The theory and practice of personality development measurements

Abstract

To determine the structure of memory-tracing developmental levels, we created the Wang Wei-dong Memory-Tracing Personality Development Inventory (WMPI) based on the perspective of abnormal personality development theory in Chinese medical psychology. We used literature analysis, qualitative research, and our own analysis to build the theoretical basis and structure of the WMPI and compiled items while considering traditional Chinese medicine and psychology. We also assessed the reliability and validity of the inventory by means of explorative factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis. The final WMPI was comprised of 9 subscales, 37 dimensions, and 248 items and it was divided into childhood, adolescence, and adulthood stages. The reliability of the entire inventory was 0.990, and the reliability of the 9 subscales was between 0.780 and 0.963. The RMSEA of every subscale was less than 1, and the NNFI and CFI were nearly 0.90, which indicated the inventory had good quality. The reliability and validity tests demonstrated holism and the developmental viewpoint of traditional Chinese medicine, which played a guiding role in the process of compiling the WMPI. The WMPI has good reliability and construct validity.