The Circumplexity of Leary\u27s Interpersonal Circle: A Multidimensional Scaling Perspective

To investigate the circulant structure of the 16 scales comprising the Interpersonal Check List (ICL) intercorrelation matrices for ICL scores of 1,016 female and male undergraduates were subjected to multidimensional scaling analysis. Results show the following: (a) While the 16 ICL scales fell in a rough circular array, measurement gaps existed in the friendly-dominant and hostile-submissive quadrants; (b) sixteenths A-B-P and L-M-N were misarranged; and (c) stress coefficients for a 3-dimensional solution were in an acceptable range. The findings underscore the utility of multidimensional scaling techniques in this research area, contrasted with other multivariate strategies that fail to illuminate the structure of the 16 traits assumed to characterize interpersonal behavior. The results also provide indirect support for the cirulant framework developed recently by D. J. Kiesler (see record 1983-30243-001) to describe interpersonal transactions