Rating scales for measuring the interpersonal circle in forensic psychiatric patients.

Abstract

Two studies are reported on nurses' assessments of interpersonal style in hospitalized male forensic psychiatric patients. In Study 1, interpersonal behaviors were rated on a Chart of Interpersonal Reactions in Closed Living Environments (CIRCLE) in a derivation sample (n = 210) and a replication sample (n= 102). Rating items generated a circular arrangement within both samples consistent with recent conceptualizations of the Leary interpersonal circle (T. Leary, 1957), and scales constructed to measure the octants of the circle demonstrated acceptable psychometric properties. Study 2 showed that the 8 scales met the geometric requirements of a circumplex in the same 2 samples. As measures of dysfunctional interpersonal style, CIRCLE scales may have some utility in treatment planning, risk assessment, and the evaluation of personality disorders in inpatienl populations.Problems in relating to others commonly reflect stylistic consistencies in social interaction that may both contribute to the development of clinical disorders and affect the process and outcome of treatment (Horowitz & Vitkus, 1986;Muran, Segal, Samstag, & Crawford, 1994). Dysfunctional interactions are particularly prominent among the criteria for personality disorders (American Psychiatric Association, 1994), and several theorists argue that these disorders are most appropriately understood as maladaptive interpersonal styles (e.g., Blackburn,

The impact of a night confinement policy on patients in a UK high secure inpatient mental health service

“…Gross behaviour was assessed through ward staff assessments of each patient using the CIRCLE nurses' observation scale (Blackburn & Renwick, 1996) which measures the interpersonal style and quality of interaction exhibited by a patient in a closed living environment. It is a 51-item measure completed by ward staff about individual patients with whom they are very well acquainted and indexes 8 characteristics of patient behaviour and interaction: dominant, coercive, hostile, withdrawn, submissive, compliant, nurturant and gregarious.…”

The impact of an intensive inpatient violent offender treatment programme on intermediary treatment targets, violence risk and aggressive behaviour in a sample of mentally disordered offenders

“…Each item is rated on a four-point Likert scale and scored 0 (not at all), 1 (occasionally), 2 (fairly often), or 3 (usually or frequently) by two staff who know the person well, their scores are combined to form the overall score. CIRCLE has satisfactory psychometric properties (Blackburn, 1998) with good inter-rater reliability (range 0.55-0.68) and test retest reliability (0.83-0.92) (Blackburn & Renwick, 1996). In this study comparisons over time were only made on the Coercion, Hostility and Dominance subscales because prior research has consistently revealed positive associations between these scales and aggressive behaviour in mentally disordered offenders (Daffern, Duggan, Huband & Thomas, 2008).…”

Interpersonal characteristics of male criminal offenders: Personality, psychopathological, and behavioral correlates.

“…Research generally has suggested that an interpersonal style of high control and low affiliation is associated with antisocial behavior as well as with antisocial and paranoid personality traits. Blackburn and Renwick (1996) developed the most widely used measure of interpersonal features in offender samples, the Chart of Interpersonal Reactions in Closed Living Environments (CIRCLE). This 49-item rating scale of verbal and nonverbal behaviors provides scores on eight scales, or "octants," consistent with an interpersonal circumplex model that further subdivides the basic four-quadrant model described above.…”