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Biomedical subjects

G A Foulds

Publications and source records attributed to G A Foulds.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1977

Hierarchies of personality deviance and personal illness.

Three hundred and twenty-five psychiatric patients were allocated to classes within the hierarchy of personal illness by means of the Delusions-Symptoms-States Inventory. They were then given the Personality Deviance Scales. The results showed that the classes ranked in the same hierarchical order as on the DSSI on extrapunitiveness and intropunitiveness, but not on dominance. Maladjustive personality deviance, as statistically defined, was 3 1/2 times as frequent among patients as among non-patients. Whereas symptom measures had previously been shown to change considerably after one month, personality measures did not. Longer follow-up periods are needed before it can be decided whether personality measures contribute substantially to prediction of type of illness or whether they are determined, at least in part, by the type of illness. In the latter event, personality measures might still prove useful in providing a more fundamental estimate of long-term clinical improvement than symptom measures alone if they were found to change more slowly or only with more intensive clincial effort.

Adult↗
PubMed1977

Self-esteem and psychiatric syndromes.

The purposes of the study were (1) to dichotomize each of the personal illness classes into those expected and those not expected to retain a relatively high degree of anxiety-depression; (2) to seek confirmation of this division by means of the combined DSSI sets of Anxiety and Depression; (3) to examine their respective scores on the Personality Deviance Scales; and (4) to examine the relationship between Anxiety-Depression and intropunitiveness. It was found that within each of the four classes the predicted 'affective' group scored significantly higher on DSSI Anxiety-Depression than did the 'non-affective' group. On intropunitiveness, the 'affective' group scored significantly higher within three classes and almost so in the forth. Although anxiety-depression and intropunitiveness both discriminate between the 'affective' and 'non-affective' groups their conceptual distinction is empirically based.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1977

Personality and coping with psychiatric symptoms.

An attempt was made to extend and cross-validate Mayo's (1969) study of "normals with symptoms" using the new Personal Illness measures. Groups of psychiatric patients and symptom-free normals were matched with a "normals with symptoms" group for age and sex. The two symptom groups were similarly matched on the number of symptoms as assessed by the Delusions-Symptoms-States Inventory. On the Personality Deviance Scales the "normals with symptoms" were found to be the most Extrapunitive group, the symptom-free normals had the lowest Intropunitive scores, whilst the patient group were the lowest scorers on Dominance.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1977

Psychomotor traits, social desirability and the personal illness hierarchy.

Seventy-eight psychiatric in-patients were allocated to personal illness classes by means of the Delusions-Symptoms-States Inventory (DSSI). Paper and pencil measures of psychomotor speed and scatter of tapping were administered with an immediate retest. It is suggested that from a social desirability position one would have to predict that the more personally ill (i.e. those endorsing the more socially undesirable items) would be slower and more diffuse on these measures. We found, however, such patients to be more constricted and slower. It is concluded that such a combination adds to the utility and validity of the hierarchy of classes of personal illness.

Adult↗
PubMed1976

A new personal disturbance scale (DSSI/sAD).

A brief self-report measure of personal disturbance is presented. Being derived from the Delusions-Symptoms-States Inventory, it focuses exclusively on recent symptomatology, uncontaminated by personality attributes. Data are presented which show significant agreement (a) for the allocation of the items to syndromes by experiences raters, and (b) between patients' self-report and their psychiatrists' ratings. At the anxiety, depression, and total sAD scale levels a high discrimination is found between the normal and pmal distributions, both of which are in contrast to personality measures. The scales appear relevant to treatment evaluation and for detecting the personally disturbed in general populations.

Adjustment Disorders↗
PubMed1975

Hierarchy of classes of personal illness.

A hierarchy of classes of personal illness model is proposed and was assessed using a new self-report measure, the Delusions-Symptoms-States Inventory (DSSI). Of 480 psychiatric patients 93.3% had a symptom patterns conforming to the model. It was additionally found that single syndrome patterns, within a particular class, occurred significantly more often than those not classifiable in any higher class. Finally, the relationship between each possible pair of the 12 syndromes was examined. Some of the implications of the model and the data are discussed in terms of the development, remission, assessment, and treatment of personal illness.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1975

Class change in the personal illness hierarchy.

Sixty-eight psychiatric in-patients who had completed the Delusions-Symptoms-States Inventory (D.S.S.I.) on admission were retested after one month. On first testing 92.6 per cent conformed to the hierarchy of classes of personal illness model, and on the second occasion 91.2 per cent. Of those who could improve, 72 per cent did so, most commonly by moving down one hierarchy class, e.g. from the Neurotic Symptoms class to the Dysthymic States class. (On the other hand only 30 per cent of the 61 patients who originally reported symptoms did not do so after one month.) Thus although it is clear that the patients as a group changed markedly, they have not departed from the hierarchy. These results indicate that either the symptoms further up the hierarchy remit before those lower in the hierarchy or they remit together. Certainly those lower in the hierarchy do not go first. It is suggested that the results would be difficult to accommodate within strict disease-entity models, and that they have different implications for both treatment and the assessment of change in current state.

Anxiety↗