THE PERSONAL STYLE INVENTORY - PRELIMINARY VALIDATION STUDIES OF NEW MEASURES OF SOCIOTROPY AND AUTONOMY

We conducted five studies with depressed patients, demographically mat ched controls, and college students to develop and psychometrically ev aluate new measures of concerns about interpersonal relationships (soc iotropy) and autonomous achievement (autonomy) constructs that have be en proposed to confer vulnerability to depression. The final version o f the Personal Style Inventory (PSI) Sociotropy and Autonomy scales sh owed a good factor structure, internal consistency reliability, and te st-retest stability, a low correlation with each other, and weak or no gender differences. Convergent and discriminant validity were examine d with respect to depressive symptom levels, the Dependency and Self-C riticism scales of the Revised Depressive Experiences Questionnaire, a nd a social desirability scale and were generally acceptable. Further evaluations of the construct validity of the PSI are indicated.