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

Abstract

The aim of this study was to re‐evaluate 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.

A validation and short form of the Basic Character Inventory

“…Most subscales had adequate, good, or excellent reliabilities, though Severe Superego and Imagination had reliability values below 0.70. This finding replicates the Kaldestad's (1994) study that also found poor reliability for these subscales. Therefore, the Severe Superego and Imagination subscales should be used cautiously, if at all, in future research.…”

“…Corroborating the findings of Kaldestad (1994), the Severe Superego and Imagination subscales from Torgersen's original BCI failed to exhibit strong reliability and should thus be used cautiously, if at all. The reliability value for Rigidity in the reduced form is somewhat weak, as well.…”

“…Oral and Obsessive Compulsion factor scores predicted psychiatric symptoms, as measured by the psychiatric Symptom Checklist (SCL‐90). Kaldestad (1994) evaluated the psychometric properties of the BCI in a new sample of 88 non‐psychotic psychiatric inpatients and 415 non‐patients. Internal consistency as measured by coefficient alpha for the 17 subscales was generally satisfactory with the exception of one Obsessive Compulsion subscale, Severe Superego, and one Hysteria scale, Imagination.…”

“…Consistent with previous research investigating the properties of the BCI (Kaldestad, 1994; Torgersen, 1980b), the present study found evidence for three higher‐order personality factors: Oral, Obsessive Compulsion, and Hysteria. Conducted with the largest sample to date and the most state‐of‐the‐art analytic methods, our analyses supported the three higher‐order factors and the majority of Torgersen's original 17 lower‐order factors.…”

“…Based on these findings, Kaldestad concluded that although the BCI was a reliable and useful assessment tool in a Norwegian cultural context, large sample replications of the BCI in multiple cultural contexts were in order. As was the case in the Kaldestad (1992) study, the Oral factor was associated with psychopathology, as assessed by the SCL‐90 (Kaldestad, 1994).…”