Graphically depicting an individual's Circumplex Scales of Interpersonal Efficacy scores

Two common ways to plot an individual’s scores on an interpersonal circumplex inventory are radar (circular) plots and wave plots.

To download an Excel workbook that creates wave and radar plots for an individual’s scores on the CSIE, click here

Radar plots and wave plots can display the same information; the wave plot is simply a radar plot unrolled so that each octant scale extends upward from successive points along the horizontal axis. However, I find radar plots more useful for juxtaposing an individual’s raw scores with the scores from a normative sample, and wave plots more useful for displaying an individual’s z-scores or T-scores (i.e., after having already standardized the raw scores relative to a normative sample); thus, that is how I used the plots in the examples in this Excel workbook.

2025 UPDATE: Chris Hopwood has made available via his website a “Multisurface Interpersonal Assessment Calculator” that can compute and plot octant scores not only for the CSIE, but for several other interpersonal circumplex inventories as well. Moreover, it facilitates comparing scores across the different interpersonal inventories or “surfaces”. Definitely worth checking out!