surveys and longitudinal studies since they would prevent the undesirable effect than long scales have on attrition rates or attention levels. To develop a shorter version three main aspects were considered: (1) the characteristics of the items that can be assessed by studying their association with each other (internal item qualities); (2) the correlation of the new instrument with other variables or indicators (external item qualities); and (3) the properties that exceed statistical analyses, such as clarity, non-redundancy, invasiveness and “face” validity (judgmental item qualities). Sample was composed of 2 183 adults of the general population with a mean age of 39.04 (SD = 14.18; 51.95 % female, 47.64 % male, 0.41 % other). A shorter version was obtained which had 55 items that met the internal, external and judgement quality criteria expected. Selected elements were clear, non-redundant and had a high correlation with the total score of the scale they belonged to (between .89 and .96). In addition, evidence of the ten-trait personality model (five pathological traits and five positive traits) was obtained by means of a confirmatory factor analysis since the structure showed an excellent fit. Internal consistency was assessed by Cronbach, ordinal and Omega alphas and their values were as expected and also indicated a good psychometric functioning of the scale. Associations between the long version and the short version of each scale were all positive and strong (between .89 and .96). Additionally, correlation analyses with external criteria resulted as expected: pathological traits were positively associated with psychological symptoms (between .26 and .64) and negatively associated with well-being (between -.18 and -.43); positive traits and adjustment indexes were negatively related to psychological symptoms (between -.09 and -.53) and positively related to well-being (between .11 and .44). An interesting result is that, when compared with the ten individual traits, indexes had stronger associations with psychological symptoms and well-being. It is possible that these combined measures have greater explanatory power since they provide an integrated view of personality in contrast to a disaggregated assessment. It is concluded that the short version of the FCPI meets the three criteria sought and it is an appropriate psychometric measure and it is suggested to be used for research purposes or for screening assessments in the applied fields.

Palabras clave : personality; traits; pathological; positive; inventory.

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