Personality Inventory for Children
...l specificity desired based on the client’s needs and assessment goals. Due to the fact that the norms are based on responses by mothers, there may be some undetermined degree of variability in responses given by someone other than the child’s mother or maternal surrogate. Furthermore, the length of certain scales and the fact that it may take more than one session to complete could cause response contamination if the respondent has an unpleasant interaction with the child. Finally, the complexity of the scoring and interpretation as well as the scale’s length may have an affect on the assessment. Due to these reasons, the clinician may be discouraged from receiving more than one parent’s response, there by forfeiting a well-rounded perspective on the child. These are the critical testing procedures that need to be researched and possibly refined. As was noted above, the PIC was normed between 1958 and 1962 on a sample of 2,390 children from the Minneapolis area. The distribution of boys and girls was approximately one hundred of each at each age level between 5 ½ and 16 ½ years. Although this normative sample was significant for its time, it is now unacceptable and outdated. The sample is geographically localized and the stratification is weak. Furthermore, the addition of new scales leads to skepticism as to whether the norms can still be applied. This has historically been one of the major criticisms of this assessment. A restandardization scale could put that to rest and solidify its place in any personality assessment inventory. The test-retest reliabilities that were cited in the 1977 manual also appear in the revised manual. The reliabilities ranged from .46 (Defensiveness) to .94 for a psychiatric, outpatient sample; from .50 (Defensiveness) to .89 for a sample of normal children; and from .68 (Somatic Concerns) to .97 with a mean of .89 for a different sample of normal children. There were also interrater reliability studies performed comparing mother and father responses. Reliabilities for the PIC profile scales ranged from .34 to .68 (Frequency) for a sample of normal children; from .21 to .79 (Defensiveness) for a clinical sample; and averaged .66 for the thirteen clinical scales for a sample of children seen for a psychiatric evaluation. Since there are separate constructions to many of the PIC scales, the reliability fluctuations are not surprising. In regards to validity, the manual depicts a wide array of studies. These studies, in summary, conclude a very high validity score, giving the PIC a solid foundation. In summary, the PIC is an important contribution to the field of personality assessment. It is relatively easy to administer and score, and may be modified to assess specific areas. This lessens a concern about the length of the test. However, the interpretation can be very complex and the clinician should ...