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In March, 2001, the Riso-Hudson Enneagram Type Indicator
(RHETI, Version 2.5) was officially validated by independent
research. The
research, a doctoral dissertation conducted by Rebecca
Newgent, Ph.D. at the University of Akron entitled "An
Investigation of the Reliability and Validity of the Riso-Hudson
Enneagram Type Indicator" is available from UMI Dissertation
Services at 1-800-521-0600. Dr. Newgent concluded that the
RHETI is scientifically "valid and reliable" as a test instrument
with "solid psychometrics."
With these findings, the RHETI has become the most widely
used Enneagram-based questionnaire to be independently validated
by an impartial researcher. Dr. Newgent has had no funding
by or connection with The Enneagram Institute; she conducted
her study of the RHETI as part of her doctoral program in
psychology and has successfully defended her validation dissertation.
The Enneagram Institute's involvement was only to supply Dr.
Newgent with several hundred copies of the RHETI for research
purposes. The Enneagram Institute invites other qualified
researchers and doctoral students to contact the Institute
for copies of the RHETI on which to base further validation
research.
The RHETI is a questionnaire of 144 pairs of statements in
a forced-choice format which yields a rich cache of information
not only about the user's main personality type but about
other major personality structures, in particular the wings
and the directions of integration and disintegration. In the
vast majority of cases, the person's true personality type
will be one of the top three scores. Equally noteworthy, the
person's lowest scores will indicate which areas of his or
her personality need more attention. The RHETI thus produces
a full personality profile across all nine types which can
be viewed as "psychological functions" or developmental aspects
of the entire personality spectrum. Of the currently available
Enneagram based tests, the RHETI alone produces such results.
Dr. Newgent’s study was based on a sample size of 287
people, 27.5% male and 72.5% female, ranging in age from 18-74
years of age. 88.2% were Caucasian, and 11.8% were non-Caucasian.
The internal-consistency reliability scores indicate that
the RHETI ranges from 56% to 82% accurate on the various types,
with an overall accuracy of 72%. This is a solid score for
a "forced choice" format test. According to research on the
RHETI, the internal-consistency reliability alpha (Cronbach
Coefficient Alpha) score for the nine types of the Enneagram
as measured by the RHETI are as follows:
|
Cronbach Coefficient Alpha
|
| TYPE |
|
Newgent
Study |
| |
|
|
| Type One |
|
73% |
| |
|
|
| Type Two |
|
82% |
| |
|
|
| Type Three |
|
56% |
| |
|
|
| Type Four |
|
70% |
| |
|
|
| Type Five |
|
56% |
| |
|
|
| Type Six |
|
66% |
| |
|
|
| Type Seven |
|
80% |
| |
|
|
| Type Eight |
|
75% |
| |
|
|
| Type Nine |
|
79% |
| |
|
|
The RHETI also compares well with the NEO PI-R test, which
has become the psychometric standard for testing non-pathological
personality. The NEO PI-R measures the factors of Neuroticism,
Extraversion, Openness, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness,
(the "Five Factor Model"). According to Dr. Newgent, "results
of testing...indicated strong correlations between the findings
of the RHETI and the factors of the NEO PI-R." According to
the researcher: "Results of testing for concurrent validity
between the RHETI types and the NEO PI-R factors indicate
that the majority of the demographic descriptive variables
are invariant to the RHETI. The RHETI was able to predict
the NEO PI-R factors a majority of times, with a few exceptions,
regardless of the demographic variable."
Additional research is planned to bring the RHETI more solidly
into the 80% range overall, which would be an extraordinarily
high rating (since anything above 70% is acceptable). From
a practical approach, the RHETI can be made even more accurate
if you take the test along with someone who knows you well,
such as a spouse, good friend, or therapist. Often we answer
questions incorrectly because we read special meanings into
words, misunderstand words or items, feel "test-anxiety,"
or, occasionally because of self-deception. Taking the test
with someone who knows you well will get around some of these
limitations and make the test even more accurate.
Drafting and pre-testing on the RHETI, which began in 1993,
independently researched at this high level of validation,
will give more credibility to the Enneagram in academic, educational,
and business fields. It also indirectly indicates the solid
grounding of The Insight Approach® on which the
RHETI is based. This test could not have been constructed
without careful observation of individuals, precision in discriminating
differences between the types, and the conceptual underpinning
of the Levels of Development, as well as other factors that
are part of The Insight Approach®.
The RHETI has sold over 200,000 copies worldwide and has
become the most widely used and often translated Enneagram-based
test. You can take the RHETI (Version 2.5) online
for $10 with Visa, MasterCard, or American Express, or it
can be ordered in hardcopy paperback offprint. Orders of 11
or more copies may be made from our
office. Individual copies may be ordered from Amazon.com.
Preliminary Report on Second Validation, November 2003
The second independent validation of the RHETI has been completed
by Mustafa Abdullah at the University of Baghdad for an advanced
MA degree in psychology under Professor Qassem Saleh. Even
though Mr. Abdullah translated the RHETI into Arabic, his findings
are consistent with (AND even stronger) than the first
validation performed by Dr. Rebecca Newgent.
The results of Mr. Abdullah's validation of the RHETI are
on the left, below, compared with the results of Dr. Newgent's
validation on the right:
| |
Alpha
Cronbach coefficient |
| TYPE |
|
Abdullah study |
|
Newgent study |
| |
|
|
|
|
| One |
|
82% |
|
73% |
| |
|
|
|
|
| Two |
|
80% |
|
82% |
| |
|
|
|
|
| Three |
|
70% |
|
56% |
| |
|
|
|
|
| Four |
|
71% |
|
70% |
| |
|
|
|
|
| Five |
|
72% |
|
56% |
| |
|
|
|
|
| Six |
|
78% |
|
66% |
| |
|
|
|
|
| Seven |
|
79% |
|
80% |
| |
|
|
|
|
| Eight |
|
85% |
|
75% |
| |
|
|
|
|
| Nine |
|
79% |
|
79% |
| |
|
|
|
|
Note that most of the scores in the Abdullah study are within
a percentage point or two of the Newgent study, indicating
a basic "stability" for internal validity in the RHETI, even
with the language and cultural differences. However, it is
also striking that the three lowest scoring types—Three,
Five, and Six—in the Newgent study are considerably higher
in the Abdullah research, although Abdullah's findings are well
within the average for his assessment of the RHETI as a whole
(82% overall).
It is also noteworthy that Abdullah's findings are based on
a sample size of 600 students drawn from the University of
Baghdad, 200 each in the Schools of Law, Art, and Medicine.
This sample size is extremely large for this kind of validation
study, giving further weight to the accuracy of his findings.
Abdullah hasn’t completed this Masters thesis yet, and
we’ll release more information as soon as we receive
it. We’re also looking into getting copies of the Arabic
translation—let us know if you’re interested!
In addition, the fact that an Enneagram test—any
Enneagram test—has been validated in Arabic as well as
English is big news! There are many challenges in the translation
and validation of psychometric tests because psychometric
tests tend to be culturally biased, in part because of
the cultural viewpoint of the test's creators, and in part
because culture influences personality and behavior. The fact
that a translation validates not just in 2 languages,
but in 2 languages that are as culturally disparate as English-speaking
Americans and Arabic-speaking Iraqis is very significant. It
corroborates that the Enneagram is a personality typing system
that transcends language and culture.
The latest version of the RHETI, Version 2.5, is available
in the third edition of Discovering Your Personality Type
(Houghton Mifflin, 2003) and online at www.EnneagramInstitute.com.
We will shortly be conducting more research to improve this
already-validated test. We are working on foreign language
versions in German, Spanish, and French. Look for them in
2004 on our website.
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