Rearranging Salminen's 1991 correlations between the interpersonal need scales of Schutz's FIRO-B and parallel self-ratings indicates that only one of six FIRO-B scales satisfied the convergent and discriminant criteria for construct validity that Campbell and Fiske provided in 1959. Augmenting a growing body of negative reports regarding the contruct validity of FIRO-B and related measures, these adverse findings heighten concerns about this family of instruments.
References
1.
BurtonS. A.GogginW. C. (1987) Factor structure and concurrent validity of the Fundamental Interpersonal Relations Orientation Behavior scale for children. Journal of Clinical Child Psychology, 16, 164–167.
2.
CampbellD. T.FiskeD. W. (1959) Convergent and discriminant validation by the multitrait-multimethod matrix. Psychological Bulletin, 56, 81–105.
3.
CronbachL. J.MeehlP. E. (1955) Construct validity in psychological tests. Psychological Bulletin, 52, 281–302.
4.
FaustD.ZiskinJ. (1988) The expert witness in psychology and psychiatry. Science, 241, 31–35.
5.
GluckG. A. (1979) The Kramer-Froehle controversy: a contribution to the construct validity of the FIRO-B questionnaire. Journal of Personality Assessment, 43, 541–543.
6.
HafnerR. J.RossM. W. (1989) The FIRO model of family therapy: implications of factor analysis. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 45, 974–979.
7.
HaysW. L. (1963) Statistics for psychologists. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.
8.
HoganR.NicholsonR. A. (1988) The meaning of personality test scores. American Psychologist, 43, 621–626.
9.
HurleyJ. R. (1990) Does FIRO-B relate better to interpersonal or intrapersonal behavior?Journal of Clinical Psychology, 46, 454–460.
10.
HurleyJ. R. (1991) FIRO-B's dissociation from the two central dimensions of interpersonal behavior. Psychological Reports, 68, 243–254.
11.
KramerE. (1967) A contribution toward the validation of the FIRO-B questionnaire. Journal of Projective Techniques and Personality Assessment, 31, 80–81.
12.
RyanB. A.MaguireT. O.RyanT. M. (1970) An examination of the construct validity of FIRO-B. Journal of Projective Techniques and Personality Assessment, 34, 419–425.
13.
SalminenS. (1988) Two psychometric problems of the FIRO-B questionnaire. Psychological Reports, 63, 423–426.
14.
SalminenS. (1991) Convergent and discriminant validation of FIRO-B questionnaire. Psychological Reports, 69, 787–790.
15.
SchutzW. C. (1958) FIRO: a three-dimensional theory of interpersonal behavior. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.
