FACTOR STRUCTURE OF THE BASIC PERSONALITY-INVENTORY WITH INCARCERATEDOFFENDERS

The item and scale factor structure of the Basic Personality Inventory (BPI) was examined in a sample of 486 offenders incarcerated for viol ent and sexual crimes. Separate principal-component analyses of the it ems for each of the II clinical scales, critical item scale, and socia l desirability scale indicated a one-dimensional factor solution for a ll scales except Depression and Persecutory Ideation. The Depression s cale's two factors were Hopelessness and Depressive Affect and the Per secutory Ideation scale's two factors were General Paranoia and Percep tion of External Control. Although the factors for these two scales ma y assist in interpretation, the correlations between the factors and t he total score of their respective scale were high. Confirmatory facto r analysis of the 220 items from the II clinical scales supported the factorial logic of the scoring key. Analysis of the II clinical scales resulted in two factors: General Psychopathology/Adjustment and Antis ocial Orientation. The results suggest that all but two scales can be viewed as unidimensional thereby allowing for a straightforward clinic al interpretation. These analyses support the internal structure of th e BPI and lend credence to external validity work with forensic popula tions.