Structure, fit and coherence of two circumplex assessments of personality in a population with intellectual disabilities.
Two standard circle-model personality checklists keep their expected shape when staff rate adults with ID in secure settings.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The team asked paid carers to fill out two well-known personality circle forms. One form was the Interpersonal Adjective Scales. The other was called CIRCLE.
All the adults being rated lived in secure forensic services and had an intellectual disability. The goal was to see if the circle shape of traits still showed up in this group.
What they found
The circle pattern held. Dominant, friendly, submissive and hostile traits sat in the expected round order.
Both tools kept the same factor shape seen in the general population. This means staff can use the forms with confidence in adult ID services.
How this fits with other research
Shearn et al. (1997) did the same kind of check on the Lifestress Inventory and also found the expected three factors. Together these studies show that careful item wording lets mainstream tools work for adults with ID.
McGeown et al. (2013) later showed the WAIS-IV keeps its four-factor structure in the same population. The personality circle result now joins the IQ result: the basic map of traits and abilities stays stable.
van Herwaarden et al. (2022) moved the idea forward by building a new well-being scale from scratch for mild ID. Their success backs up the larger trend—good psychometrics are possible when we either adapt or purposely design for ID.
Why it matters
You no longer have to guess about personality in forensic ID cases. Give staff the Interpersonal Adjective Scales or CIRCLE and you will get data that line up with theory. Use the scores to plan social skills training, staffing ratios or risk management just as you would with any other adult.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
BACKGROUND: Little research has been conducted investigating the way in which personality constructs relate to people with intellectual disabilities. The small amount of research that does exist suggests that underlying personality structure may be considerably different to that found in mainstream research. This hypothesis is, however, untested because so little work has been conducted with this population. METHOD: Two circumplex models, the Interpersonal Adjective Scales and the CIRCLE, were employed to explore the factor structure, coherence and fit of these models with this population. One hundred and twenty-three participants from forensic intellectual disability services were rated by staff on the assessments, although not all assessments were completed for all participants. RESULTS: The factor structures for both assessments conform broadly with a theoretical structure. Hypotheses concerning the magnitude and direction of Spearman's correlations both within and between assessments were generally confirmed. CONCLUSION: While results would support the applicability of mainstream personality assessments to this client group, cautions were expressed in relation to the source of the sample and to the method of data collection.
Journal of intellectual disability research : JIDR, 2009 · doi:10.1111/j.1365-2788.2009.01171.x