Basic Personality Inventory

The Basic Personality Inventory (published by Sigma Assessment Systems, www.sigmaassessmentsystems.com) was developed by Douglas N. Jackson and is currently in its second edition (BPI-II). The Basic Personality Inventory was derived through factor analysis of the 28 scales of the Differential Personality Inventory, and the resulting 11 dimensions identified were augmented with the critical item scale deviation to form the basis for a multiscale inventory of psychopathology and psychosocial adjustment. Once the 12 dimensions to be measured had been defined as constructs, new items were written and selected for the scales. The result was 20 items per scale, balanced in terms of true and false keying for 11 of the 12 scales (all 20 deviation items are true keyed). There is no item overlap between scales. Items selected correlated more highly with their own scale than with any [Page 72]other scale. In order to foster local independence, the items are ordered such that one item is presented from each of the 12 scales in succession, and then this block of 12 items repeats in the same sequence with alternative keying.

The 12 scales are grouped according to three primary factors: internalizing psychopathology (hypochondriasis, anxiety, thinking disorder, persecutory ideas, and deviation), affective psychopathology (depression, social introversion, and self-depreciation), and externalizing psychopathology (deviation, interpersonal problems, alienation, and impulse expression). The denial scale is not included in these factors because it is used for validity purposes as a measure of the dimension representing the Differential Personality Inventory scales of repression, shallow affect, and defensiveness. Deviation is also used as a critical item index of deviant behaviors requiring further exploration, such as suicidal ideation or substance abuse. In addition to the 12 standard scales, a 20-item supplementary social desirability scale was formed by taking the most desirable item and most undesirable item from 10 of the 12 scales (validity scales denial and deviation excluded). Additional indices that can be scored for validity assessment are number of true responses, perseveration, person reliability, fake good, and fake bad.

The BPI-II is available in English, French, and Spanish and can be administered in paper-and-pencil format with a reusable question booklet and answer sheet to individuals or to groups in about 35 minutes. Computerized administration with automated scoring and reporting is also available. Reports generated by the software are either clinical with some limited interpretation or ASCII (text) data file reports for research. Mail-in and Internet scoring and report generation are available. The reading level is estimated to be between Grades 5 and 6. Normative data stratified by gender are available separately for juveniles and adults.