Relationship between Bender Designs and Basic Living Skills of geriatric psychiatric patients.

35 geriatric psychiatric patients were given the Bender-Gestalt and examined on level of Basic Living Skills Assessment. Significant inverse relationships were found between scores on the Bender-Gestalt and five of the seven Basic Living Skills Assessment scales indicating a decrease in patients' functioning with increased visual-motor impairment scores. Skills involving gross motor behaviors were moderately related to poor Bender performance (-.47). These findings suggest the utility of the Basic Living Skills Assessment in identifying the nature and extent of those living skills deficits associated with assessed visual-motor impairment.

A comparison of self-esteem, dogmatism and fantasy in psychiatric inpatient adolescents and their parents with non-hospitalized adolescents and their parents.

Forty in-patient adolescents and 40 non-hospitalized adolescents, comparable in age, sex, education, birth position and socioeconomic level, and their parents were administered the Rokeach Dogmatism Scale, Barksdale Self-Esteem Evaluation Scale, the Singer and Antrobus Imaginal Process Inventory, and the Elms Empathic Fantasy Scale. Distinct differences were found between the in-patient adolescent and his/her parents in aspects of fantasy, empathy, dogmatism, and self-esteem, while the non-hospitalized adolescents were very similar in fantasy with both parents. In addition, both parents of the nonhospitalized adolescents had greater levels of self-esteem with less dogmatism evident in the fathers. The results are discussed in terms of the identification process and modeling, the socialization process with its suppression or reduction of taboo drive manifestations and fantasy as a means of achieving unattainable drives.

Anxiety and mood states in delinquent adolescents.

Studied the relationship between state-trait anxiety and mood states in deliquents by giving the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory for Children (STAIC) (Spielberger, 1973) and the Profile of Mood States (POMS) (McNair, Lorr, & Droppleman, 1971) to 41 behavior problem adolescents who were residents of a facility for youthful offenders. Results indicated that males and females did not differ significantly. The A-State portion of the STAIC was correlated significantly with the Vigor-Activity and Anger-Hostility portions of the POMS as well as the Total Mood Disturbance index. On the other hand, the A-Trait portion of the STAIC was correlated significantly with the Depression-Dejection, the Tension-Anxiety, and the Fatigue-Inertia portions of the POMS as well as the Total Mood Disturbance index. Findings were discussed in terms of their relationship to previous research and in terms of the differences in conception of affective states presented by Spielberger (1973) and McNair et al. (1971).

Dogmatism and locus of control in young women who support, oppose, or voice no opinion on the Equal Rights Amendment.

This study sought to clarify personality characteristics of supporters of the Women's Liberation Movement (WLM) with specific emphasis on the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA). Three matched groups of 50 female college students, which were comprised of supporters, opponents, or those who voiced no opinion on the ERA, were administered the Rokeach Dogmatism Scale and the Rotter I-E Scale. The three groups did not differ significantly on either measure. Participants of all groups were shown to be somewhat externally controlled and to demonstrate personality traits that were not characteristically dogmatic. The disparity of these results with those reported by other researchers was attributed to the matched demographic factors that determined S selection and assignment.

Psychological assessment of the burn patient.

Emotional and intellectual responses of 25 burn patients, 16 males and 9 females, were assessed with the MMPI and the six verbal subtests of the WAIS. These measures were administered upon hospital admission and 11 to 12 months after discharge. Data analysis entailed Hotelling's T2 tests for paired observations, paired t-tests and product-moment correlations. Results did not reveal the emotional and intellectual deterioration commonly reported in the literature. The composite group MMPI profiles were essentially normal at both administrations with significant pre-post increments on the L Scale, Scale 9 and Scale 0, p less than .05. Male patients did not show significant pre-post changes, while females showed a significant pre-post increment on Scale 0, p less than .05, which indicates increased social orientation and gregariousness. Patients as a group showed significant pre-post increments on the Information (p less than .05) and Digit Span (p less than .01) subtests of the WAIS. Males demonstrated more dramatic increases than did females. Discrepancies between these findings and those reported by other investigators are attributed to the use of young children as participants in other studies, the absence of discernible premorbid factors that have been associated with post-trauma adjustment difficulties in other investigations and possible differential effectiveness of psychological intervention during hospitalization. The WAIS and MMPI were found to be sensitive to the emotional and intellectual changes experienced by participants, which suggests their application to assess the psychological aspects of the burn patient's recovery.

Dogmatism, locus of control, and life goals in stable and unstable marriages.

This study hypothesized that individuals in unstable marriages were more dogmatic, more externally controlled, and evidenced more dissimilarity in life-motivating goals than those in stable marriage. Two groups of 22 married couples (designated married-stable and married-unstable) were administered the Rokeach Dogmatism Scale, the Rotter I-E Scale, and the Hahn California Life Goals Evaluation Schedules. Although results did not support any of the three hypotheses stated, the findings led to three significant conclusions. First, dogmatic traits that were expected to be predominant in unstable marriages actually were seen as a stabilizing factor when demonstrated by the female spouse. Second, wives in unstable marriages demonstrated greater external locus of control than their husbands. Third, dissimilarities in life goals do not necessarily contribute to marital discordance, but actually are associated with marital stability unless they include the motivational areas of leadership and independence.

The efficacy of programmed instruction in the training of paraprofessionals.

The authors assessed the efficacy of a self-instructional psychiatric learning program to provide training for paraprofessional psychiatric personnel. The self-regulated learning system, which originally was developed to train medical students, was designed to impart basic psychiatric knowledge and diagnostic skills. Changes along personality dimensions that occurred as a function of participating in the programmed learning project also were examined. Participation in this program was associated with substantial pre-post changes in dogmatism and locus of control for males as well as significant increments in psychiatric knowledge and diagnostic skills for the group as a whole. The benefits derived from this easily administered training procedure suggest its feasible inclusion in paraprofessional inservice training programs.