Personality Inventory

Although clinical theories suggest that people with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) experience a confused sense of self, little empirical research has directly examined the self in BPD (Heard & Linehan, 1993; Westen & Cohen, 1993). In this study, 43 female participants, 15 with BPD and 28 without BPD, completed the closed-ended version of Markus and Wurf's (1987) Possible Selves Questionnaire (PSQ). Participants with BPD were less likely than controls to endorse positive possible selves as current, but more likely to endorse negative possible selves as current, probable, desired, and important. Participants with BPD linked negative and positive selves to their desired selves, which is consistent with the unstable sense of self characteristic of BPD.

This study used a community sample of 954 participants (475 girls and 479 boys; aged between 10.9 and 17.3 years and from the city of Barcelona) and a risk group of 78 participants (35 men and 43 women; derived from the community sample) that have exceeded ≥95 percentile ...

Certain symptoms of grief have been shown (a) to be distinct from bereavement-related depression and anxiety, and (b) to predict long-term functional impairments. We termed these symptoms of "complicated grief" and developed the Inventory of Complicated Grief (ICG) to assess them. Data were derived from 97 conjugally bereaved elders who completed the ICG, along with other self-report scales measuring grief, depression, and background characteristics. Exploratory factor analyses indicated that the ICG measured a single underlying construct of complicated grief. High internal consistency and test-retest reliabilities were evidence of the ICG's reliability. The ICG total score's association with severity of depressive symptoms and a general measure of grief suggested a valid, yet distinct, assessment of emotional distress. Respondents with ICG scores > 25 were significantly more impaired in social, general, mental, and physical health functioning and in bodily pain...

In this study, we compared the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory—2 (MMPI-2) performance of male university students and incarcerated criminal offenders in Mexico. Our aim was to determine whether the MMPI-2 can effectively differentiate between these two distinct groups on scales that are reflective of antisocial behaviors. Our expectations were highly confirmed across the three sets of scales that we considered: the validity and clinical, content, and supplementary scales. Criminal offenders obtained higher or more pathological scores on such scales as Infrequency (F), Schizophrenia (Sc), MacAndrew Alcoholism Scale (MAC-R), Fears (FRS), and so on. Overall, these findings support further research with such target populations as prison inmates in Mexico and other countries in Latin America. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Clin Psychol 58: 465–470, 2002.

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of an educational program with interactive videodisc systems (IVS) in improving affective dispositions toward critical thinking for RN-BSN students in Taiwan. A pre-/post-test quasi-experimental design was used. The IVS program was provided. A sample of 126 students was obtained from one nursing college. The California Critical Thinking Dispositions Inventory was

Our purpose was to investigate the hypothesis that suicidal adolescents, compared with depressed nonsuicidal and nonsuicidal normal adolescents, display a more negative attitude toward their bodies. Scales for suicidal tendencies, dissociative tendencies, ...

AIM To examine the dimensions and appropriate aspects of personality according to the five-factor model of personality of depressive patients with a suicide attempt history compared to depressive patients without a suicide attempt history and healthy persons. METHOD Sample of 35 outpatients of both gender (< 60 years), with a diagnosis of ICD-10 non-psychotic recurrent depression in remission (F 33.4) and a group of healthy persons (N = 20) were included in the study. Patients were classified into a group of patients with a suicide attempt history (N = 15) and a group of patients without a suicide attempt history (N = 20). The exclusion criteria were determined. The NEO PI-R (240 self-report items) has been used to evaluate personality dimensions and aspects. RESULTS Both patient groups had a significantly higher score on the dimension of Neuroticism (p < 0.001), as well as significantly lower scores on the dimensions of Extroversion, (p < 0.001) Openness (p < 0.01) and ...

Since the World Trade Center (WTC) attacks on September 11, 2001, the Fire Department, City of New York Monitoring Program has provided physical and mental health screening services to rescue/recovery workers. This study evaluated performance of the self-report PTSD Checklist (PCL) as a screening tool for risk of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in firefighters who worked at Ground Zero, compared with the interviewer-administered Diagnostic Interview Schedule (DIS). From December 2005 to July 2007, all retired firefighter enrollees completed the PCL and DIS on the same day. Sensitivity, specificity, receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves, and Youden index (J) were used to assess properties of the PCL and to identify an optimum cutoff score. Six percent of 1,915 retired male firefighters were diagnosed with PTSD using the DIS to assess DSM-IV criteria. Depending on the PCL cutoff, the prevalence of elevated risk relative to DSM-IV criteria varied from 16% to 22%. Youden i...

BackgroundThe relationship between PTSD and complex PTSD remains unclear. As well as further addressing this issue, the current study aimed to assess the degree to which DESNOS (complex PTSD) was related to interpersonal trauma and had relational consequences.

Psychological distress is common in the aftermath of a disaster. This study investigated psychological distress and morbidity in individuals who had experienced severe exposure to a wildfire disaster in a part of Greece. The study was a cross sectional case control of an adult population (18-65 years old). Face to face interviews were used in the collection of the data which were demographics, the type and number of losses and the Symptom Checklist 90-Revised for assessment of psychological symptoms. The results showed that those exposed to wildfires disaster scored significantly higher on the symptoms of somatization, depression, anxiety, hostility, phobic anxiety, and paranoia; had significantly more symptoms of psychopathology and were more distressed, compared to controls. Risk factors for potential psychiatric cases were those exposed to disaster; those who had lower education, and those who were widowed. It was concluded that wildfires may cause considerable psychological symp...

This study examined the influence of personality information on perceptions of the physical attractiveness of a range of female body sizes. A sample of 2,157 male university students were randomly assigned to one of 10 groups in which they received personality information about women they were rating, or a control group in which they received no personality information. Controlling for participants' age and body mass index, results showed no significant between-group differences in the body size that participants found most attractive. However, participants provided with positive personality information perceived a wider range of body sizes as physically attractive compared with the control group, whereas participants provided with negative personality information perceived a narrower range of body sizes as attractive. Correlations showed that participants' own Extraversion was associated with their body size ratings. These results suggest that non-physical cues have an in...

In this work, we analyze various consequences of the phenomenon of mobbing on the health of a work sector with special characteristics: the agro fruit sector. For this purpose, we collected data from a sample of 396 workers (61 men and 331 women) belonging to this sector in the Region of Murcia (Spain). A questionnaire with the following measurement instruments was administered: a Spanish adaptation of the revised Negative Acts Questionnaire (Sáez, García, & Llor, 2003), the Psychosomatic Problems Questionnaire (Hock, 1988), and a measure of absenteeism. The results revealed a significant and positive relation between workplace mobbing and psychosomatic symptoms, but not with absenteeism. The implications of the results for future research are discussed.

In a historical revision of the achievement goal construct, Elliot (2005) recognized that there is little consensus on whether the term “goal” in “achievement goal orientations” (GO) is best represented as an “aim”, as an overarching orientation encompassing several “aims”, or as a combination of aims and other processes -self-regulation, etc.-. Elliot pointed also that goal theory research provides evidence for different models of GO. As there were no consensus on these issues, we decided to get evidence about the nature and structure of GO, about the role of gender differences in the configuration of such structure, and about relations between GO, expectancies, volitional processes and achievement. A total of 382 university students from different faculties of two public universities of Madrid (Spain) that voluntarily accepted to fill in a questionnaire that assessed different goals, expectancies and self-regulatory processes participated in the study. Scales reliability, confirma...

The pathogenic role of self-addiction. Addiction to an endogenous chemical is a new paradigm termed 'self-addiction'. It may contribute to the development of certain habits, the pathological nature of which may set-in on the basis of this "self-addictive"dimension. Pathological eating habits could be inscribed in this perspective. Two extreme situations. In well-fed populations, the ingestion of food does not represent a limiting phase in the global feeding process. Its pathological management may, however, lead to two extreme situations: the absence of ingestion (anorexia) and excessive ingestion (bulimia). In favour of the self-addictive hypothesis. Eating disorders are associated with abnormal levels of endorphins and share clinical similarities with psychoactive drug abuse. The key role of endorphins has recently been demonstrated in animals with regard to certain aspects of normal, pathological and experimental eating habits (food restriction combined with str...

The Sport Competition Anxiety Test was administered to 77 university athletes, 55 men and 22 women whose ages ranged from 18 to 27 yr., to ascertain internal consistency of responses to the questionnaire. Both methods used (Guttman and Kuder-Richardson) indicated that the test satisfied the basic requirements with regard to interitem consistency normally imposed for self-report inventories: .85 and .82, respectively.

This study investigated the effects of a triphasic oral contraceptive (OC) on mood and on sexual interest in a group of 45 women with premenstrual complaints. Subjects made daily ratings of mood and sexual interest for one baseline cycle and were then randomly assigned to receive either placebo or OC for 3 mo. Women who received the OC reported decreased sexual interest during the menstrual and postmenstrual phases of the cycle. The predominant effect of both the OC and the placebo on mood was one of improvement, particularly during the premenstrual phase. There was little evidence of co-variation of mood and sexual interest in either group. Although the mechanism for the adverse effects of the OC on levels of sexual interest in unknown, it is clear that this effect was not simply a consequence of pill-induced negative mood change. The findings provide evidence that mood and sexual desire are dissociable and suggest that OCs can have direct effects on women's sexuality.