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The status of psychological testing in clinical psychology: relationships between test use and professional activities and orientations.

A survey of clinical psychologists determined that both objective and projective tests were used with high frequency. The two tests clinicians most frequently recommended clinical students learn to administer were projective (the Rorschach and the TAT) and, among the 10 most frequently recommended tests, projective tests were recommended approximately 30% more often than objective tests. Clinicians who were frequent test users recommended both objective and projective tests more often than those not using tests. Clinicians doing substantial teaching and research tended to recommend projective tests less often than clinicians not engaged in those activities. Behavior therapists recommended projective tests less often than eclectic, Freudian, and neo-Freudian therapists.

Humans

Limitations of psychological tests in a dialysis population.

Psychological tests are being used increasingly in dialysis populations, both for psychosomatic research and for clinical evaluations, warranting careful examination of their uses and limitations. Characteristics associated with dialysis populations can limit the validity of many psychological tests which are useful in other populations. These characteristics include such factors as the great biological heterogeneity of dialysis patients, their uniquely dependent relationship to treating staff, and their tendency to respond with socially desirable answers. There is a need to develop psychological tests that are specific for dialysis populations and take into account social desirability response bias. At present, the limitations of psychological tests in a dialysis population are substantial.

Attitude

Psychological tests and borderline patients.

Psychological tests of 32 borderline or nonborderline (psychotic) patients were compared with the structural diagnoses arrived at on the basis of two kinds of clinical-research interviews: The DIB (following Gunderson's criteria) and the structural interview (following Kernberg's criteria). Test results were reported in terms of the diagnosis based on the full test battery, as well as in terms of the structural diagnosis implied by the presence or absence of thinking disturbances on the (structured) WAIS as compared with the (unstructured) Rorschach test. Statistically significant agreement was shown among these four approaches.

Adolescent

The usefulness of a psychological test battery.

This paper discusses the usefulness of a battery of psychological tests administered to a group of psychiatric geriatric patients in New York and London, as an assessment of cognitive impairment. Two of the tests, the Paired Associate Learning Test, and the Digit Copying Test, were highly related to the diagnosis of organic brain syndrome or functional disorder made independently by a psychiatrist in a clinical interview. Prognostic predictions in disagreement cases were no better or no worse by psychiatric diagnosis than by psychological tests. Compared to a simple clinical test of disorientation derived from the psychiatric interview, psychological tests were more highly correlated to independent measures of patients' self-care capacity and duration of hospitalization, but equally related to psychiatric diagnosis. The verbal subtest proved to be the more useful of the psychological tests given. The logistics and difficulties of administering psychological tests to this specialized population are discussed, e.g. patients' physical limitations, communication problems; as well as efforts in this study to minimize these problems.

Aged

Psychological testing and the detection of drug abusers.

Empirical studies using psychological tests for the detection and early identification of drug abusers are summarized. Although the emphasis is on personality testing, intelligence and special aptitude tests are included. The author concludes that psychological testing has not been successful in differentiating drug abusers from other sampled groups. The ARCI and MMPI personality tests show potential, but their validity remains to be fully demonstrated. Factors for their lack of success include subjects with different "response sets" and in specific institutionalized settings. Recommendations for additional research in noninstitutional environments are discussed.

Humans

The impact of theory on psychological testing: how psychoanalytic theory makes diagnostic testing more enjoyable and rewarding.

Systematically applying psychoanalytic theory to psychological testing cultivates a practical, useful, and enjoyable experience of test administration, test scoring, and test interpretation. Furthermore, by grounding psychological testing in psychoanalytic theory, testing becomes rewarding because there is a lively clinical interplay between testing and psychotherapy. These potential sources of enjoyment and skill for the psychological examiner are explored, and several clinical examples are given for illustrative purposes. The need to appreciate the impact of a given theoretical frame of reference is highlighted.

Attitude of Health Personnel

Use of the psychological test report in the course of psychotherapy.

Most studies predicting psychotherapy outcome involve the use of a particular test or group of tests. Very little is found concerning the use or usefulness of what is more generally available, the psychological test report. This article discusses the psychological test report not only as a useful instrument to predict outcome of psychotherapy, but also as an objective measure to assist in understanding the progress of psychotherapy and to alert the therapist of potentially very critical and delicate situations. Case examples are included illustrating the use of the psychological test report during the course of psychotherapy.

Adult

[Neuropsychology and psychological testing: boundaries and proximity (author's transl)].

The psychological testing is briefly described and we present the fields of proximity between neuropsychology and psychometry (psychosurgery and aphasiology. Yet it appears that usefulness of psychometry in neuropsychology is only limited to practical aspects. The main limitation arises from two problems: non-neuropsychological goal of psychometry and non-functional and quantitative studies of behavior. A specific "neuropsychometry" is presented and examples are suggested from studies of italian, soviet (Luria's school) and swiss (Piaget's method) researchers; applications in clinical neuropsychology are discussed. In conclusion, neuropsychology must produce a functional analysis of behavior and conceive this behavior as a reorganisation rather than a deficit or a loss.

Factor Analysis, Statistical

Reviewing results of psychological tests in a patient group.

Believing that much helpful information from psychological test results was not being transmitted to patients, psychologists on a teaching ward at a Veterans Administration hospital began holding group sessions to explain the results of psychological tests to patients. Attendance was voluntary, but 96 per cent of the patients who were tested in a one-year period attended, an average of four or five each session. The psychologist described routine tests and how the results were used and then presented individual test results, giving practical illustrations of the findings and emphasizing patients' strengths and coping styles. Scores from questionnaires administered to patients after they completed the tests and at the end of the group session showed that their attitudes toward tests became more positive after the group session, and that they felt that hearing their own and others' test results had been helpful.

Hospitals, Veterans

A comparison between the Grid Test of Schizophrenic Thought Disorder and diagnostic psychological testing.

Bannister and Fransella's Grid Test of Schizophrenic Thought Disorder based on Personal Construct Theory and the concept of "loosened construing", as measurable in the scores of Intensity and Consistency between intercorrelations, has been applied to a Scandinavian sample of psychiatric patients. The validity of the test was illustrated, and a significant difference was found between a group of schizophrenics and schizophrenic borderline states and a group without schizophrenic thought disorders. The Grid Test scores were found to agree with thought disorder manifestations as evaluated in qualitative terms on the basis of cognitive and projective tests, but they did not differentiate between developmental levels of thinking corresponding to concreteness in organic impairment versus diffuseness in schizophrenia. Thus, the concept of "loosened construing" as applied in this thought disorder test seems too unspecific.

Acute Disease

Therapeugenic factors in psychotherapy: the use of psychological tests.

In the first part of the experiment all Ss were administered a battery of psychological tests that they were told would provide an accurate description of their personality. Two weeks later, Ss were contacted and asked to participate in the second half of the experiment. Half of the Ss were led to believe that the psychological assessment indicated that they could remain calm and relaxed when exposed to a stressful situation (therapeutic suggestion), while the other half did not receive this feedback (no suggestion). Half of the Ss then were exposed to a stressful situation (threat), while the other half were not (no threat); the effectiveness of the diagnostic predictions was assessed via physiological and self-report measures of arousal. Results indicated that (a) the threat manipulation was effective in creating stress; and (b) Ss given therapeutic-suggestion feedback based on the psychological assessment were able to remain significantly more calm and relaxed in the experiment than Ss who did not receive therapeutic suggestions. Implications for the use of psychological testing and diagnostic feedback as a technique of social influence are discussed.

Adaptation, Psychological

[The Aachen Aphasia Bedside Test--criteria for validity of psychologic tests].

The Aachen Aphasia Bedside Test (AABT) has been developed in order to examine aphasic patients within the first 4 to 6 weeks after onset of illness. The psychometric properties of the AABT were established by repeated examination of 82 acute stroke patients, ratings by 20 raters on the basis of 10 videotapes, repeated examination of 28 chronic aphasics three times with an interval of 2 days, and parallel examination of 47 chronic aphasic patients with the AABT and the Aachen Aphasia Test (AAT), administered on the same day. Objectivity, reliability and validity of the AABT were highly rated, indicating its usefulness in acute stroke cases. Data on the 82 acute stroke patients showed that an initial prognosis can be made as early as the fourth day after the stroke.

Adult

Agreement of mothers' and teachers' hyperactivity ratings with scores on drug-sensitive psychological tests.

Hyperactivity ratings were obtained from parents and teachers for 45 hyperactive, children. The children were also given several psychological tests. Teachers' ratings, but not parents' ratings were negatively correlated with performance on the psychological tests that require sustained attention and on which performance is improved by stimulant drugs. This pattern of correlations was interpreted as evidence that teachers, but not parents, have an opportunity to observe children performing daily tasks that require sustained attention.

Attention

Preoperative psychological tests as predictors of success of chemonucleolysis in the treatment of the low-back syndrome.

Pre-injection psychological test scores, surgeon ratings, and patient biographical data were evaluated as predictors of success of chymopapain injection therapy in 130 patients who would otherwise have been treated by laminectomy. Three psychological tests were administered to each patient: the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory, the Cornell Medical Index, and the Quick Test (a measure of mental ability). In addition, the surgeons rated their patients on a five-point scale immediately after injection relative to their suitability for injection therapy and at one year relative to the objective and symptomatic results. The MMPI hysteria and hypochondriasis scales and the surgeon's rating of the psychogenic component of the patient's pain were predictive of the result of chemonucleolysis. The patient's biographical data which consisted of age, sex, marital status, occupation, and education were not related to postoperative outcome.

Adult

Psychological test performance and sedation thresholds of elderly dements, depressives and depressives with incipient brain change.

As expected, dements, depressives and patients with a mixed psychopathology were differentiated from one another on the sedation threshold measure and on a number of psychological tests. In depressives responding to treatment significant changes in physiological and psychological measures, which had been reported in an earlier study could not be replicated except for an increase of psychomotor speed. In the present sample of patients there were significant correlations between various psychological measures and between them and the levels of the sedation threshold, suggesting that sedation thresholds and psychological tests measured related cerebral functions. Evidence obtained from the earlier investigations to the effect that cerebral age changes short of those occurring in dementia may facilitate the occurrence of depression in late life was only weakly confirmed by the replication study.

Aged

Long-term lithium treatment: effect on simulated driving and other psychological tests.

The effect of lithium administered for six months on simulated car driving and other psychological tests was studied in patients with Menière's disease. The dose of lithium was adjusted every two weeks to maintain the serum level between 0.7 and 1.0 mmol/1. The trial was double-blind and cross-over in type, the effect of lithium being compared with a placebo. The subjects were within the normal range of Beck's depression scale and Marke-Nyman's temperament scale. Lithium was found neither to influence the simulated driving nor to affect the scores in the two rating scales. The only specific complaints observed during lithium treatment were tremor and increased thirst.

Adult