Ego analysis (IA)
Measurement object / dimensions
The Ego Analysis (IA) was developed according to Ammon, G., Finke, G. & Wolfrum, G.: "Ich-Struktur-Test" (1998) and is thus a psychoanalytically oriented personality questionnaire based on Günter Ammon's human-structural theory of dynamic psychiatry. It measures the personality areas (human functions) of aggression, anxiety, external and internal boundaries, narcissism, critical faculties and sexuality. The constructive, destructive and deficient manifestations of these human functions are measured. The IA is intended to capture the current state of development of a person's personality in its unconscious structural characteristics in as differentiated a manner as possible and it should be sensitive to change.
In contrast to Ammon, the items were developed on the basis of item response theory. A new dimension "critical ability" was also developed and incorporated, as experts from forensic practice repeatedly emphasized the importance of this dimension in many prognostic decisions.
In addition, account has been taken of the fact that, particularly in the forensic-psychological field, distortion tendencies must be recognized as reliably as possible when the test is being processed and reported back in the evaluation. Alternating test specifications and state-of-the-art algorithms are used for this purpose.
Brief description of the procedure
Authors
Jörg A. Prieler
Area(s) of application
Clinical psychology, forensic psychology (e.g. for "release" decisions, review of the effectiveness of measures/therapy, expulsions, trauma processing)
Execution
The procedure consists of 244 normative and ipsative items with 21 dimensions.
Execution time
Approx. 30 minutes
Reliability
Reliability in the sense of internal consistency is given due to the validity of the rating scale model. Nevertheless, Cronbach's alpha and retest reliabilities were calculated:
In a study of 881 people, reliability coefficients for the individual scales were determined to be in the range of 0.71 to 0.88 (Cronbach's alpha).
To determine stability, 121 people were tested a second time at six-month intervals. The retest reliabilities are between 0.72 and 0.81.
Validity
The validity of the IA is given because there is a high level of agreement with other test procedures (MMPI-II, SCL-90R), some of which measure similar dimensions, and because there is little or no agreement with test procedures that measure something else (convergent and discriminant validity).
In a second validation study ("removed" persons and normal persons, N=62) with subsequent cross-validation ("removed" persons and normal persons, N=45), the scale differences between these two groups were analyzed inferentially (variance and discriminant analysis).
In a third validation study (convicted prisoners according to Austrian Penal Code § 87, intentional grievous bodily harm, N=30), the IA was specified and compared with the scale scores of the norm sample.
Evaluation / Standards
Norm values (stanine scale) are issued for the individual scales, and work is ongoing to expand them. At present, norms are available for normal persons (N=562); breakdown by gender, age and level of education available. For copyright reasons, norm tables are not presented, as is customary internationally with many test publishers today; the norms are part of the evaluation software and are not published.
Execution methods
Possible on PCs/laptops/touchpads without restriction. On mobile phones only to a limited extent, as entering data with a finger is a bit tedious (but possible in principle). There is an Online & Offline (dongle protected) and P&P variant (manual data entry required).
Languages
German, English
Security and data protection
The IR&C system meets the latest IT requirements ("banking standard"). As an additional security measure, personal codes can also be assigned instead of the specific names of the persons tested. Customers only need to provide sufficient PCs/laptops/touchpads with or without an Internet connection (on/off-line capable, also intranet-capable).