Personal Orientation Inventory

1. Abstract

The Personal Orientation Inventory (POI) is a pioneering psychometric instrument developed by clinical psychologist Everett L. Shostrom to assess values, attitudes, and behavioral tendencies central to self-actualization. Grounded predominantly in the humanistic framework articulated by Abraham Maslow, the POI also incorporates insights from existential psychology, Gestalt therapy, and interpersonal psychoanalysis. Comprising 150 paired comparative-choice items, the inventory presents respondents with forced-choice dyads representing opposing ends of psychological functioning. The test yields scores across two comprehensive overarching ratio scales—Time Competence (Tc) versus Time Incompetence, and Inner-Directedness (I) versus Other-Directedness—alongside ten distinct subscales: Self-Actualizing Value (SAV), Existentiality (Ex), Feeling Reactivity (Fr), Spontaneity (S), Self-Acceptance (Sa), Self-Regard (Sr), Nature of Man (Nc), Synergy (Sy), Acceptance of Aggression (A), and Capacity for Intimate Contact (C). Psychometric investigations have substantiated its stability, demonstrating overall test-retest reliability coefficients ranging between 0.91 and 0.93, with individual subscale reliabilities spanning from 0.55 to 0.85 (median r = 0.74). Construct and criterion-related validity have been verified across normative, clinical, and high-functioning populations, including sensitivity training groups, collegiate cohorts, and therapeutic populations, where the instrument effectively discriminates between self-actualized, normal, and non-self-actualized individuals. The inventory correlates significantly with established clinical batteries such as the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) and the Eysenck Personality Inventory (EPI), establishing its standing as a foundational tool in humanistic psychometrics, counseling, personal growth evaluation, and clinical outcome research.

2. Keywords

Personal Orientation Inventory, POI, Everett L. Shostrom, self-actualization, humanistic psychology, existential psychometrics, Time Competence, Inner-Directedness, positive mental health, psychological maturity, Maslow hierarchy of needs, forced-choice inventory, Gestalt therapy

3. Authors

The Personal Orientation Inventory was conceptualized, operationalized, and standardized by Everett L. Shostrom, Ph.D. (1921–1992), an eminent American clinical psychologist, author, and educator whose career profoundly shaped humanistic psychotherapy. Shostrom served as the Director of the Institute of Therapeutic Psychology in Santa Ana, California, and held academic appointments at several prominent institutions, including the United States International University (now Alliant International University). A former doctoral student and close associate of Carl Rogers, Shostrom is widely recognized for his work in advancing client-centered therapy, multi-theoretical psychotherapy, and the iconic educational film series Three Approaches to Psychotherapy (popularly known as the “Gloria Films”), which documented Rogers, Fritz Perls, and Albert Ellis conducting therapy sessions with the same patient.

In developing the POI, Shostrom collaborated extensively with leading theorists and researchers of the mid-twentieth century humanistic and existential movements. His work on the standardization of the inventory was published and distributed through the Educational and Industrial Testing Service (EdITS), located in San Diego, California. Further longitudinal psychometric validations were carried out in collaboration with academic researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), Los Angeles State College, and independent clinical research centers across North America.

4. Purpose

The Personal Orientation Inventory was developed to fill an acute methodological void in twentieth-century psychological assessment: the absence of a standardized, empirically validated self-report instrument capable of evaluating positive psychological health, psychological maturity, and optimal personal development. While mainstream clinical psychology had produced a wealth of diagnostic tools—such as the MMPI, the Rorschach Inkblot Test, and the Thematic Apperception Test—designed primarily to diagnose psychopathology, neurosis, and personality disorders, clinicians lacked an objective measure to quantify an individual’s degree of psychological wellness, growth orientation, and existential authenticity.

The explicit objective of the POI is to measure the beliefs, attitudes, and values characteristic of a self-actualized person—an individual who is developing and utilizing their full potential, living authentically in the present, and maintaining autonomy from external social conformity while sustaining genuine interpersonal connections. By assessing relative time competence and relative inner-directedness alongside ten specialized psychological dimensions, the POI provides clinicians, counselors, and organizational consultants with a multidimensional map of personal functioning.

In clinical practice, the POI is utilized as an assessment battery to evaluate baseline psychological health prior to psychotherapeutic intervention, monitor therapeutic trajectory during treatment, and gauge holistic growth upon termination. Unlike deficit-focused instruments that mark success solely by the reduction of pathological symptoms, the POI tracks the emergence of positive attributes such as spontaneity, self-worth, existential flexibility, and the integration of opposites. In educational and collegiate counseling centers, it assists counselors in facilitating identity development, academic maturation, and emotional adjustment. In organizational and industrial settings, the instrument has been applied to executive coaching, leadership development programs, and sensitivity training workshops to assess interpersonal effectiveness, self-determination, and synergistic thinking. In empirical research, the POI serves as the operational benchmark for testing hypotheses concerning psychological flourishing, creative expression, existential interventions, and holistic well-being.

5. Psychological Construct

The central psychological construct operationalized by the Personal Orientation Inventory is self-actualization, conceptualized not as a static state of perfection, but as a dynamic, continuous process of realization of potentials, capacities, and talents. Shostrom divided this comprehensive macro-construct into two core ratio orientations and ten interrelated subscales, each representing a critical facet of mature, fully functioning human behavior:

Core Ratio Scales

• Time Competence (Tc) vs. Time Incompetence (Ti): This scale measures the degree to which an individual lives primarily in the present rather than being excessively burdened by past guilts, regrets, and resentments, or obsessively oriented toward idealized future goals and catastrophic expectations. The time-competent person experiences continuous awareness in the “here-and-now” while meaningfully integrating past experiences and future plans into present living.
• Inner-Directedness (I) vs. Other-Directedness (O): Derived from David Riesman’s sociopsychological typology, this dimension evaluates whether a person’s primary source of motivation and behavioral guidance is internal (guided by internalized values, self-trust, and autonomy) or external (governed by peer pressure, societal expectations, fear of social disapproval, and conforming to others’ demands).

Specialized Subscales

• Self-Actualizing Value (SAV; 26 items): Evaluates the degree of intellectual and moral affirmation of the core values, philosophy, and lifestyle characteristic of self-actualizing individuals, such as autonomy, growth, and intrinsic motivation.
• Existentiality (Ex; 32 items): Assesses the respondent’s situational flexibility in applying values and principles. Rather than adhering rigidly, dogmatically, or compulsively to moral codes, an existential person adapts flexibly to the demands and context of reality.
• Feeling Reactivity (Fr; 23 items): Measures sensitivity, receptivity, and responsiveness to one’s own internal emotional states, somatic cues, and basic psychological needs. High scorers maintain authentic contact with their internal experiencing.
• Spontaneity (S; 17 items): Reflects the capacity to express feelings openly, engage in uninhibited authentic behavior, and risk being oneself without obsessive self-monitoring or debilitating fear of peer judgment.
• Self-Regard (Sr; 16 items): Assesses the affirmation of one’s own self-worth based on intrinsic inner strength, competence, and self-validation, rather than relying on external achievement, social status, or approval.
• Self-Acceptance (Sa; 26 items): Evaluates the unconditional acceptance of oneself in spite of manifest personal flaws, weaknesses, and limitations. It reflects psychological maturity where perceived deficits do not trigger self-repudiation or neurotic defensiveness.
• Nature of Man (Nc; 16 items): Probes the respondent’s underlying philosophical view of humanity. High scorers hold a constructive, constructive-growth view of human nature, perceiving humanity as fundamentally good, cooperative, and capable, rather than inherently evil or malicious.
• Synergy (Sy; 9 items): Gauges the sophisticated cognitive capacity to transcend false dichotomies and polarities (such as work vs. play, selfish vs. unselfish, physical vs. spiritual) and perceive underlying systemic wholeness, harmony, and mutual interdependence.
• Acceptance of Aggression (A; 25 items): Measures the ability to accept, own, and integrate one’s own natural aggressive impulses and assertiveness as constructive human traits, avoiding both passive suppression and antisocial explosive acting out.
• Capacity for Intimate Contact (C; 28 items): Assesses the capacity to form deep, meaningful, and vulnerable interpersonal relationships without losing personal boundaries or retreating into defensive detachment.

6. Theoretical Framework

The theoretical architecture of the Personal Orientation Inventory represents a sophisticated synthesis of several landmark paradigms in mid-century psychological science, chief among them the Humanistic and Existential paradigms. Shostrom drew directly upon Abraham Maslow’s seminal formulations regarding the hierarchy of needs, wherein individuals who satisfy their basic physiological, safety, belongingness, and esteem needs gradually shift their motivational energy toward metamotivations—the pursuit of Being-values (B-values) such as truth, goodness, beauty, wholeness, aliveness, and justice.

Complementing Maslow, Shostrom infused the inventory with foundational concepts from Carl Rogers‘ person-centered theory, particularly the concept of the fully functioning person. Rogers postulated that psychological health requires unconditional positive self-regard, an openness to experience, congruence between the real self and the ideal self, and an internal locus of evaluation. These principles are mirrored directly in the POI’s Inner-Directedness, Feeling Reactivity, and Self-Regard dimensions.

Existential philosophy and clinical practice—represented by the works of Rollo May, Ernest Angel, and Henri Ellenberger—provided the underpinning for the POI’s focus on existential choice, freedom, and time consciousness. Shostrom operationalized May’s principle that existential anxiety can be confronted authentically only when an individual accepts responsibility for their life in the immediate present, grounding the Time Competence (Tc) and Existentiality (Ex) scales.

Additionally, the POI incorporates Fritz Perls‘ Gestalt therapy concepts of awareness, contact, and the integration of polarities. Perls emphasized that neurosis stems from disowning parts of the self (such as healthy aggression) and splitting reality into mutually exclusive polarities. Shostrom’s inclusion of the Synergy (Sy) and Acceptance of Aggression (A) scales explicitly operationalizes these Gestalt insights. Furthermore, the structural dichotomy between Inner-Directed and Other-Directed functioning reflects David Riesman‘s sociological analysis in The Lonely Crowd (1950), alongside contributions from psychoanalytic cultural theorists such as Erich Fromm and Karen Horney, cognitive theorist Albert Ellis, and philosopher Alan Watts.

7. Validity

The construct, criterion, convergent, and discriminant validity of the Personal Orientation Inventory has been documented across extensive empirical investigations conducted over several decades:

Criterion-Related and Known-Groups Validity

In his initial standardization research, Shostrom established known-groups validity by administering the POI to individuals nominated by practicing clinical psychologists as demonstrably self-actualized (N = 29) versus non-self-actualized individuals receiving clinical therapy for neurotic pathology (N = 34). Across all 12 scales, the self-actualized group scored significantly higher (p < .01) than the non-self-actualized cohort, demonstrating the inventory’s sensitivity to differentiated levels of psychological health. Subsequent studies validated the scale across diverse groups, including 650 college freshmen at Los Angeles State College, 150 psychotherapy outpatients, 75 participants in human relations sensitivity training at UCLA, and practicing school psychologists.

Convergent and Discriminant Validity

Convergent and discriminant validity has been corroborated through comparative correlations with standard psychometric instruments:

• MMPI Correlational Studies: When administered alongside the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory, the POI demonstrated statistically significant negative correlations (p < .01) across four primary clinical scales: Depression (D), Psychopathic Deviate (Pd), Psychasthenia (Pt), and Schizophrenia (Sc). Elevated self-actualization scores were consistently associated with freedom from neurotic distress, ruminative anxiety, and interpersonal alienation.
• Eysenck Personality Inventory (EPI): Analyses examining the POI and the EPI revealed significant positive associations between POI Inner-Directedness, Spontaneity, and Extraversion (E), while yielding pronounced negative associations with the Neuroticism (N) scale, substantiating the theoretical claim that self-actualization encompasses emotional stability and resilience.
• Intervention and Sensitivity Studies: Longitudinal investigations (e.g., Abbott, 2009; Starcher, 2006; Wells, 2011) have affirmed the POI’s sensitivity to clinical change. Individuals completing structured existential interventions, humanistic therapy, and intensive wellness training showed statistically significant pre-to-post gains on Time Competence, Self-Regard, and Capacity for Intimate Contact.

8. Reliability

The stability and internal consistency of the Personal Orientation Inventory have been verified across multiple independent investigations:

Test-Retest Stability

Shostrom’s manual reported test-retest reliability coefficients for the two major summary scales over a one-week interval at 0.91 for Time Competence (Tc) and 0.93 for Inner-Directedness (I). Test-retest reliability across the ten subscales demonstrated satisfactory temporal stability, with coefficients ranging from 0.55 (Acceptance of Aggression) to 0.85 (Existentiality), yielding a median reliability coefficient of 0.74 across all dimensions. Subsequent studies utilizing test-retest windows spanning from two weeks to one year have confirmed that while the POI possesses sufficient stability to measure enduring personality traits, it remains sensitive to genuine therapeutic transformation and personal growth interventions.

Internal Consistency

Investigations examining split-half reliabilities and Cronbach’s alpha coefficients across various normative and collegiate samples have found internal consistency values clustering between 0.65 and 0.84 for the major summary dimensions. Because several of the specialized subscales are deliberately brief (e.g., Synergy contains only 9 items) and deliberately span diverse behavioral contexts to capture complex psychological phenomena, their internal consistency estimates are moderately lower than those observed for unidimensional symptom checklists, aligning with psychometric expectations for multifaceted construct measures.

9. Factor Analysis

The underlying latent structure of the POI has been the subject of extensive empirical scrutiny using both exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA):

Exploratory Factor Analyses

Early factor-analytic studies of the POI (e.g., Silverstein & Fisher, 1968; Tosi & Hoffman, 1972) typically extracted between two and three primary orthogonal higher-order factors from the inter-item correlation matrices, rather than twelve completely distinct factors. The predominant latent factor consistently emerges as Personal Autonomy and Independence (heavily loading on Inner-Directedness, Self-Regard, and Existentiality), reflecting self-determination, freedom from social intimidation, and authentic decision-making. The second primary factor is consistently identified as Emotional Receptivity and Openness (loading heavily on Feeling Reactivity, Spontaneity, and Capacity for Intimate Contact), capturing interpersonal intimacy and emotional awareness.

Item Overlap and Confirmatory Models

Methodological critics have noted that because many items on the POI are scored simultaneously across more than one subscale (item overlap designed into the original scoring keys), the apparent correlation among subscales is partially an artifact of shared item variance. Modern CFA models evaluating the inventory indicate that a hierarchical two-factor model—represented by the foundational Time Competence and Inner-Directedness axes—provides the most parsimonious fit to empirical data, supporting Shostrom’s primary recommendation to utilize the ratio scales as the principal psychometric indices for broad diagnostic categorization.

10. Instrument / Measurement Tool

• Instrument Name: Personal Orientation Inventory (POI)
• Author: Everett L. Shostrom, Ph.D.
• Format: Self-administered paper-and-pencil or computer-scored questionnaire consisting of 150 forced-choice paired statements.
• Administration Time: Approximately 30 to 45 minutes; no strict time limit is imposed.
• Target Population: Adolescents and adults (typically age 16 and older) with at least a junior high school reading comprehension level.
• Response Format: Forced-choice ipsative dyad format. Each item presents two opposing statements (labeled “a” and “b”), representing opposite poles of psychological adjustment, values, or coping strategies. The respondent must choose the one alternative that most accurately describes their personal conviction or characteristic behavior.
• Scoring and Scales:
  • Time Competence (Tc): 23 items
  • Inner-Directedness (I): 127 items
  • Self-Actualizing Value (SAV): 26 items
  • Existentiality (Ex): 32 items
  • Feeling Reactivity (Fr): 23 items
  • Spontaneity (S): 17 items
  • Self-Regard (Sr): 16 items
  • Self-Acceptance (Sa): 26 items
  • Nature of Man (Nc): 16 items
  • Synergy (Sy): 9 items
  • Acceptance of Aggression (A): 25 items
  • Capacity for Intimate Contact (C): 28 items
• Scoring Procedure: Raw scores are derived using standard scoring stencils (or computerized algorithms) that tally responses aligned with self-actualizing criteria. Raw scores are plotted onto a standardized profile sheet to yield standard scores (T-scores with a mean of 50 and standard deviation of 10) based on established normative samples. Ratio scores (Tc/Ti and I/O) are calculated to determine overall psychological balance and orientation.

11. Permissions & Fee and Test Year

The Personal Orientation Inventory was originally copyrighted and published in 1966 by Everett L. Shostrom, with subsequent manual updates, standardized profiling templates, and revisions published in 1974 and 1986. The proprietary rights, trademarks, and international distribution copyrights are held by the Educational and Industrial Testing Service (EdITS), located in San Diego, California (www.edits.net).

The POI is a copyrighted, proprietary clinical and psychological assessment tool. It is not in the public domain. Purchase and clinical administration require documented user qualifications (Level B assessment accreditation), requiring training in psychometrics, graduate-level coursework in psychological testing, or professional licensure in counseling or clinical psychology. Researchers wishing to utilize the POI in academic investigations, dissertations, or empirical studies must purchase authorized test forms, scoring answer sheets, and administration manuals, or obtain written permission and research licensing directly from EdITS.

12. References

• Abbott, S. A. (2009). The effect of an existential educational self-awareness intervention on self-awareness in college students (Publication No. 3369875) [Doctoral dissertation, Walden University]. ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Global.
• La Civita, J. L. (2009). Social interest and the Personal Orientation Inventory of artists working in a community art and wellness center [Doctoral dissertation, Adler School of Professional Psychology]. ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Global.
• Maslow, A. H. (1954). Motivation and personality. Harper & Row.
• Maslow, A. H. (1968). Toward a psychology of being (2nd ed.). D. Van Nostrand Company. https://doi.org/10.1037/10793-000
• Riesman, D., Glazer, N., & Denney, R. (1950). The lonely crowd: A study of the changing American character. Yale University Press.
• Rogers, C. R. (1961). On becoming a person: A therapist’s view of psychotherapy. Houghton Mifflin.
• Serotkin, S. V. (2010). The relationship between self-actualization and creativity as a self-growth practice [Doctoral dissertation, California Institute of Integral Studies]. ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Global.
• Shostrom, E. L. (1964). An inventory for the measurement of self-actualization. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 24(2), 207–218. https://doi.org/10.1177/001316446402400203
• Shostrom, E. L. (1966). Manual for the Personal Orientation Inventory. Educational and Industrial Testing Service.
• Shostrom, E. L. (1973). Comment on “A test of the validity of the Personal Orientation Inventory”. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 82(3), 478–481. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0035368
• Silverstein, A. B., & Fisher, G. (1968). Is item overlap responsible for the high correlation between the subscales of the Personal Orientation Inventory? Psychological Reports, 23(2), 541–542. https://doi.org/10.2466/pr0.1968.23.2.541
• Starcher, P. L. (2006). The relationship between self-actualization and caring behavior in nurse educators [Doctoral dissertation, The Pennsylvania State University]. ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Global.
• Tosi, D. J., & Hoffman, S. (1972). A factor analysis of the Personal Orientation Inventory. Journal of Humanistic Psychology, 12(2), 86–93. https://doi.org/10.1177/002216787201200210
• Wells, J. A. (2011). Investigating the self-actualization of ultra-marathon runners, compared with non-endurance training population [Doctoral dissertation, Pacifica Graduate Institute]. ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Global.

13. Items of the Scale (Questionnaire)