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A set of computer programs which calculates correlations between Q-sort decks is described. These programs automatically process Q-sort decks in which the items are printed directly on IBM cards, thus enabling the rapid analysis of large volumes of Q-sort data. An application of this method to the assessment of family interaction is described.
The present study examined the feasibility of a taxonomic strategy for generating situational criteria useful in the assessment of competence for older adults, with competence viewed as adaptive responding in specific situations. The first phase of the strategy involved (a) sampling a population of situations relevant to the experience of an older urban population, (b) selecting and empirically testing the reliability of four attribute dimensions (social-nonsocial; high-low activity; common-uncommon: supportive-depriving), which, in combination, taxonomized 16 classes of 80 situations, and (c) adapting these situations to a Q-sort technique. In the second phase, taxonomized situations were Q-sorted by 20 older individuals(x age = 71 years) on three response dimensions (self-rated ease of coping, affect, and frequency of encounter). Significant MANOVA main effects and interactions for each response dimension were found. Implications of this approach for generating ecologically-valid situational criteria useful in assessing adult competence are discussed.
This study examined the family system differences between 40 volunteer natural-father and stepfather families. Family triads consisting of the husband, the wife, and a child whose age ranged from 12 to 15 years were studied. Four instruments were used: (a) the Family Concept Q-Sort; (b) a Semantic Differential; (c) a demographic questionnaire; and (d) an interaction-reaction questionnaire. Analyses of variance on the data obtained from the Q-sorts and the Semantic Differentials indicated that stepfather family systems are different from natural-father family systems along several salient dimensions including psychological adjustment, satisfaction with family, reciprocal understanding, and perceived goodness and potency. It was concluded that the differences between the family systems in terms of their interpersonal relations and perceptions affect the entire stepparent family system and its ability to function adequately.
In this longitudinal study, individual differences in security of attachment at 18 months and effective autonomous functioning at age 2 years were related to the dimensions of ego-control and ego-resiliency at age 4--5 years. The kindergarten or nursery school teachers of 26 children completed California Child Q-Sorts. The children were also given a short form of the Block's laboratory battery (Banta's curiosity box, level of aspiration, motor impulse control delay of gratification, the Shure and Spivack Preschool Interpersonal Problem-solving Test, and the Lowenfeld mosaics). Following the Blocks, composited ego-resiliency and ego-control scores were derived from each data set. Children earlier classified as securely attached were, as predicted, significantly higher on ego-resiliency on both laboratory and Q-sort composites. They were also higher than anxiously attached infants on 3 independent measures of curiosity. An independently composited index of competence from 2-year tool-using measures also correlated significantly with later resiliency, as did 2-year measures of mothers' support and quality of assistance. The data provide initial links between the infant's quality of attachment, the toddler's effectiveness in a problem-solving situation, and competence during the preschool years.
The simultaneous recording of spontaneous EDA (mono and diphasic SPR), HR and mood self-rating (Q-sort of adjectives), on 35 normal subjects, for 5 consecutive weeks has shown that: (1) The emission of diphasic SPR is significantly related to an increase in monophasic EDA (in frequency and in amplitude) and to a lesser degree with HR acceleration; (2) Such a physiological pattern is significantly associated with depressive mood, though independent from anxious mood. These results confirm the importance of morphological aspects of SPR in assessing normal mood states.
2 studies were undertaken to assess the positive affective correlates of secure attachment in infancy and to assess the relation between secure attachment in infancy and competence in the peer group at age 3 1/2 years. In study 1, smiling and smiling combined with vocalizing and/or showing toys distinguished securely from anxiously attached infants during free play at age 18 months. Rated quality of affective sharing distinguished securely from anxiously attached infants during free play at 18 months and 24 months. Thus, secure attachment involves more than the absence of negative or maladaptive behavior directed toward a caregiver. Study 2 assessed cross-age, cross-situational, and cross-behavioral consistency in quality of social adaptation. Quality of infant-mother attachment relationships at age 15 months was related to Q-sort assessments of personal and interpersonal competence in the preschool play-group at age 3 1/2 years. The results contribute to the validation of attachment as an important developmental construct. They also suggest that age appropriate assessment of developmental social competence constructs can be a useful alternative to the study of homotypic behavioral continuity.
The systematic recording of spontaneous electrodermal activity (EDA) on 23 normal subjects during 5 15-min sessions and the self-rating of anxious and/or depressive moods (Q-sort forced choice) shows a positive linear relationship between spontaneous EDA and anxious mood despite a low covariation between those two variables. The same relationship is found with a lower degree of confidence in depression. A greater EDA is observed in the rare pattern of "depression higher than anxiety', than in the opposite case. The discussion of the results deals with the parallelism between a physiological continuum and affective states.
This article reports the development of a measure of indicidual differences in autonomous rule compliance. The autonomy scale (a short, easily administered CPI based test) was developed within the framework of a multidimensional, role-theoretical model of moral development. Five samples were used in the construction of the scale. Two of the samples (total n = 111) were used to derive the autonomy scale. The items for the scale were derived through the sequential use of two common item selection stategies: criterion keying and factor analysis. An initial set of 55 CPI items were derived using an "ideal" autonomy Q-sort profile as a selection criterion, and an Alpha factor solution was used to reduce this initial pool to a final set of 25 items. Several analyses were conducted using three additional samples (total n = 245) to estimate the reliability of the scale and determine its validity. The results of these analyses provide initial evidence for the content, criterion-realted, and construct validity of the scale and indicate that the measure has an adequate reliability.
Studies of four closed and four open groups of patients participating in psychotherapy, which were conducted in a psychotherapeutic inpatient department using pre- and post-test diagnoses (the test used being the MMPI, FPI, Q-Sort, and Giessen tests), showed that these were not different as regards the frequency of statistically evident changes recorded upon the completion of psychotherapy. The authors also discuss the advantages and disadvantages of open and closed groups, with particular consideration being given to organizational aspects.
To determine whether poor sleepers have a unique personality constellation significantly different from that of good sleepers, a sample of 162 emotionally disturbed adolescent poor sleepers was compared to a sample of 153 emotionally disturbed adolescent good sleepers on standardized personality instruments. Poor sleepers were found to have a high incidence of neurotic psychopathology with personality patterns characterized by depression, fearfulness, inhibition, anxiety, and rumination. In contrast, good sleepers showed quasi-healthy and/or characterological patterns. While this study does not resolve cause and effect relationships, it does establish a highly significant relationship between neuroticism and sleep disturbance for adolescent boys and girls, and also demonstrates a similarity of personality dynamics and patterns between adult and adolescent samples of patients with sleep disturbances.
The A-B scale was developed to distinguish therapists with a high rate of therapeutic improvement with schizophrenic patients from those with a low rate. The present study tests the hypothesis, developed by Whitehorn and Betz, expanded by McNair and Lorr, of an interaction between a therapist factor, i.e. the A-B score (identified in this study by the Campbell et al. revision of the Whitehorn and Betz A-B scale), patient diagnosis, and treatment outcome. An automated data system identified all of the adult patients treated by 42 therapists during their training at a psychiatric center containing inpatient and outpatient facilities. The patient group was broken down according to diagnosis and whether or not psychotropic drugs were a major treatment modality. Using a linear logistic regression model, the slope of the line specifying log odds of improvement in relation to therapist A-B was found to be significantly different for schizophrenics and neurotics treated without drugs. (No relationship to A-B was found for drug-treated patients.) For those therapists who had treated both neurotic and schizophrenic patients (N = 19) without drugs, A-B was found to be significantly associated (p = .075) with a measure of dependence between patient type and outcome. These two findings were consistent with the hypothesized relationship between the A-B dimension, patient diagnosis, and case outcome.
A consecutive sample of chronic pain patients presenting themselves for evaluation was studied. A set of 25 bi-polar adjectives was developed from medical records of previous pain patients' descriptions of their pain. Using the Semantic Differential (S-D) method, each patient rated the extent to which his/her pain was best described by either of the adjective pairs. The S-D findings were then compared with three other data sets and those data sets were compared with each other. First, six physicians classified each patient along an "organic"--"non-organic" continuum based on ratings derived from the full set of medical diagnostic labels each patient had accrued. Secondly, each patient, prior to examination, had completed up to two weeks of diary forms at home on which were recorded amount and distribution of time among sitting, standing/walking, and reclining. Finally, each patient completed a Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI). Few and only marginally significant relationships between patient semantic descriptions of their pain and the other measures were found. Secondly, physician agreement ot the "organic"--"non-organic" criterion, using diagnostic labels as their data, was statistically significant but clinically modest. The most substantial findings were between walking hours per week recorded on diary forms and five MMPI scales. Patients who walked more were less depressed, had fewer diffuse somatic complaints, and described themselves as less frustrated or angry and as less hypersensitive in interpersonal situations. The major conclusion of the study is that chronic pain patients present sets of interrelated problems too complex to be discriminated reliably by a single set of measures; particularly, by simple word sets.
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The paper describes the application of the Q-technique to the study of healthy aged men. The research is an NIMH project, and the Q-technique was performed on the initial study done in 1957 (47 Ss across 550 variables). The paper focuses on clusters of interdisciplinary relationships which contained biological and cognitive influences. Twenty-eight out of the 64 clusters fell within this category. This first paper concentrates on methodological precedures and issues, and also presents 6 clusters of output derived from the first two Q-factors. The remaining 22 clusters will be described in subsequent papers.
Groups of 40 psychiatric and 40 nonpsychiatric male patients were subdivided into equal groups of high and low social competence. Each patient completed a task battery which included three measures of self-image disparity and the Byrne repression-sensitization scale. High competence patients of both types were found to have higher self-image disparities than low competence patients. Psychiatric patients were found to have higher disparity scores than nonpsychiatric patients, although some evidence indicated that this was true only for the low competence groups. Higher scores on the Byrne scale (indicating sensitization) were found for high as compared to low competence patients, and for the psychiatric as compared to nonpsychiatric groups. Defensive style correlated significantly with each of the self-image measures. The results were discussed in the context of both developmental and Rogerian formulations. It was concluded that an individual's maturational level influences both self-image and defensive style, even when the individual is judged psychologically maladjusted.
Questionnaire responses of women who underwent legal abortions reveal a range of complex emotional reactions. This study suggests that both the resolution of negative feelings post-abortion and the motivation to use contraception are related to individual personality characteristics. Implications are offered for therapeutic intervention and for contraceptive counseling with young, unmarried women.
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79 ulcer patients were arranged in 6 seb-groups by means of a Q-analysis. Relevant items of their self-images in the Giessen-Test selected through factor analysis were the basis of this sub-grouping. Description of the sub-groups was based on factor analysis of 5 dimensions and discriminance analysis of 3 dimensions obtained in the self-perceptions and self-images. The patient's view of his illness, his social status and his physical ailments were also included as dimensions of the 6 sub-groups. A clinically obtained typology of the characteristics of these sub-groups was checked and verified.