The Maudsley Personality Inventory
The Maudsley Personality Inventory
MMJDsUY~INva~Y
IRSTR~~XXOM: Please answer each question by putt& a circle round the “Yea” or
the “No” following the question; if you simply cannot make Up your mind, encircle
the rr?t’l_ Work quickly and do not ponder too long about the exact shade of meaning
of each question. There are no right or wrong answer%, aad IU) t&k questions.
Rcnrcmbcrto answer e& question.
Keyed Response
E 1. Ateyouindinedtolimityouracquaintancestoaselectfew?. . Yes ? No
E 2.*DoyouFreferactiontopl~foraction?. . , . . . . . . Yes ? Ng
E 3. Do you nearly always have a “ready aaswer” for remarks dire&A
at you? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . _ . . . . Yea ? No
N 4. Are your day- frequently about things that con never come
trllel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes ? No
L 5. As a child, did you always da as you were told, immediately and
w&houtgrumbling? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yea ? No
E 4.*AreyouincDinedtobeauickaadsureinyouractions?. . _ . Yes ? No
7. Do~oubavedifEcultyinmakingnewfri&Is? , . . . . . . . Yes 4 No
L 8. Do you sometimes put off until tomorrow what you ought to do
today?..........................Yes? No
E 9. Am you inclined to take your work casually, that is, as a matter
ofcour§e? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yrs ? No
N 10. Do you often feel disgnmtkxi? . . , . . . . . . . . . . Yer 7 NO
N 11. A-eyouinclinedtopunderoveryourpast?. . . . . . . . . . Yta ? No
L 12. If you say you will do something do you always keep your promise,
~~~ma#er~~inconvenientitraiShtbetodoso?. . _ . . . . Yea 7 No.
E 13. Doyouliketomixsaciallywitbpeople?. . . . . . . . . . . Yea ? No
E 14. k~youiaclinedtaheshyinthe~ofthenppositc~? Yed 7 No
L 15. %yousometimar@aoss?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes 7 No
N 16. Doyouoftenexperienceperiodsoflanelineas? . . . . . . . . ‘Iles ? No
N 17. Areyoutoucbyonvarioussubjects?. . , . . . . . . . . . . Yes ? No
N 18. Do you often find that you have made up your mind too late? Yea 4 No
L 19. Are you compleMy free from pre~uiice of any kind?. , . . . . Yea 7 No
E 20. Areyou&clinadtobe over@mAerltious? . . . . . . . . . . Ye+l ? No
21. Do you often ‘have +&atime of your life” at sccial affaiia? . . Yea ? No
22. Doyouevercbangefromhappinea5tosadness,orviaversa.
witboutgoodreason? . . . . . . . . . ~ . . . . . . . . . Yes ? No
E 23. Doyouliketoplaypranksuponotbers?. . . . . . . . . . Yea 2 No
L 24. Doyouelaughatadutyjoke?. . . . . . . . . . . Yea 7 No
N 25.#Does your mind often wander +ile you are trying to umcentrate? Yea ? No
N 26. Would you rate yourself as a teme or %igb-strung” individual? Yea ? No
N 27. AftcracMcal moment is over, do you usually think of sometbinp
youabouldhavedontbutfailedFQdo? . . . . . . . . . . . Yea ? No
L 28. Wou!dlyoumucbratberwin,tbanlose,agame? . . . . . . . Yea 1 No
29. DoyauLdit~,araiule,tomalrenew~~~?. . . Yw ? No
30. DO YOU WCS &WC a qucq feeling t&at you arc Mt your old self? Yes ? No
---
1 Tbcen&cledanawersbavebcenset.intypeboldface.
E=Ext.ravenGon. N=Naur&i&u L=Lie. * Short Form.
THE MAUDSLEY PERSONALITY INVENTORY 317
Keyed R
W 3 1I Do you ever iti?&? your work as if it were a matter of life or death7 ?
;V 32.*&e you frequently “lost in thought” even when supposed to be
t,.tig part Bfka conversation? . . . . . . . , . . . . . . ? No
L 33. Do you always feel genuinely pleased when a bitter enemy achieves
fi merited success?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Ya ? NO
34. Do you derive more real satisfaction from social activities than
from anything else? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . _ Yea ? No
N 35. Do ideas run through your bead so that you cannot sleep? . . . ? No
L 36. Do you sometimes boast a little? . . . . . . , . . . . . . . TN0
E 37. Can you usually let yourself go and have an hilariously good time
atagayparty7.. . . . . . _ _ . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yea ? No
N 38. Doyoubketoindulgeinareverie(daydreaming)? . . . . . . Yer ? No
N 39. Have you often felt Listless and tired for no good reason?. . . , Yea ? No
L 40. Are 011your habits good and desirable ones? . . . . . . . . . Yea ? No
E 41. Are you inclined to keep quiet wben out in a social group? . . . Yes ? No
N 42.*Are you sometimes bubbling over with energy and sometimes very
sluggish?. _ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes 9 No
L 43. Do you always answer a personal letter as soon as you can after
youbavereadit?, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes ? No
E 44. Would you rate yourself as a talkative individual?. . . . . . . Yes ? No
L 45. Do you occasionally have thoughts and ideas that you would not
likeotherpcople to know about? . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes ? No
E 46.*Would you be very unhappy if you were prevented from making
numerous social contacts? . . . . . . . . , . . . . . . . . Yes ? No
E 47.*Are you happiest when you get involved in some project that calls
for rapid action? . _ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes ? NO
N 4% Do you spend much time in thinking over good times you have
hadinthepast?. . . . , . . _. . . . . . . . . . . . ? NO
L 49. Do you sometimes talk about things you know nothing about? YeS ? No
N ii@- Have you ever been bothered by having a useless thought come
into your mind repeatedly?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . No
E 91. Do other people regard you as a lively individual?. . . . . . . YeJ NO
L 52. Doyousometimesgossip?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yt.3 No
53. Do you usually keep in fairly uniform spirits?. . . . . . . . . YeS No
N 54. Areyourfeelingsratheressilyhurt?. . . . . . . . . . . . . YCS NO
L 55. Attimes,haveyouevertoldalie?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . YeS NO
E 56. Do you generally prefer to take the lead in group activities7 YtXl NO
E S7. Would you rate yourself as a happy-go-lucky individual?. . . . YCS No
L 58. Have you money worries at times? . . . . . . . . . . . . . YCS No
N 59. Do you have periods of such great restlessness that you cannot
sitlonginachair7 . . . _. . . . . . . . . . . . . . , . NO
60. Areyouusuallya”‘goodmixerT’. . . . . . . . . . . . . . No
E 61, l Would you rate yourself as a lively individual? . . . . . . . . No
L 62. Have youeverbeen late for an appointment or work7 . . . . . No
N 63. Do you ever feel “just miserable” for no good mason at all? . . NO
N 64. Areyouoftentroubledwithfeelingsofgnilt?. . . . . . . . . No
N 65.+A_myouinclin&tobemoody?. . . . . , . . . . . . . . . NO
318 A. R. JENSEN
Keyed Rqxmse
E 66. Doyouliketahavemanysocialengagements?. . . . . . . . Yes ? No
L 67. ~inawhii::,doyouloseyourtanperandgetangry?. . . . Yes ? No
N 68.*Do you sometmes feel happy, sometime8 depressed. witbout any
appaxntmn? . . . . . . . . . . . . , . . . _ . . . . Yes ? No
E 69. Is it dif&ult tci %seyou&f’* evenat alively party? . . , . . Yes 7 No
70. Areyouordia~itrilyacarefreeindividual?. . . . . . _ _ _ . . Yes ? No
N 71.sDo you have requent ups =d downs in mood, cipherwith or
without appan:at cause? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yea 1 No
L 72. W&d you aI5lays declare evcryfMzg at the Customs, even if you
kncwthatyoucouldneverbefoundout? . . . . , . . . . . Yea 7 No
E 73. Do you like w xk that nauires considezable attentkm to details? Ye-s 7 No
74. Are there time!; when you seek to be alone and you cannot bear
the corn-y alanyone? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . , . . Yea ? No
E 75. Are you inclia~.:dto keep in the background on social occasions? Yes 1 No
N 76. Have you oftetl lost sleepover your worries? . . . . . . . . . Yes 1 No
L 77. Of all the peo:i:lleyou know are there 8ome whom you definitely
do not like? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yes ? No
78. Do you usual]:,?feel disappointments so keenly that you cannot
gettbemoutol”yourmind? . . . . . . . . . . . . . , . . Yes i! No
E 79.*Do you usually take the Stiative in making new friends? . . . Yea ? No
80. Do you enjoy participating in a show@ of “Rah Rab” e-u-
thus%zsm? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ” Yea 7 No
NORMATIVE DATA
Table .I shows the means, standard deviations, reliability, and car-
relations between the N and E scales in various samples. The Table is
quite self-explanat8~ry. The age of the subjects has not been given since
even in large sam >les in which the ages ranged from 17 to 6.5, no cor-
relatlon has been found between age and the MPI scales, Correlations
with sex have been negligible in all studies, though there is a slight tendency
for women to Scot e on the average about one point higher than men on
both the iE and PI scales. The reliabilities of the scales are high for a
personality inven~r~ and compare favorably with the reliability of
cognitive ‘tests such as the Stanford-Hinet and Wechsler intelligence tests.
Table II gives similar data for the Short Form of the MPI.
COLLATIONS w~xx 03-iz~ ~ASURES
Table III shows the correlations of the MPI scales with a number of
other psychological measures. A brief description is here given of each of
these measures. For further details the reader is referred to the original
articles.
1. The Short MPI has been described above.
2, The Heron Two-Part Personality Measure (15) consists of an
Introversion (or “sociability”) scale and a Neuroticism (or “emotional
THE MAUDSLEY PERSOhJALITY INVENTORY
T-LB I
Mean, Standard Deviation, Reliability and Intercorrelation of tbe Extraversion
Neuroticism Scales of the MPI for Various Groups
E-Scale N&ale
SampIe N Mean SB Mean SD
1. Normal adult males (12) . 200 24.62 10.04 17.81 11.32 -.15+
2. Normal adult females (12) 200 25.17 9.33 19.45 11.02 -.04
3. Total of 1 & 2 (12) . . . 409 24.89 9.67 18.63 11.19 -.09
4. English university stu-
uznts. Male (11) . . . 50 28.86 8.36 19.04 11.24 .I2
5. English university stu-
dents. Male (18) . . . 213 25.26 8.85 23.23 11.27 -.07
6. English university stu-
dents. Mixed (20) . . . 64 25.16 10.22 26.78 9.23
7. Student mrrses. Female(2O) 22 23.82 9.71 30.64 9.22
8. Totalof6&7(20) . . 86 24.81 10.11 27.77 9.42 -.30 * *
9. Polytechnic & art school
students. Mixed (7) . . 68 24.57 19.04 27.06 11.56 -.OS
10. American university stu-
dents. Male (4) . . . . 714 28.4) 8.06 20.19 10.71
I 1. P~nrerican university stu-
dents. Female (4) . . . 350 29.41 8.37 21.63 10.45
12. American university stu-
dents. Mixed (4) . . . 145 27.77 7.60 21.57 9.75 -.20+* .741 .W
13. Iudustrial apprentices.
Male(18) . . . . . . 100 29.34 9.00 21.20 10.26 -.OQ
14. Industrial apprentices.
Male (16) . . . . . 76 29.18 8.19 21.2: i0.41 -.14
15. Neurotic patients. Male . 83 19.W 10.13 32.98 10.78
16. Neurotic patients. Female 65 18.67 9.21 34.75 11.83
17. Total of 15 t 16 . . . 148 18.91 9.86 33.75 11.29 -.30”*
18. Dysthymicss (17) . . . . 25 21.OC 11.96 36.80 10.48
19. H:ysterics & psychopaths 27 25.22 9.96 28.82 12.76
(17). . . . . . ‘ . .
20. R~ecidivists. Male (1). . . 72 24.76 10.08 32.18 10.38 -.32++
l p < .05.
**p < .Ol.
r Corrected split-half reliability.
a Kuder-Richardson “Formula 20”.
s *‘~Dysthymic” is Eyscnck’s term for neuroses of the anxiety, depression. o vc-
compulsive, and phobic types.
320 A. IR.JENSEN
maladjustment”) scale. The scales are quite short, together requiring only
about 20 minutes of the subject’s time. The reliabilities are high (-74 and
.8f respectively) and the Neuroticism scale has Bern shown to differentiate
normals from hospitalized neurotics.
:3. Cattell’s CPF (Contact Personality Factor) scale (6) is made up
largely of items from five scales of Cattell’s 16 Personality Factor
Questionnaire. The CPF is essentially a measure ol’ social extraversion and
was designed for employment selection purposes as a measure of the
amount of social contact a person needs in his work in or&r to find it
personally satisfying. Cattell states also that the test measures “general
adjustment to social demands and ability to adapt to people” (6). Suc-
cessful salesmen, for example, would be expected to obtain high scores,
while bookkeepers or research scientists would obtain comparatively low
scores. There are two equivalent forms of the CPF, Forms A and B, which
are reported by Cattell (6) as beiig correlated .86 in a sample of 125
subjects. In a sample of 134 neurotic plktients tested by the writer, the
correlations between Forms A and B was .69.
4. The Minnesota TSEm (Thinking, !SociaI, E.uptional) Introversion-
Extrave~rsicn Scales (8) were based on Jung’s &lea that introversion-
extraversion manifests itself in thinking, in social or interpersonal behavior,
and in feeling or emotional behavior, and that these three aspects of in-
troversiion-extraversion are not necessarily correlated. The itms of the
TSEr scales were selected so as to represent these three aspects of I-E
and the three scales were so constructed as to be not significantly cor-
related with one another.
5. The Taylor MA8 (Wanifer f Anxiety Scale) (19) was devised as a
measure of the kind of neurotic state diagnosed by psychiatrists as anxiety
and ‘has been shown to be correlated with psychiatrists* ratings of anxiety.
THE MAUDSLEV PEBSONALITY INVENTORY
Dr~ssi~
While the present paper is not intended as a critique of the MPI or of
the fac:tor analytic theory of personality underlying its development and
its use in Eysenck’s research program, a few comments are in order
concerning the data presented in Tables I, II, and HI.
(a) It can be seen from the correlations presented in Tables I and II
that the E and N scales are not orthogonal (i.e., independent or uncor-
related) in all samples. However, even where E and N are significantly
correlated, they have at most only about 10 per cent of their variance in
common. A significant negative correlation obtains between E and N
only in those samples which i2 some way represent some highly selected
(and therefore biased) element of the general population, and these biased
samples are generally higher on Neuroticism than the general population.
It appears that while in the general population there is only a slight
negative correlation, if there is any correlation at all, in groups composed
of more neurotic subjects there is a greater tendency to perceive the self
as having more introverted characteristics. This effect may be partly an
artifact due to a factor ,such as differences in the “social desirability” of
the introverted and extraverted items. Subjects who have less self esteem
or are less concerned with making a good impression may score higher
in introversion (as well as in neuroticism) if more of the introverted than
extraverted items have socially less desirable or less self-flattering con-
notations. Thus, more neurotic subjects, such as hospitalized neurotics
and prisoners, whose seJf esteem is at a loa ebb and who have little in-
centive to create a “good” impression in an institutional setting, would
be less apt to favor the items that create the most favorable self-picture.
The E-scale items should be studied for this “social desirability” factor.
If it exists, its eliminaticn would be a distinct improvement of the scales.
Another property of the MPI that wi’qants critical examination is the
fact that all of the N-scaie items are keyed “Yes”, while only two-thirds
of the E-scale items are keyed ,,Yes”. If there is a generalized tendency
to agree with statements in a questionnaire regardless of their specific
content,, there would thus be a built-in negative correlation between E
and N. A person answering “Yes” to all the items in the MPI would obtain
the highest possible N score but would be only intermediate on E.
(b) It will be noted in Table I that samples No. 6, 7, and 9 have ap-
preciably higher N scores than the normal population samples or other
student samples. The reason is probably that subjects in these particular
samples were tested on a volunteer basis, which was not the case with
t,her samples. Many of the subjects in samples 6, 7, and 9 heard that a
THE MAULXLEYPERSONALITYINVENTORY 323
psyChOlOgiCalinvestigation was beii conducted and they volunteered to
participate. It is not unlikely that such volunteer subjects might have
greater concerns about their own psychological problems and woul
constitute a somewhat more neurotic sample than would be obtained if
the sample were randomly selected from the total student population.
(c) Some of the data presented in Table I are not in accord with
aspects of Eysenck’s theory and no explanation for this fact seems m
reasonable than the suggestion that the the80ry may not be correct in
particulars. Eysenck (13) has stated that during periods of emotional in-
stability persons towards the extraverted end of the I-E continuum
develop symptoms of the hysterical type, while persons toward the extra-
verted end develop “dysthymic” disorders (anxiety, depression, and
obsessive-compulsive). In short, hysterics (and psychopaths) are said to
be extraverted neurotics, and dysthymics are said to be introverted
neurotics. In Table I, however, it is apparent that the dysthymics and
hysteric-psychopath groups (Samples No. 18 and 19) do n
significan:ly on the E scale, as would be predicted from Eysenck
nor do they differ significantly from the normal groups on the
The dysthymics, however, score higher on the N scale, though there is
nothing in Eysenck’s theory that would predict this finding. The c:rite:ria
and method of diagnosing these patients as dysthymic, hysteric, or
psychopath, as well as a discussion of the negative findings with res
to Eysenck’s theory, are to be found in a paper by Sigal et al. (17).
Another deduction from Eysenck’s theory that is not borne out in these
data is that prisoners, especially recidivists, should be more extraverted
than are more responsible, law-abiding persons. According to the theory,
because of a constitutionally greater tendency to develop cortical inhibition,
extraverts are less readily conditioned and hence less readily socialized.
They are therefore less apt to be constrained by the rules of society and in
general to show more psychopathic types of behavior. Thus one would
predict a higher degree of extraversion among recidivists than in the
general population. As can be seen from Sample No. 20 (Table I), however,
recidivists score no higher on the E scale than do the normal adult males
(Sample No. 1) and ar.: not as high on E as industrial apprentices and
American university students. But the recidivists are as high on neuot-
icism as the hospitalized neurotics. Furthermore, the same degree of
negative correlation between E and N is found in the recidivist group as
in the neurotic group.
(6) Some of the correlations of the MPI with other measures of extra-
version and neuroticism (Table 111) are based on a sample of neurotic
324 A. R. JENSEN
of the brevity of the scalea, their high reliabiititu. their orthogonal&y in the
wnnal population, their bigb correlations with other measurea of these factors, their
blec4melationwithn on-penonality variables such as age, sex, aod intelligence,
Ehd their correlation with other
bencornfor reJearrh
purposea iMbeii perhaps the best queatiomlaire measure
of Wrwe&wxL~vti and neuroticism available at the pnwnt time.
THE MAUDSLEY PERSONALITY INVENTORY
The writer is indebted to the foilowiq: The Statistics Dept. of the institute of
for emna of the statistical computations. Dr. J. Robinson, Director, and Mr. G
Psychologist, ?f tb.e Roffey Park Rehabilitation Center for their cooperati
the writer admhWer the MFI to the entire hospital population. Dr. A.
for obtaininS MPI data from subjects in a prison. Enter Treadwell for
scoring MPIs of university students.
Note : The MPI is now published by the University of London Press.