Abstract
The primary purpose of the present study was the development of an indigenous personality inventory,
named as Multi Dimensional Personality Inventory (MDPI), which is according to the culture and norms of
Pakistani people. The inventory focused on the Islamic perspective of personality that considers religion as
the most influential aspect of personality. Four dimensions of personality were proposed namely Religiosity,
Psychopathology, Mental Health and Optimism. The investigation was composed of three phases. Phase I
dealt with the development of MDPI, Phase II with Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) and Phase III with
Confirmatory factor Analysis of MDPI. Initial item pool consisted of 591 statements, which was subjected to
qualitative item analysis and two minor pilot studies. The remaining item pool of 394 statements was
subjected to principal component analysis with oblimin rotation (N =769). Four factor solution of the
inventory was approved by Scree plot explaining 50% of variance. 264 items loaded successfully on MDPI
subscales i.e., above .30 factor loading with high internal consistency of the subscales, that is, above .90.
Confirmatory factor analysis was conducted on a sample of N =954 respondents. Indices of model fit were
gathered. Initial solution did not reach to model fit. After adding covriances a model fit was achieved i.e.,
Comparative Fit Index (CFI) and Tucker-Lewis Fit Index (TLI) >.90 and Root Mean Error of Approximation
(RMSEA) <.05. A total of 187 items remained in MDPI. Coefficient alpha for the sub scales ranged from .78
to .95, whereas, Split-Half reliability ranged from .79 to .91. Research hypotheses were tested on N =954
respondents. Results supported the research assumptions; there was a significant positive correlation
between Religiosity, Mental Health, and Optimism Scales and negative correlation between
Psychopathology, Religiosity, Mental Health, and Optimism Scales.
