E-ISSN : 2733-4538
Very often we get perplexed when psychological tests disagree each other or with clinical symptoms of patients in diagnostic terms. Recently, Stricker and Gold(1999), and Gregory Meyer(1997) published articles attempting to integrate those disagreements, especially between Rorschach and MMPI. They argue that (a) personality has a complex organization, (b) the methods tap unique levels of personality, and (c) method variance has a powerful impact on the measurement process. Each method is valid in some areas and its validity must be evaluated in the context of the conceptual and theoretic domain from which the method is derived. Self-report measures such as the MMPI are most useful when interest is focused on consciously available and behavioral dimensions of functioning, while depth-oriented, performance measures such as the Rorschach are most useful when interest is focused on unconscious and structural dimensions of functioning. It is the clinical skill of the professional psychologist to integrate diverse information and judgment from heteromethod and multidimensional assessment measures.
In order to explore the effect of the decreased safety behaviors on social phobic symptoms and the mechanism underlying this effect, this study compared three types of exposure, namely exposure with decreased safety behaviors and appropriate cognitive rationale, exposure with decreased safety behaviors and extinction rationale, and exposure with no change in safety behaviors and extinction rationale. 45 social phobics were randomly allocated to one of three exposure groups and received one of three types of exposure. The results showed that exposure with decreased safety behaviors and appropriate cognitive rationale produced significantly greater reductions in anxiety and belief ratings for feared outcomes than exposure with no change in safety behaviors and extinction rationale and exposure with decreased safety behaviors and extinction rationale. These results imply that exposure could be more effective if social phobics are encouraged to drop their safety behaviors in the feared social situation and this maneuver is presented within cognitive rationale.
This study investigated the relationships of paranoia and depression to the state-trait anger and the mode of anger expression. The Paranoia Scale, the Zung Depression Inventory, the State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory, the Self-concept Scale were administered to 238 college students. The results showed that the paranoid tendency was significantly correlated to reactive trait anger and anger-in. The depression score was significantly correlated to state anger and low anger-control. The anger-in score was significantly correlated to both of paranoia and depression. However, the degree of correlation and explanatory power were higher in paranoia than in depression. In the case of depression, it was found that the negative self-concept is the more powerful variable than the mode of anger expression. Suggestions and limitations of this study, and directions for future study were discussed.
The social reasoning of paranoid, depressed, and normal controls was investigated through manipulating contextual information and target person. 52 college students, 3 persecutory deluded patients, 13 depressed patients, 13 normal controls completed the social reasoning questionnaire. In the attributions for interactions between other persons, there were no group differences. But, in the attributions for situations in which the subjects were postulated as target persons, the paranoid groups (both students and patients) ignored the contextual information and showed defensive and self-enhancing attributional biases. In the contrary, the depressed groups (both students and patients) made self-accusing and modest attributions. Suggestions and limitations of these studies, and directions of future studies were discussed.
This study was designed to investigate the characteristics of selective attentional bias in anxiety disorder patients. Specifically, we examined the content-specificity hypothesis and the preattentive bias hypothesis utilizing the computer-form modified Stroop task. Panic(n=20), socially anxious(n=20), and normal(n=20) subjects participated in the experiment and four types of words(panic-related, social anxiety-related, positive, and neutral words) were used as experimental stimuli. Half of the words were presented supraliminally and the other half were presented subliminally with backward masking procedure. The 'emotionality' of words was rated at pre- and post-experiment and the equality of emotionality level was confirmed. Results revealed that the selective attentional bias in anxious patients was confined to worry-congruent threatening words, while worry-incongruent threatening words and emotionally positive words did not elicit the attentional bias. These results support the content-specificity hypothesis of cognitive theory. The pattern of selective bias was observed in the subliminal condition as well as supraliminal condition. Although anxious patients were not aware of the meaning of the presented words, they showed selective attentional bias to worry-congruent threatening words. These results suggest that selective attentional bias also operates at the preattentive level. Finally, the results of this study were discussed in the light of clinical implications. Limitations of this study and suggestions for future studies were also discussed.
Based on self-presentation model, the present study examined the relation between social anxiety and social self discrepancy, the discrepancy between actual social self image and ideal social self image. College students performed the Interaction Anxiousness Scale, the Beck Depression Inventory, and 4 types of the Texas Social Behavior Inventory to measure 4 different self-concepts(actual self, ideal self, actual social image, and ideal social image). Four types of self-concepts and 2 types of self-discrepancies were compared between socially anxious subjects and non-anxious subjects, by partialing out the effect of depression. Students with high social anxiety reported lower actual self, lower ideal self, lower actual social image, and lower ideal social image than students with low social anxiety. Subjects with high social anxiety reported greater discrepancy between their actual and ideal self, and greater discrepancy between their actual and ideal social image than subjects with low social anxiety. The findings supported the hypothesis of self-presentation theory that socially anxious person possessed the greater discrepancy between current and desired social image. Implications of the present findings and suggestions for future studies were discussed.
This study investigated the effects of shame-proneness, guilt-proneness, and event attribution on depression. Shame-proneness and guilt-proneness were measured with two different measures, PFQ-2(Personal Feelings Questionnaire-2) and TOSCA(Test of Self-Conscious Affect). 325 female college students completed BDI(Beck Depression Inventory) and Event Attribution Questionnaire as well as PFQ-2 and TOSCA. The results showed that the effects of shame-proneness on depression was significant but that of guilt-proneness including ruminative guilt-proneness on depression were not significant. Second, the mediation effects of event attribution between shame-proneness and depression were significant. Finally, clinical implications and limitations of the study were discussed with some suggestions for future research.
Validity of depressive personality disorder (DPD) diagnosis were empirically studied in the present study. specifically comorbid diagnosis of depression and depressive personality disorder in nonclinical sample was examined at the start-up and the three months follow-up, in order to evaluate its diagnostic stability. The self-report version of the Diagnostic interview for Depressive Personality was administered to 947 college students. Severity of depression was evaluated with Beck Depression Inventory(BDI), negative cognitive patterns, with Cognitive Triad Inventory(CTI) and Dysfunctional Attitude Scale(DAS). The self-report version of the Social Adjustment Scale(SAS) was used to assess impairment in social functioning. Follow-up study was done with the same instruments on 790 of the 947 subjects three months later. The results indicated DPD diagnosis had significant effects on various psychological variables, even after the effect of depression was controlled, and the effects remained unchanged at the follow-up. Results of the follow-up study also indicated strong diagnostic stability of DPD, suggestiny clinical validity of DPD diagnosis.
Clinical validity and utility of depressive personality disorder (DPD) diagnosis were empirically studied in the present study. In specific, comorbid diagnosis of depression and depressive personality disorder was evaluated on clinical sample at the start-up and the three months follow-up, which in turn, provided information regarding its diagnostic stability. The influence of DPD score, as assessed by DID, on the duration of illness, recurrence rate, admission rate due to depression, and treatment response was tapped to explore its clinical utility. Diagnostic interview for Depressive Personality was administered to 89 patients with depressive symptoms. Severity of depression was evaluated with Beck Depression Inventory(BDI), negative cognitive patterns with Cognitive Triad Inventory(CTI) and Dysfunctional Attitude Scale(DAS). Social Adjustment Scale(SAS) was used to assess impairment in social functioning. Data on clinical variables including duration of illness, recurrence rates, admission rate due to depression, and treatment response were obtained from medical records. Follow-up study was done with the same instruments on 37 of the 89 subjects. The results indicated DPD had significant effects on various psychological variables even after the effect of depression was statistically controlled, and the effects remained unchanged at the follow-up. Results from the follow-up study also demonstrated strong diagnostic stability of DPD. The results also showed that DPD score had significant relationship with the chronicity of depressive symptoms and recurrence rate but not with admission rate or treatment response. The present study demonstrated that DPD is a clinically valid diagnosis and is useful for predicting the prognosis. Methodological limitations in evaluating the clinically depressive sample were discussed.
To identify how marital communication and marital satisfaction are influenced by assertiveness, aggressiveness, and daily hassles, 146 married couples' data regarding the Schedule for Assessing Assertiveness Behavior, the Aggression Questionnaire, the Hassles Scale, the Relationship Problem Checklist, the Communication Pattern Questionnaire, and Dyadic Adjustment Scale were collected. The results showed that marital satisfaction was influenced by various demographic factors such as the number of children, education, occupation, and love marriage. Second, marital satisfaction was influenced by marital communication, daily hassles, husband's assertiveness and wife's aggressiveness. By cluster analysis, four marital communication patterns(constructive, demand-withdraw, combative, passive positive) were identified. The couples with constructive communication pattern showed the best marital satisfaction level and the couples with demand-withdraw communication pattern showed the worst marital satisfaction level.
This study examined the relation between the hardiness and social support, and evaluated their relative importance in reducing the effect of job loss stress on the mental health. One hundred seventy eight unemployed subjects (126 male, 52 female) completed self-report measures of hardiness(PVI-II), social support, and SCL-90-R. Total score, commitment and control dimensions of hardiness were found to be significantly correlated with social support, whereas the challenge dimension of hardiness was not. The results of MANOVA indicated the main effect for hardiness of the unemployed on their mental health were statistically significant. Neither the main effect for social support nor the interaction of social support and hardiness were significant. In the univariate analysis, however, social support did have a significant effect on the most subscales of SCL-90-R. Significant effects in the univariate analysis were also found for the interaction of hardiness and social support on the several subscales of SCL-90-R. Finally, implications of the results, recommendations for further research, and limitations of this study were discussed.
The short forms of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Revised(Wechsler, 1981) have particular utility for individuals with schizophrenia because of their ability to provide estimated IQ scores with substantial time saving and, as a result, are less taxing for these patients who often show impaired attention and deficient motivation. Although valid short forms of the WAIS-R exist, they often require validation study. The purpose of this study is to compare the accuracy and validity of two short forms. The Korean-Wechsler Intelligence Scale(KWIS, 1963) was given to 105 schizophrenic patients, and IQs were estimated from Ward's seven subtests(Information, Arithmetic, Similarities, Digit Span, Digit Symbol, Picture Completion, Block Design) and Doppelt subtests (Vocabulary, Arithmetic), (Block Design, Picture Arrangement) that require about half the administration time of the full test. Results indicated that 86.7% of the estimated Full Scale IQs were ±5 points of their actual scores. Estimates correlated well with Verbal, Performance, and Full Scale IQs, and mean estimated IQs differed by less than 1 IQ point form actual means. Error sizes in predicting Full Scale Ids were small(M=2.43) and exceeded 6 IQ points in only 2 cases(1.9%). In comparison, error sizes for the Doppelt(1956) abbreviation(M=4.31) were significantly larger and were greater than 6 IQ points in 20 cases(19%). Furthermore, Ward's seven subtest short form had lower misclassification rate(9.5%) than Doppelt's subtest(35%). This abbreviated Wechsler Scale may be used with schizophrenic patients when only general estimates of intellectual functioning are required. However, all short forms had substantial misclassification rates, indicating that caution is warranted when using these forms to classify individuals according to standard levels of intellectual functioning. Finally, several limitations and suggestions of the present study were discussed.
The purpose of the present study was to explore the effect of restrained eating and current dieting on eating behavior. The restrained eating was defined as a long term eating habit of taking less food than their urge for eating, and dieting was defined as a goal-directed eating behavior of taking low calory for a short period. Subjects were college females, who were divided into 4 groups at their restrained levels basing on the median score on the Cognitive Restraint of Eating Scale, and the current status of dieting. Three kinds of icecream were used for experimental materials. The results of this study showed that restrained eaters ate less than unrestrained eaters. In the preload condition, restrained eaters ate less than in the nonpreload condition. In the preload condition dieters ate more than in the nonpreload condition. It suggested that dieters disregulated eating in the high calory preload condition. And restrained eaters regulated the amount of food better than the unrestrained eaters in both conditions. Undertaken for a short period, goal-directed dieting resulted in a disinhibition of eating as it made the dieters more sensitive to food. Therefore this study suggests that the long-term restrained eating is more effective for weight control than short-term dieting.
The purpose of this study was to examine the validity of GHQ/QL-12 to assess the quality of life(QoL) in patients with schizophrenia. KmSWN-19 and GHQ/QL-12 were administered to 176 out-patients with schizophrenia. Also, their sociodemographic and clinical characteristics were investigated. First, factor analysis was conducted and then RMSEA and ECVI were calculated to identify the best model about factor structure of the scale. Furthermore, Rasch model which is one of the item response theories was used to verify the fit of items, persons, and number of categories. Finally, the stepwise multiple regression was conducted to assess which of sociodemographie and clinical characteristics contribute significantly to the prediction of the QoL. The results were as follows: First, in terms of RMSEA, the three-factor model showed close fit, and its expected cross-validity appeared appropriate. Second, the item and person responses were reliable and 4 categories(0, 1, 2, 3) were fitted. Finally, the satisfaction with medication, the disposable money, the compliance with medication, the administration frequency of medication predicted the QoL significantly and explained 23.3% of the variance of the QoL. These results suggest that GHQ/QL-12 is a valid scale to assess the QoL of patients with schizophrenia. In addition, It was discussed that due to a little amount of the variance explained by the sociodemographic and clinical characteristics, the psychological characteristics such as personality, self-esteem, perception of social support that were not considered in this study might have the effects on the QoL.
The purpose of this study was (a) to evaluate the effectiveness of the validity indices of the MMPI-2 in detecting overreporting of psychiatric disorder by mildly to moderately disturbed outpatients; (b) to differentiate between two response sets of symptom overreporting (Faking Bad and Cry for Help); (c) to cross validate cutting scores suggested by Rogers, Sewell, and Ustad (1995) for detection of exaggeration of psychiatric symptoms by chronic outpatients instructed to overreport problems in order to be hospitalized. Participants were 80 mild to moderately disturbed outpatients who were administered the MMPI-2 twice, once under standard instructions and again under Faking Bad or Cry for Help instructions. Similar to the results reported in the previous studies, Faking Bad and Cry for Help instructions produced significantly elevated scores on the F, Fb, and Fp scales, and F-K index as well as significantly lower scores on the K scale. Scores on all clinical scales were also significantly elevated in the Faking Bad and Cry for Help conditions. Overall, cutting scores suggested by Rogers et al. (1995) Worked fairly well although slightly higher scores on the Fb and Fp scales were needed. The attempt to differentiate between the two response sets for symptom overreporting, Faking Bad and Cry for Help, was not successful. However these results should not be taken to indicate that the particular response sets assessed in this study cannot be differentiated. Methodological issues reviewed suggest that further research may be able to yield more meaningful understanding of the nature of symptom overreporting in clinical settings.
This study was intended to investigate the connection between emotional stimuli and brain activities by the use of ERP which is one of the central measures in the psychophysiology. The Davidson's motivation model was testified, which is based on both the frontal superiority over the emotional stimuli and the traditional valence model. It was hypothesized that the emotional stimuli consisting of sexual contents would activate the left frontal area due to the quality of appetitive motivation-approach behavior. 15 female and 15 male students participated in the experiment. The independent variables were two factors including stimulus types(neutral vs emotional) and scalp sites (F<sub>3</sub>, F<sub>4</sub>, C<sub>2</sub>, P<sub>3</sub>, P<sub>4</sub>). P300 amplitude was obtained as a dependent measure. The results differed dependiy on the gender. Male showed the left anterior superiority over the emotional stimuli about the word and picture trials. Female showed the same results as male's about the word trials, but characteristically showed a weak frontal superiority and pervasive activation over the brain.