Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, 1994, 35, 165- 174

A re-evaluation of the psychometric properties of the Basic Character Inventory

EYSTEIN KALDESTAD Research Institute of Modwn Bads Newesanatorium, Vikersund, Norway

Kaldestad, E. ( 1994). A reevaluation of the psychometric properties of the Basic Character Inventory. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, 35, 165- 174.

The aim of this study was to reevaluate the psychometric properties of the Basic Character Inventory (BCI). In a rather large sample of 503 subjects (323 women and 180 men, 88 non-psychotic psychiatric inpatients and 415 non-patients) factor analysis resulted in three factors with personality traits almost identical with the BCI Oral, Obsessive and Hysterical scales. BCI seems to be a fruitful and reliable assessment instrument for personality traits and character types as outlined in psychoanalytic theory. However, some of the trait subscales ought to be scrutinized in future psychometric re-evaluative studies of BCI on new, large samples. Another factor analysis showed that the BCI Oral scale, together with all the ten subscales of the psychiatric Symptom Check-list 90 (SCL-90), loaded on the first factor, and the BCI Obsessive and Hysterical scales loaded on the second factor, but with different signs. Orality seems to be related to psychopathology.

Key wordr: Personality, psychometrics, psychopathology, Basic Character Inventory.

E,vstein Kaldestad, Research Institute of Modum Bads Nervesanalorium, P.O. Box 60, N-3371 Vikersund, Norway

Assessment of character structure and personality has for a long time been regarded as an important field of research.

Amongst the pioneers employing psychometric investigation of psychoanalytic character types were Lazare el al. (1966), who tested 90 female psychiatric patients, previously diagnosed as oral, obsessive or hysterical personalities. They used a questionnaire to assess 20 different personality traits that could be classified as belonging to oral, obsessive or hysterical personality types. Each of the 20 personality traits were tested by seven items. The results were factor analyzed, and three factors, explaining 41% of the variance of the total questionnaire, were found. The traits that loaded on the different factors were in good accordance with the beforehand defined personality types. The authors concluded that the study represented a partial validation of the descriptive aspects of the psychoanalytic personality types.

The same authors made a replication of the factor analysis in an independent sample (Lazare et al., 1970) of 100 consecutively admitted female psychiatric inpatients. The three factors were quite similar to the factors in the first study.

Torgersen (1980a) compared the results from the two factor analytic studies of Lazare el al. (1966, 1970) and one of Paykel & Prusoff (1973), and found good correspondence. Torgersen expanded Lazare’s questionnaire with three more traits, measuring each trait by means of seven items. Torgersen (1980~) on the whole replicated the factor structure in a sample of predominantly “normal” 99 same-sexed pairs of twins. He concluded that irrespective of the name we give the factors, they seem to be central dimensions in the personality structure.

Torgersen ( 19806) presented a modified questionnaire consisting of 17 subscales measuring personality traits. Each trait was in this case tested by way of eight items giving a total of 136 items. The subjects had to answer “Right” or “Wrong”. Torgersen tested 260 female and

0 1994 Scandinavian University Press. ISSN 0036-5564

166 E. Kaldestad Sand J Psycho1 35 (1994)

male adult same-sexed twins. The 17 subscales were factor analysed by means of Principal components analysis and Varimax rotation. The factor analysis resulted in three factors: General neurotic, Impulsive hysteric and Obsessive. The subscales loaded on the theoretically expected factor. The exceptions were the subscales Indecision, Imagination and Sociability that had approximately the same loadings on two different factors, but with different sips.

In Torgersen’s Basic Character Inventory (BCI) (Lippe & Torgersen, 1984), the Oral Character Scale consists of the following six subscales: Self-doubt, Insecurity, Sensitivity, Dependency, Compliance, Emotional instability; the Obsessive Character Scale consists of the following five subscales: Rigidity, Severe superego, Parsimony, Indecision, Orderliness; and the Hysterical Character Scale consists of the following six subscales: Exhibitionism, Imagination, Sociability, Aggression, Oral aggression, Emotional expressiveness.

In a factor analytic study of 272 psychiatric outpatients using BCI, Torgersen and Alnzs (1989) found three factors. All the six oral trait subscales loaded on the Oral factor. Four of the five obsessive trait subscales loaded on the Obsessive factor. However, Indecision loaded only 0.15 on the Obsessive factor, and -0.47 on the Hysterical factor. Five of the six hysterical trait subscales loaded most strongly on the Hysterical factor. However, Imagina- tion loaded -0.67 on the Obsessive factor, and only 0.40 on the Hysterical factor.

The 17 personality trait subscales of Torgersen’s Basic Character Inventory seem in the research literature until now only to have been factor analysed twice (Torgersen, 19806; Torgersen & Alnaes, 1989). In the 6rst sample there were 348 psychiatric patients and 172 normals. The second sample comprised 272 psychiatric outpatients. Two factor analyses are not enough to establish the psychometric properties of a personality and character inventory. It would be of great interest to see whether the same factor structure results also in samples comprising other types of subjects, including more healthy subjects. We need more thorough knowledge of the psychometric quality of BCI in broader and diverse samples before it is used extensively in new studies and samples. Therefore this factor analytic study of the BCI was performed.

The. research questions of this study are: Do the 17 personality trait subscales of BCI have satisfactory internal consistency? Do the classical psychoanalytic oral, obsessive and hysterical character types show up in

the factor structure of BCI? How do the gender differences in character and personality between men and women show

up in the BCI scores? What kind of correlations do we get between the different BCI character scales on the one

side and the Symptom Check-list 90 (SCL-90) subscales and Global Symptom Index (GSI) on the other side (Derogatis, et al., 1973)?

What is the factor structure of the BCI character scales and the SCL-90 subscales when analy sed toget her?

METHOD

Subjects

Six hundred subscribers to the weekly magazine “Swdagshilsen fra Modum” (Sunday Greetings from Modrrm), 150 from the staff of Mcdum Bads Nervesanatorium, and 150 non-psychotic psychiatric inpatients were asked to endorse the BCI. The 503 respondents constituted the sample used in this study, and comprised 323 women and 180 men, 88 non-psychotic psychiatric inpatients and 415 non-patients, 70 from the staff and 345 from the subscribers. The response rates were 59%.from the psychiatric inpatients, 47% from the staff, and 58% from the subscribers. In fact the presumptively healthiest had the lowest return rate for the questionnaire. The response rates were for women 66%, 42% and 61%. and for men 50%, 68% and 53% for the patients, staff and subscribers, respectively.

Scand J Psycho1 35 (1994) Psychometric re-evaluation of Basic Character Inventory 167

Our total sample of 503 subjects is rather heterogeneous concerning mental health and personality types. One could suppose that the staff are psychiatrically rather healthy. The subscribers consist of previous psychiatric inpatients and outpatients, but in addition predominantly healthy subjects who are interested in and support our non-profit philanthropic institutions. Only non-psychotic psychiatric patients are admitted to Modum. Quite a few of our inpatients are not psychiatrically ill, but follow their spouses so as to benefit from marriage and family therapy during the hospital stay. T h e age (mean years) and the scores on Symptom Check-list-90 Global Symptom Index (SCL-90 GSI) of the total sample and of the different subgroups are listed in Table 1.

Questionnaire The respondents answered the 136 items of Torgersen’s Basic Character Inventory (BCI) with Right or Wrong. There were about the same number of “Right” and “Wrong” correct answers in each subscale, which got scorings from zero to eight, counting only the correct answers.

Statistical analyses The internal consistency of the 17 personality trait subscales and of the three character scales were calculated as Cronbachs alpha (Cronbach, 1990).

The 17 personality trait subscales were factor analysed by Principal components analysis and Varimax rotation.

The factor analytic based Theta coefficients measuring the internal consistency of the three factor based scales were calculated.

Analyses of variance were performed with the 17 personality traits, the three BCI character scales and the three factor scores as dependent variables; gender was the independent factor, adjusted for age and SCL-90 Global Symptom Index as covariates.

Pearson’s correlation coefficients were calculated between the three BCI character scales on the one hand, and the Symptom Check-list 90 ten subscales and the Global Symptom Index on the other hand.

Principal components analysis with Varimax rotation was performed with the three BCI character scales and the ten SCL-90 subscales as variables.

The statistical PC-program SPSS/PC+ 4.0 was used for the statistical calculations (Norusis, 1990).

RESULTS Cronbach’s alphas of the six oral trait subscales ranged from 0.66 to 0.83, with a global oral scale alpha = 0.86 (Table 2).

Among the obsessive trait subscales Severe superego had a rather low alpha: 0.43. The four other obsessive trait subscales had alphas from 0.68 upwards, and the global Obsessive scale had alpha = 0.70.

Table 1. Age hears) and scores on the Symptom Check-list 90 Global Symptom Index (SCL-90 GSI) in the different subgroups in a sample of SO3 subjects

Subjects

Total sample Men Women

Non-patients Male Female

Male Female

Psychiatric patients

N

503 I80 323 415 147 268 88 33 55

SCL-90 GSI

Mean SD

47.6 13.3 48.1 13.1 47.3 13.4 49.1 13.5 49.8 13.3 48.7 13.7 40.6 9.3 40.6 8.3 40.6 10.0

Mean SD

0.70 0.57 0.64 0.52 0.73 0.60 0.58 0.47 0.52 0.40 0.61 0.49 1.29 0.66 1.21 0.60 1.33 0.69

168 E. Kaldestad Scand J Psycho1 35 (1994)

Table 2. Internal consistency as expressed by Cronbach’s alpha of the 17 traits and of the three scales of Basic Character Inuentory, and their means and standord deoiaiiow, in a sampie of 503 subjects

Scale No. Trait Alpha Mean SD

Oral Oral Oral Oral Oral Oral Oral scale

Obsessive Obsessive Obsessive Obsessive Obsessive Obsessive scale

Hysterical Hysterical Hysterical Hysterical Hysterical Hysterical Hysterical scale

7 8 9

10 I t

12 13 14 I5 16 17

Self-doubt Insecurity Semi tivi ty Dependence Compliance Emotional instability

Rigidity Severe superego Parsimony Indecision Orderliness

Exhibitionism Imagination Sociability Aggression Oral aggression Emotional expression

0.83 0.75 0.74 0.66 0.71 0.76 0.86

0.68 0.43 0.74 0.70 0.76 0.70

0.69 0.50 0.82 0.76 0.79 0.66 0.76

4.06 3.44 5.00 3.41 2.80 2.86 3.59

4.99 5.82 5.86 4.83 5.00 5.30

2.77 3.50 3.92 2.17 3.51 4. I7 3.44

2.64 2.24 2.19 2.10 2.08 2.37 1.75

2.05 1.47 2.05 2.12 2.10 1.32

2.09 1.74 2.64 2.25 2.48 2.14 1 S O

Among the hysterical trait subscales Imagination had the lowest alpha: 0.50. The other hysterical trait subscales had alphas from 0.66 upwards, and the global Hysterical scale 0.76.

The results of the factor analysis of BCI in the total sample are listed in Table 3. All the oral trait subscales loaded on factor 1, but Compliance loaded equally strongly, but negatively on the factor 2. All the obsessive trait subscales loaded on factor 3; in addition factor 3 got high but negative loading for the hysterical trait subscale Imagination: All the other five hysterical trait subscales loaded on factor 2.

The Oral, Obsessive and Hysterical scale scores correlated 0.97, 0.93 and 0.88 with the Orality, Obsessivity and Hysteria factor scores, respectively. Therefore, only a little informa- tion was lost by using the scores of the scales instead of the factor scores.

The women had significantly higher scores than the men on the Oral scale, and on the oral trait subscales, except for Compliance and Selfdoubt (Table 4). The only significant difference between men and women on the Obsessive scale and trait subscales was that men had significantly higher scores on Indecision. The women had higher scores than men on the hysterical trait subscales Aggression and Emotional expressiveness, but lower scores than men on Exhibitionism.

The women had significantly higher factor scores than men on the Orality factor 1 and on the Hysteria factor 2, but not on the Obsessivity factor 3 (Table 5) .

The factor analytically based internal consistency Theta coefficient (Carmines & Zeller, 1979) of the Orality, Obsessivity and Hysteria factor based scales were 0.91, 0.78 and 0.82, respectively.

In the whole sample the Oral scale correlated strongly with the ten subscales and the GSI of the SCL-90 (Table 6). The Obsessive scale had a weakly positive correlation with the same

. subscales and GSI of SCL-90. The Hysterical scale had a weakly negative correlation with most of the SCL-90 subscales and GSI.

Scand J Psycho1 35 ( 1994) Psychometric re-evaluation of Basic Character Inventory 169

Table 3. Factor loadings and explained variances in Principal components analysis with Varimax rotation of the I7 traits of Basic Character Inventory in a sample of 503 subjects. Only factors with Eigenualue greater than one are retained

Scale No. Trait Factor 1 Factor 2 Factor 3

Oral Oral Oral Oral Oral Oral Hysterical Hysterical Hysterical Hysterical Hysterical Obsessive 0 bsessive Obsessive Hysterical Obsessive 0 bsessive

1 4 2 3 6 5

16 15 14 17 12 11 8 9

13 7

10

Self-doubt Dependence Insecurity Sensitivity Emotional instability Compliance Oral aggression Aggression Sociability Emotional expression Exhibitionism Orderliness Severe superego Parsimony Imagination Rigidity Indecision

Explained percentage of variance Cumulated expl. percentage of variance

0.83 0.82 0.78 0.77 0.75 0.53

-0.36 0.21

-0.35 0.49

-0.15 0.04 0.13

-0.29 -0.05

0.05 0.15

-0.24 -0.18 -0.09 - 0.0 1

0.28 -0.53

0.75 0.71 0.64 0.58 0.48 0.08

-0.05 -0.02

0.34 -0.38 -0.39

0.10 0.07 0.14 0.14

-0.23 -0.12 -0.16 -0.05 - 0.3 1 -0.13 -0.42

0.73 0.67 0.63

0.61 0.52

-0.62

24.0% 17.1% 16.7% 24.0% 41.1% 57.8%

Kaiser- Meyer -0lkin Measure of Sampling Adequacy = 0.872. Bartlett Test of Sphericity = 3542.9, significance O.OOOO0. There are 14.0% off-diagonal elements of AIC Matrix > 0.09.

There were small differences between the correlation coefficients of men and women for Oral and Hysterical scales in relation to the SCL 90 subscales and GSI. However, for the Obsessive scale there were very small correlation coefficients with the SCL-90 subscales and GSI for men. The women had positively and moderately strong correlations between the Obsessive scale and the SCL-90 subscales and GSI.

Table 7 shows that the BCI Oral scale loaded together with all the ten SCL-90 subscales on the first factor, and that the BCI Obsessive and Hysterical scales loaded alone on the second factor, but with different signs.

DISCUSSION

Only 56%. of the 900 questionnaires were returned satisfactorily endorsed. The response rate was fairly similar for the three groups of respondents: inpatients, staff and subscribers. Certainly, we cannot determine how representative the respondents are for each of these groups. But as the groups are fairly different concerning level of pathology, our total sample probably forms a satisfactory basis for evaluating the psychometric properties of the BCI for a spectrum ranging from non-psychotic psychiatric patients to healthy persons.

Cronbach’s alphas of the 17 trait subscales were greater than 0.65 for 15 of the scales; this could be judged as satisfactory result. However, Severe superego had an alpha as low as 0.43. For this trait subscale the mean inter-item correlation was only 0.09, and the correlations between each item and the sum score of the other seven items varied from 0.04 to 0.10. This scale should be considered as ripe for revision, despite the fact that the items seem to have a reasonable content validity. The same may be said for the trait subscale Imagination that

170 E. Kaldestad Sand J Psycho1 35 (1994)

Table 4. Comparison of the sex differences of the 17 Basic Character Inventory traits and of the Oral, Obsessive and Hysterical scales by variance analysis with gender as independent factor adjusted for age and SCL-90 Global Symptom Index as cocariates

Men Women Significance

Scaleitrait Mean SD Mean SD level

Oral scale Self-doubt Insecurity Sensitivity Dependence Compliance Emotion. instabil.

Obsessive scale Rigidity Severe superego Parsimony Indecision Orderliness

Hysterical scale Exhibitionism Imagination Sociability Aggression Oral aggression Emotion. expressiv.

3.2 1.7 3.7 2.7 3.1 2.2 4.4 2.3 3.0 2.1 2.8 2.0 2.3 2.2

5.4 1.4 5.2 2.0 5.8 1.5 6.0 2.1 5.1 2.2 5.0 2.0

3.3 1.4 3.3 2.0 3.5 1.7 3.7 2.5 2.2 2.0 3.7 2.4 3.5 2.2

3.8 1.7 4.3 2.6 3.7 2.3 5.4 2.1 3.6 2.1 2.8 2. I 3.2 2.4

5.2 1.3 4.9 2.1 5.9 1.5 5.8 2.1 4.7 2.1 5.0 2.2

3.5 1.6 2.5 2.1 3.5 1.8 4.0 2.7 3.1 2.3 3.4 2.5 4.6 2.0

*** NS * *** ** NS ***

NS NS NS NS

NS

NS

NS NS

NS

**

***

**I

***

NS: p >0.05 *: p <0.05 **: p <0.01 ***: p <O.oOl

Table 5. Cornpariron of the sex differences of the three Basic Character Inventory factor scores by variance analysis with gender as independent factor adjusted for age and SCL-90 Global Symptom Index as cwariates

F. score Character Significance

Factor No. type Men Women level ~ ~~

Factor 1 Orality -0.30 0.16 0.00 I

Factor 2 Hysteria -0.18 0.10 0.001 Factor 3 Obsessivity -0.02 0.01 NS

had an alpha of only 0.50. For this trait subscale the mean inter-item correlation was 0.11, and the correlations between each item and the sum score of the other seven items were from 0.05 to 0.17. Also for this trait subscale the items seem to have a reasonable content validity.

The three factors with high loadings mainly for the personality trait subscales of each corresponding BCI character scale were verified by high Cronbach’s alphas of these scales: Oral scale, 0.86; Obsessive scale, 0.70; and Hysterical scale, 0.76. This close correspondence

Scand J Psycho1 35 ( 1994) Psychometric re-evaluation of Basic Character Inventory 171

Table 6. Pearson's correlation coeficients among Basic Character Inventory scales and Symptom Check- list 90 subscales and Global Symptom Index in a sample of 503 subjects, 180 men and 323 women. Significance level: ' = p < 0.001

Symptom Check-list 90 subscales and Global Symptom Index ~ ~ ~~ ~~~ ~~

BCI scales Soma Obco Ints Depr Anxi Host Phob Para Psyc Adds GSI

Oral s. All Oral s. Men Oral s. Women

Obses. s. All Obses. s. Men Obses. s. Women

Hyster. s. All Hyster. s. Men Hyster. s. Women

0.52. 0.67. 0.60' 0.68. 0.47' 0.68'

0.11 0.21' 0.00 0.11 0.18* 0.26.

-0.17' -0.27' -0.19 -0.27' -0.17 -0.27'

0.72' 0.74' 0.72'

0.14 0.03 0.20.

-0.22' -0.25' - 0.22.

0.69. 0.68' 0.53' 0.69' 0.72. 0.52. 0.69. 0.66' 0.53'

0.15. 0.15' 0.00

0.25' 0.24. 0.08 0.00 0.00 -0.14

-0.22' -0.20' 0.08 -0.21 -0.23 0.15 -0.25' -0.20' 0.04

0.51. 0.53. 0.49'

0.1 1 0.05 0.14

-0.18' -0.27. -0.15

0.59. 0.63' 0.58'

0.12 -0.04

0.20'

-0.12 -0.05 -0.15

0.62' 0.67' 0.61'

0.08

0.16 - 0.07

-0.17* -0.16 -0.18'

0.58. 0.73. 0.61' 0.76. 0.56' 0.71'

0.15. 0.16. 0.02 0.01 0.23. 0.24'

-0.21. -0.22. -0.19 -0.23 -0.23' -0.23'

Explanations: Symptom Check-list 90 subscales: Soma = Somatization, Obco = Obsessive-Compulsiveness, Ints = Interpersonal Sensitivity, Depr = Depression, Anxi =Anxiety, Host = Anger-Hostility, Phob = Phobic Anxiety, Para = Paranoid Ideation, Psyc = Psychoticism, Adds = Additional Scales, GSI = Global Symptom Index, = Stjemer.

Table 7. Factor loadings and explained variances in Principal components analysis with Varimax rotation of the three Baric Character Inventory scales and the ten SCL-90 subscales in a sample of 503 subjects. Only factors with Eigenvalue greater than one are retained

Scale Factor 1 Factor 2

SCL-90 Anxiety SCL-90 Depression SCL-90 Interpersonal Sensitivity SCL-90 Psychoticism SCL-90 Obsessive-Compulsiveness SCL-90 Paranoid Ideation SCLQO Additional Scales SCL-90 Sornatization BCI Oral Scale SCL-90 Anger-Hostility SCL-90 Phobic Anxiety BCI Hysterical Scale BCI Obsessive Scale

0.92 0.91 0.88 0.87 0.87 0.82 0.82 0.78 0.77 0.73 0.72

-0.12 0.06

0.13 0.13 0.10 0.06 0.20 0.02 0.14 0.13 0.09

-0.22 0.13

-0.87 0.84

Explained percentage of variance 58.3% 12.8% Cumulated expl. percentage of variance 58.3% 71.1%

Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin Measure of Sampling Adequacy = 0.933 Bartlett Test of Sphericity = 5543.1, Significance = 0.00000 There are 6 (3.8%) off-diagonal elements of AIC Matrix > 0.09

between the internal consistency and the factor structure is also reflected in the factor analytically based Theta coefficient for the internal consistency of the factor based scales: 0.91 for the Orality factor 1; 0.78 for the Obsessivity factor 3; and 0.82 for the Hysteria factor 2. The Theta coefficient may be considered a maximized alpha coefficient (Carmines & Zeller, 1979).

172 E. Kaldestad Scand J Psvchol 35 (1994)

In the total sample all the six trait subscales of the Oral scale loaded on the first factor. And the internal consistency of the Oral scale calculated as Cronbach’s alpha was rather high: 0.86. However, the oral trait subscale Compliance had a strongly negative load on the Hysteria factor 2. Despite this, the Oral scale seems to be a unitary and homogeneous assessment construct.

The Obsessive scale had a satisfactory Cronbach’s alpha of 0.70, despite the obsessive trait subscale Severe superego, which had a Cronbach alpha of only 0.43. All the five obsessive trait subscales loaded strongly on the Obsessivity factor 3. The hysterical trait subscale Imagination loaded more strongly (but negatively) on the Obsessivity factor 3 than on the Hysteria factor 2. Despite these imperfections the Obsessive scale seems to be a rather unitary and homogeneous construct. As mentioned, the oral trait subscale Compliance loaded equally strongly (but negatively)

on the Hysteria factor 2 as on the Orality factor 1. And the hysterical trait subscale Imagination loaded more strongly (but negatively) on the Obsessivity factor 3 than on the Hysteria factor 2. Despite this the Hysterical scale had an alpha as high as 0.76-a satisfactory result.

Since the obsessive trait subscale Severe superego and the hysterical trait subscale Imagination had such low Cronbach’s alphas, an alternative factor analysis was performed without them. The exclusion of these trait subscales did not alter the factor structure of the Oral, Obsessive and Hysterical dimensions. Until more psychometric evaluative studies of BCI are done, it seems to be wise to use the BCI items, personality trait subscales and character scales unchanged. However, especially the items of the personality trait subscales Severe superego and Imagination should be considered for revision.

In this sample there probably is a covariation of gender, age and psychiatric symptoms. Since we were interested in sex differences, variance analyses were performed with the 17 personality traits, the three BCI character scales and the three factor scores of the BCI as dependent variables, and gender as independent factor, adjusted for age and SCL-90 Global Symptom Index as covariates.

Personality traits that load strongly on the same factor are strongly correlated, and also tend to give similar results in significance tests of differences between men and women. Therefore the significant differences between men and women for the character scales or the factor scores are more interesting than for the personality traits.

The women had significantly higher scores on the Oral Character scale than the men, but there were no significant differences on the Obsessive and Hysterical scales.

The significance test results for the sex differences between men and women for the Hysterical scale and the Hysteria factor score differed. This may partly be reflected in the imperfect correlation coefficient of 0.88 between the Hysterical scale and the Hysteria factor score. The personality trait Imagination from the BCI Hysterical scale loaded on the Obsessivity factor 3. In samples as large as 503 subjects only a small difference is enough to reach significance. And the distances between significant and n o n - s i d c a n t differences are small. For large samples the statistically significant difference is not always great enough to be clinically significant. This may be true for the difference in Hysteria factor scores between men and women.

The response rates for endorsing the questionnaire were different for men and women- among the patients, staff‘ and subscribers-and this weakens the evidence of sex differences based on the variance analyses in this study.

It is not unexpected to find that the Oral scale correlated highly with the SCL-90 subscales and GSI. The Oral character type is passive, dependent and insecure, and may predispose for psychiatric illness.

%and J Psycho1 35 ( 1994) Psychometric re-evaluation of Basic Character Inventory 173

The Obsessive scale correlated weakly, but positively with the SCL-90 subscales and GSI. Somewhat conspicuous and unexpected were the rather weak correlations between the BCI

Obsessive scale and the Obsessive-Compulsive subscale of SCL-90. But from clinical experience and some research reports we know that obsessive-compulsive symptom neurosis and obsessive character traits do not necessarily follow each other (Mavissakalian et al., 1990).

The Hysterical scale correlated weakly, and most often negatively, with the SCL-90 subscales and GSI.

However, more illuminating than these correlations is the factor analysis of the three BCI character scales and the ten SCL-90 subscales. The BCI Oral scale loaded with all the ten SCL-90 subscales on the first factor; such a result seems to represent psychopathology. The BCI Obsessive and Hysterical scales loaded alone on the second factor, but with different signs. Obsessive and hysterical character types do not seem to be so tightly connected to psychopathology as the oral character type, and these two more mature character types seem to be negatively associated with each other.

To draw conclusions from this empirical psychometric methodological investigation of Basic Character Inventory, one may maintain that the BCI used among Norwegians in the Norwegian language seems to be a fruitful and reliable assessment instrument for personality traits and character types. However, as suggested in this study, the obsessive trait subscale Severe superego and the hysterical trait subscale Imagination ought to be somewhat improved. And the oral trait subscale Compliance, the obsessive trait subscale Indecision, and the hysterical trait subscales Imagination and Sociability should also be scrutinized, especially regarding which factor they load most strongly upon. These trait subscales have loaded strongly on more than one factor in this and other factor analytic studies (Torgersen 19806; Torgersen & Alnaes, 1989). The Basic Character Inventory should be put under methodological psychometric scrutiny, and new, large samples should be used.

Zuckerman et al. (1988) selected forty-six scales from eight personality questionnaires to investigate the dimensions underlying some of the personality traits in research. Subjects were 271 students. Factor rotations were done for solutions that extracted three, five or seven factors. Five of the seven postulated factors were found with the seven-factor solution: sociability, activity, impulsivity, socialization and emotionality. The type of study undertaken by Zuckerman et al. (1988) ought to be replicated and expanded, also including Torgersen’s Basic Character Inventory. Since one will probably get different results with different types of samples, and with different selection of questionnaires incorporated in such factor analytic studies, further research with replication on diverse and large samples would be fruitful.

The author is most grateful to Professor Svenn Torgersen for his useful comments, and to Professor Svein Friis for his research counselling.

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Received 27 May 1992