Subtlety in structured personality tests.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
SEARCH · Search PubMed
Search indexed PubMed citations on genomics, clinical trials, systematic reviews and public health. Explore titles, authors and supplied subject terms, then open the PubMed record.
Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
The House-Tree-Person test and a verbal test of mental ability, the Basic Word Vocabulary Test, were administered to 23 male and 27 female, university undergraduates and to 27 boys and 38 girls in Grades 3 to 8. The drawings were given three separate and independent scorings by judges who computed intelligence scores according to the House-Person manual; rated them impressionistically on intelligence, using a forced-distribution method; or rated them impressionistically on creativity, using the same forced-distribution method. The three House-Tree-Person measures were highly intercorrelated for all groups of subjects. All three House-Tree-Person scores also correlated positively and significantly with vocabulary test scores for female university students, as did both Impressionistically derived House-Tree-Person scores for grade-school girls. Male students' and boys' vocabulary scores were unrelated to any of the House-Tree-Person scores. Results suggest that competence in graphic expression operates independently of verbal intelligence in males but validity as a nonverbal test of mental ability and that it can be scored efficiently and reliably by using a global, impressionistic method.
This study examined the relationship between depression and the Apperceptive Personality Test (APT), a picture-story assessment device with an objective scoring system. Subjects were 206 undergraduate volunteer females who completed the APT and the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI). Multiple regression analysis showed significant APT predictors for the BDI. Results are discussed and directions for future research are proposed.
This article revisits the classic empirical manifesto written by Meehl in 1945, and examines subsequent developments in structured personality assessment. The current status of personality assessment from an empirical-scale-development perspective is presented, with examples drawn from recent work on the MMPI-2. Meehl's heuristic defense of empirically based personality-scale construction was reexamined and the lasting influences of these views were highlighted. Meehl's early conceptualization of the relative unimportance of item content in personality-test construction and several alternative views were summarized, and Meehl's modified position was described. The role that test-taking attitudes can play in personality assessment was discussed in the 1945 article, and Meehl's views on the need for appraisal of invalidating conditions have been reaffirmed in contemporary test development. Finally, the so-called "dynamics" of a structured personality item response were discussed from a contemporary perspective, and some recent research was included to illustrate the continued importance of anchoring test interpretation in empirical correlates.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
The appropriateness of the Draw-A-Person test with Alaskan Native populations was assessed by matching 33 White subjects to 33 Alaskan Native subjects, asking them to perform the DAP, and rating their performance according to eight criteria chosen for their clinical relevancy. Results indicated that neither level of commitment to Native culture nor ethnicity per se affected drawing ratings. It is hypothesized that the DAP is a useful clinical tool appropriate for use with Alaskan Native populations.
One hundred seventy-four youthful psychiatric inpatients were given the Draw-A-Person Test (DAP) as part of an assessment battery. Sex of person drawn was compared to subject's sex, Achenbach aggression and delinquency scores, and scores on Children's Inventory of Anger and Nowicki-Strickland Locus of Control Scale. The sex of the person drawn was also compared to family composition, specifically whether or not the child came from an intact family with both a male and female parent or role model. Results support drawing of a same-sexed individual as normative, regardless of age or sex. Adolescent girls and young boys were the only groups that differed significantly from this norm. Personality measures and family composition were not significantly related to the tendency to draw same versus opposite sex.
Strategies for preventing infection with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) emphasize testing to identify infected persons and ensure access to appropriate medical care, treatment, and prevention services. To determine the number of persons who were tested for HIV during the preceding 12 months, CDC analyzed data from both the 2002 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) and the 2002 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) survey. This report summarizes the results of these analyses, which indicated that, in 2002, approximately 10%-12% of persons aged 18-64 years in the United States reported being tested for HIV during the preceding 12 months, an estimated 16-22 million persons. Continued measurement of HIV testing by health surveys such as BRFSS and NHIS can be used in combination with program data and other surveys of populations at high risk to determine the impact of HIV strategies on increasing testing.
This study compares the profiles of two groups of emotionally disturbed female adolescents as measured by two objective personality tests, the HSPQ and the Jesness Inventory. The hypothesis tested was that the unsuccessful girls would score significantly differently on various dimensions of the two tests than the successful girls. Unsuccessful girls were those who did not complete the treatment program; successful girls were those who completed the program. A comparison of the mean scores of the various personality factors on each test showed significant differences upon admission.
This study explored the diagnostic specificity of the Munich Personality Test (MPT) in major depression, comparing its scores between patients with major depression, patients with panic disorder and control subjects. One of the 6 dimensions of the MPT, Rigidity, had been developed based on Tellenbach's description of depressive personality, and it was expected that especially this personality dimension would demonstrate a good facility for describing a specific personality feature of major depression. Comparisons were made in 2 ways: ignoring the effects of current depression and anxiety on the personality scorings; and partialling out these effects. Results of the 2 analyses differed radically. Scores on Rigidity and isolation Tendency were significantly different between groups, even after the effects of current depression and anxiety were partialled out. The multiple comparison procedure revealed that the depressive patients were differentiated from both the panic patients and the controls only in the dimension of Rigidity. The results of this study suggest that the Rigidity dimension of MPT may have a strong capability for describing the specific personality feature of depressive patients, and that the MPT may be quite useful for studies, particularly prospective ones, investigating premorbid personality of depression.
BACKGROUND: Although a number of studies have reported on the association between obsessional personality features as measured by the Munich Personality Test (MPT) "Rigidity" scale and depression, there has been no examination of these relationships in a non-clinical sample. METHODS: The dimensional scores on the MPT were compared between subjects with and without lifetime depression, using a sample of employed Japanese adults. The odds ratio for suffering from lifetime depression was estimated by multiple logistic regression analysis. To diagnose a lifetime history of depression, the Inventory to Diagnose Depression, Lifetime version (IDDL) was used. RESULTS: The subjects with lifetime depression scored significantly higher on the "Rigidity" scale than the subjects without lifetime depression. In our logistic regression analysis, three risk factors were identified as each independently increasing a person's risk for suffering from lifetime depression: higher levels of "Rigidity", being of the female gender, and suffering from current depressive symptoms. CONCLUSION: The MPT "Rigidity" scale is a sensitive measure of personality features that occur with depression.
This study attempted to determine whether patients with major depression and panic disorder could be differentiated by personality features, measured by the Munich Personality Test (MPT). One of the six MPT personality dimensions, 'rigidity', was developed in relation to the 'melancholic type of personality', which may be a specific personality feature of depressive subjects. We therefore hypothesized that the MPT might be sensitive to possible personality differences between patients with major depression and panic disorder. Sixty-six patients with major depression and 27 patients with panic disorder, taken from consecutive intakes at an outpatient unit, were compared in terms of six personality dimensions of the MPT. The results demonstrated that rigidity could significantly differentiate the two patient groups, even after the possible confounding effects on the personality assessments were statistically partialled out. The MPT was suggested to be powerful for describing distinctive personality features of depressive subjects from anxiety subjects.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Given the paucity of previous research, we examined the occurrence of scoring error on widely used objective personality tests and examined its possible relation to two factors: scoring procedure complexity (SPC) and commitment to accuracy (CTA). We double-checked the scoring of three tests (MMPI, Beck Depression Inventory, Spielberger State/Trait Anxiety Inventory) across three settings. Each of the tests were misscored at a surprisingly high rate in at least one setting, and some such errors altered major interpretive implications. Tests of higher SPC showed greater error rates, but high CTA greatly reduced the occurrence of error across levels of SPC. Unexpected sources of error were also uncovered, such as commercial computer scoring errors and disagreement in scoring standards among test publishers. Practical suggestions for improving scoring accuracy are offered.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
A significant relationship was obtained between sex of first figure drawn on the Draw-A-Person test and sex-role orientation, as operationalized by scores on the Bem Sex-role Inventory of 76 males and 93 female introductory psychology students. The most striking finding was that most of the women who drew the opposite-sex figure first were "feminine." To the extent that sex-role orientations can be empirically amalgamated with sex sequence, subsequent theory and research into clinical and diagnostic use of human figure drawings would increase in precision.