California Psychological Inventory

The California Psychological Inventory (CPI; publisher: Consulting Psychologists Press) is a measure of normal personality and behavior. Originally developed in 1956 by Harrison Gough, the CPI provides a useful and accurate picture of people taking the instrument and a means for estimating their behavior across situations. The measure often is used in conjunction with assessing nonclinical populations and is appropriate for individuals age 13 years and older. The inventory takes approximately 45–60 minutes to complete.

Individual profiles are generated from the instrument based on its 20 folk concept scales. These scales are organized into four sectors: interpersonal style, intrapersonal style, achievement style and intellectual efficiency, and stylistic modes of thinking and behavior. The interpersonal style sector represents how individuals may be typed with regard to social interaction and includes the scales of dominance, capacity for status, sociability, social presence, self-acceptance, independence, and empathy. The intrapersonal style sector relates to an individual's values and self-regulation and includes the responsibility, socialization, self-control, good impression, communality, well-being, and tolerance scales. The achievement style sector includes the achievement via conformance, achievement via independence, and intellectual efficiency scales. The stylistic modes sector includes psychological-mindedness, flexibility, and femininity/masculinity.

In addition to the 20 folk scales, the CPI includes 13 research and special purpose scales. These special purpose scales include managerial potential, work orientation, masculinity, femininity, anxiety, social desirability, acquiescence, creative temperament, leadership potential, amicability, law enforcement orientation, tough-mindedness, and narcissism. In addition to research, these scales are often used to explore occupational issues and are used frequently by organizations for such purposes as identifying leadership potential and managerial selection.

Underlying the scores on the folk concepts and special purpose scales are three structural scales that provide a measure of an individual's tendency toward or away from involvement with others, tendency to favor or doubt societal values, and perceived level of fulfillment or realization of abilities. The CPI also provides individual test takers with a description of how they would be described according to the [Page 118]California Q-sort instrument. Further, the CPI provides a measure of the overall reliability and validity of each individual profile.

The CPI was last updated in 1996. The current (third) edition includes 434 items, 28 fewer than the preceding version. Items related to physical or psychological disabilities were removed for consistency with the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act. Evidence of validity for the CPI is being collected continuously, and the instrument is used widely in counseling, organizational, and research settings.