Interpersonal circumplex octant, control, and affiliation scales for the NEO-PI-R

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Abstract

The Five Factor Model (FFM) traits of agreeableness and extraversion are rotational equivalents of the interpersonal circumplex (IPC) dimensions of affiliation and control. Given that the NEO-PI-R is a widely used measure of the FFM, availability of IPC dimension scales within this inventory could facilitate integration of FFM and interpersonal perspectives. In a study of 301 married couples, we evaluated an IPC scoring system for the NEO-PI-R (Wiggins & Trobst, 1998) comprising 6-item octant scales and composites representing control and affiliation. The octant scales demonstrated expected circular structure. Octant and dimension scales demonstrated convergent and discriminant validity, in analyses of self-report and spouse-rating versions of this IPC measure and the Impact Message Inventory. Further, extraversion corresponded to friendly dominance in the IPC and agreeableness to submissive friendliness.

Introduction

As a widely accepted taxonomy of personality traits, the Five Factor Model (FFM) is important in basic research and clinical applications. One variation (Trapnell & Wiggins, 1990) conceptualizes the two traits closely related to social behavior (i.e., extraversion and agreeableness) as corresponding to the principal dimensions of the interpersonal circumplex (IPC), Control: dominance versus submissiveness, and Affiliation: warmth versus hostility. Traditional measures of extraversion are strongly correlated with dominance and significantly but less closely correlated with friendliness in the IPC, whereas measures of agreeableness have large correlations with friendliness and smaller but significant correlations with submissiveness (McCrae and Costa, 1989, Trapnell and Wiggins, 1990). Hence, the IPC dimensions and these FFM traits define virtually identical two-dimensional spaces, differing in the rotation of their main axes (see Fig. 1).

In some applications the IPC could provide a useful supplement or alternative to the FFM version of the social behavior trait domain. Compared to agreeableness and extraversion, the IPC provides a more direct link to the interpersonal tradition (Pincus and Ansell, 2003), which includes valuable conceptual and empirical tools for theory-driven research and clinical application regarding personality and social relationships. For example, the interpersonal approach has important implications for the conceptualization, assessment, and treatment of psychopathology and emotional or social adjustment difficulties (Horowitz, 2004, Kiesler, 1996). Similarly, the interpersonal perspective has considerable potential as an integrative approach to studying psychosocial risk for physical illness (Smith, Glazer, Ruiz, & Gallo, 2004), where the IPC dimensions provide useful descriptions of two classes of risk factors ordinarily conceptualized and assessed quite differently – personality traits and aspects of relationships or social environments.

Further, agreeableness and extraversion are blends of the IPC dimensions of affiliation and control (see Fig. 1). In some situations it may be desirable to measure the latter two constructs directly. For example, some models of biological underpinnings of individual differences in social behavior (Depue, 2006) suggest that control and affiliation are related to distinct neural systems, and traditional measures of extraversion reflect a personality correlate of the combined functioning of these systems. Types or aspects of personality disorder could also have differing associations with control and affiliation (Wiggins & Pincus, 1989), and therefore correlations with extraversion could produce a less precise description of interpersonal features of personality dysfunction. Similarly, research on psychosocial risk factors for physical illness and reduced longevity suggests that affiliation is inversely associated with risk, whereas control or dominance confers increased risk (Smith et al., 2008). These differing associations could be obscured if extraversion is measured rather than the two IPC dimensions. Further, low agreeableness (i.e., antagonism) combines low affiliation with high control. If antagonism is found to predict poor emotional or physical health, it is possible that either low affiliation or dominance – or both – are involved in the association. Certainly, the large and informative literature on extraversion and agreeableness attests to the utility of these concepts and the related measures. Yet, the IPC-based alternative is also likely to be useful in some applications.

To provide empirical integration of the IPC and FFM, Trapnell and Wiggins (1990) extended the original IPC-based Interpersonal Adjective Scales (Wiggins, 1979), adding scales for the other three FFM traits (i.e., conscientiousness, neuroticism and openness) and the FFM alternatives to the IPC dimensions (i.e., extraversion and agreeableness). However, among FFM-based inventories, the NEO-PI-R (Costa & McCrae, 1992) is the most widely utilized (Costa & McCrae, 2008). To avoid the need for multiple inventories, IPC-based control and affiliation scales within the NEO-PI-R would be useful. Wiggins and Trobst (1998) proposed such a NEO-PI-R based IPC measure, and provided initial evidence of reliability and expected structure. In the research reported here, we attempted to replicate the circumplex structure of this NEO-PI-R based version of IPC scales and examined their convergent and discriminant validity for self-reports and spouse-ratings.

Section snippets

Participants

Participants included 301 married couples (Wives, M = 53.0 years old, Husbands, M = 55.3). The majority was Caucasian (Wives, 96.6%; Husbands, 95.8%) and recruited from the greater Salt Lake City, Utah community. Eligibility screening included: 1) married for a minimum of 5 years, 2) at least one member who was either between 40 and 50 years old or between 60 and 70 years old, and 3) English as a primary language was required.

Measures

Participants completed items from self-report (Form S) and observer

Circumplex structure of the NEO-PI-R IPC scales

Pearson correlations among the octant scales for wives’ self-reports and husbands’ self-reports (considered separately) are displayed in the top half of Table 1; correlations for wives’ and husbands’ partner-ratings are in the lower portion. As expected the highest positive correlations occur for adjacent octant scales and the largest negative correlations occur between polar opposite scales. Further, inspection of these matrices reveals a pattern of correlations that generally varied with

Discussion

Overall, the NEO-PI-R IPC octant scales originally proposed by Wiggins and Trobst (1998) demonstrated the expected circumplex structure, and construct validity in the form of significant convergence between self-reports and spouse-ratings. In four separate analyses (i.e., self-reports and spouse-ratings from wives and husbands) and two methods (i.e., PCA and RANDALL), the IPC octant scales derived from the NEO-PI-R conformed closely to the predicted circumplex structure. Further, these octant

Acknowledgement

This research was supported by NIH Grant # AG018903.

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