Development of a three-scale MMPI: the MMPI-TRI.

A 60-item short form of the MMPI with very high content validity and items that appear on both the MMPI and MMPI-2 was developed and named the MMPI-TRI. It contains three 20-item scales--the Subjective Distress, Acting-Out, and Psychosis scales. These three scales have excellent internal consistency and sufficient independence from each other. An anxiety and depression group of patients, prison inmate group, and a schizophrenic and other psychotic group had the highest mean scores on Subjective Distress, Acting-Out, and Psychosis, respectively. Correlations with the 13 regular scales of the MMPI and MMPI-2, their content and supplementary scales, and four other psychometric instruments provided very strong evidence for validity. Norms are provided.

The relationship of religious variables to death depression and death anxiety.

The present research explored the relationship of religious variables to death anxiety and death depression in 200 persons from the general population in what is apparently the first study to correlate religious variables with death depression. Persons with lower death depression had greater strength of conviction, greater belief in afterlife, and were less likely to say that the most important aspect of religion is that it offers the possibility of life after death. Persons with less death anxiety were found to have greater strength of conviction. The findings were discussed in relationship to previous research that has suggested that religious belief is associated more closely with death anxiety level than is religious practice.

Death depression versus death anxiety: exploration of different correlates.

Possible differences between death depression and death anxiety were explored for 182 students, 81 church members, and 41 employees of an air terminal. Both female gender and older age were more highly associated with greater death anxiety than with greater death depression. Living without a significant other was associated with greater death depression than with death anxiety.

Exploration of head injury without medical attention.

In surveys of prison inmates and four other populations, 1,055 subjects reported having a history of 489 head injuries, with 31% of these "unattended" by a physician and 60% "undocumented" in that they were not hospitalized. The prison inmates did not have a history of more unattended injuries or undocumented injuries than the other groups of subjects as was predicted. However, the inmates reported more permanent effects from their unattended and undocumented injuries. Also, the inmates had more permanent effects and longer unconsciousness than did the other groups for their attended and documented head injuries.

The measurement of death depression.

A 17-item true-false Death Depression Scale with good internal consistency and face validity was constructed and found to have six factors--death despair, death loneliness, death dread, death sadness, death depression, and death finality. It correlated positively with death anxiety, general depression, and general anxiety. Feasibility of a Likert format was explored.

Two-week prognosis in problem drinkers.

The predictors of favorable status two weeks after entry into an alcoholism rehabilitation program were measured. Favorable outcome was predicted by lower MMPI Pd Scale, being older, and having been older at time first intoxicated. Implications were discussed for these findings for the shortest prognostic interval apparently reported in the alcoholism literature.