The mini questionnaire of personal organization (MQPO): Preliminary validation of a new post-rationalist personality questionnaire

Abstract

Background:The Mini Questionnaire of Personal Organization (MQPO) has been constructed in order to comply with the inward/outward Personal Meaning Organization's (PMO) theory. According to Nardi's Adaptive Post-Rationalist approach, predictable and invariable caregivers' behaviours allow inward focus and a physical sight of reciprocity; non-predictable and variable caregivers' behaviours allow outward focus and a semantic sight of reciprocity. Methods:The 20 items of MQPO have been selected from 29 intermediate (n = 160) and 40 initial items (n = 204). Psychometric validation has been conducted (n = 296), including Internal Validity (Item-Total Correlation; Factor Analysis), Internal Coherence by Factor Analysis, two analyses in Discriminant Validity (n = 132 and n = 80) and Reliability by Test-Retest Analysis (n = 49). All subjects have been given their written informed consent before beginning the test. Results:The validation of the MQPO shows that the ultimate version is consistent with its post-rationalist paradigm. Four different factors have been found, one for each PMO. Validity of the construct and the internal reliability index are satisfying (Alpha = 0.73). Moreover, the results obtained are constant (from r = 0.80 to r = 0.89). There is an adequate agreement between the MQPO scales and the clinical evaluations (72.5%), as well as an excellent agreement (80.0%) between the scores of the MQPO and those of the Personal Meaning Questionnaire. Conclusion: The MQPO is a tool able to study personality as a process by focusing on the relationships between personality and developmental process axes, which are the bases of the PMO's theory, according to the APR approach. © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.