Psychometric and circumplex properties of the octant scale Impact Message Inventory (IMI-C): A structural evaluation.

Abstract

The Impact Message Inventory (IMI) is a unique clinical and research instrument that describes an individual's interpersonal behaviors through the internal reactions and perceptions evoked in others. The present article describes an extensive analysis of a revised 8-scale, circumplex version of the IMI (the IMI-C) across a combined sample (N = 1,109) from 8 studies. Overall, the IMI-C demonstrates adequate psychometric and structural properties; principal-components and multidimensional scaling analyses suggest that the scales generally conform satisfactorily to a circular ordering, and conservative confirmatory factor analyses suggest some departure of the IMI-C scales from true circumplexity. It is argued that the IMI-C represents a substantial development for researchers who wish to study interpersonal impacts in counseling and psychotherapy research.