PSYCHOMETRIC PROPERTIES OF THE MAP OF CHARACTERS: INSTRUMENT FOR THE IDENTIFICATION OF BEHAVIORAL AND EMOTIONAL PATTERNS BASED ON BODY STRUCTURE ANALYSIS

Abstract

Theories about the interference of the mind-body relationship in the development of diseases have been built over the decades, among them, the one suggested by Wilhelm Reich and Alexander Lowen stands out, which described how identical body structures have similar behavioral and sentimental tendencies, since character analysis is based on ve traces (schizoid, psychopathic, oral, masochist, and rigid) that are related to specic body formations. Therefore, Brazilian researchers pursued this concept by developing a new approach, through an instrument known as "Map of Characters", which allows the identication of individual behavior patterns from the shape of their body, based on the intensity of each character trace in six specic parts of the body and the denition of the nal percentage of each of the traces. This study targeted to verify the psychometric properties (validity and reliability) of the Map of Characters, instrument created to measure the percentage of an individual's character traces. This is a methodological study to verify the validity and reliability of this tool, using records from a body analysis training school. Participants over the age of 18, who have undergone body analysis with a certied analyst were included. The Map of Characters was used to identify the body prole. The data was retrospectively collected by searching the school's partner database. The psychometric properties of the Map of Characters were evaluated by construct validity, using the Mann-Whitney and Kruskal-Wallis tests (signicance level = 0.05), and reliability, by ways of the internal consistency and reproducibility analysis. The internal consistency was assessed by Cronbach's Alpha coefcient of the ve character traces and, in the reproducibility analysis, intra- and inter-rater agreement were evaluated. The construct validity was conrmed by the hypothesis testing and the reliability by analyzing internal consistency and reproducibility, showing a tool that can measure the percentage of a person's character traces.