An Examination of the Leary Circumplex through the Interpersonal Check List
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
6-1986
Abstract
Examined the reliability and validity of the Interpersonal Check List (ICL), the instrument most often used to operationalize T. F. Leary's (1957) circumplex model of interpersonal behavior. Leary's model described 16 interpersonal styles that could be ordered in a circumplex along the continua of status and affiliation. In the present study, 1,016 White undergraduates completed the ICL. Results show the following: (1) Only octant scales had acceptable internal consistencies, as assessed by Cronbach's alpha; (2) ICL variables approached a circulant ordering when variance due to acquiescence response set was removed, but significant measurement gaps were evident in the Hostile–Submissive and Friendly–Dominant quadrants; and (3) ICL sixteenths did not form Guttman scales, bringing into question the radex structure of the Leary model.