Computer-assisted psychotherapy

By making careful selections and arrangements from the numerous items of information that arise in dynamic psychotherapy and filing them in a microcomputer, this information can be made more readily available to the therapist. Its greater availability can facilitate developing understanding of the patient, making specific and timely insightful interventions, and supporting other aspects of the therapy.     

Construct validity of the Sivik Psychosomaticism test and test of Operational style: Correlations with four Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) subscales

To evaluate the construct validity (convergent and divergent) of the Sivik Psycho Somaticism test (SPS) and test of Operationality (OPER), Pearson correlation coefficients between SPS scales and subscales, OPER and Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) subscales Hypochondria (Hs), Depression (D), Hysteria (Hy) and Alexithymia (Al) were calculated. Eighty-eight healthy individuals and 285 psychosomatic patients completed the SPS and OPER tests and MMPI; Hs, D, Hy and Al. The results show that most of the SPS subscales and OPER are significantly correlated to several MMPI subscales in both a normal and a psychosomatic population. The results are in concordance with the theoretical hypotheses and confirm the validity of the SPS and OPER constructs.     

Ideal-self Responding on the MMPI

The MMPI was administered to 29 college students under standard and ideal-self instructions in order to determine whether or not there is agreement as to what constitutes favorable adjustment. A profile analysis of the ideal-self responses yielding an intraclass correlation of .62 (p < .001). This result substantiates previous studies suggesting that an identifiable profile exists. Items changed between the self and ideal administrations were analyzed for their social favorability, interpretive ambiguity, obviousness, and scale membership. The first three factors were found to significantly influence responding under the ideal-self set. Implications of such item changes and of ideal-self profile were discussed.     

Validity of the MMPI subtle items

This article presents a review and critique of research on the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) subtle items in regard to their validity as measures of their scales' characteristics. The main categories of focus are their convergent and discriminative validity, the paradoxical effect, and the issue of whether removing these items would improve MMPI validity. Important problems in the methodologies are noted and discussed in some detail. These methodological concerns and the conflicting results across studies obscure firm conclusions on the validity of the subtle items, although strong support is lacking. However, more evidence is needed before deciding to remove these items from the MMPI; therefore, this article provides recommendations for future research.     

Computer-assisted analysis of conversation

Psychologists and linguists have employed computer programs to analyze written and spoken text. The Computer-Assisted Language Analysis System (CALAS) is a computer program that utilizes three sequential programs to parse the language of two speakers in a conversation into words, phrases, and clauses, and places verbs and nouns into categories derived from theories of case grammar. Rather than using a large “dictionary,” CALAS determines the category of each word on the basis of adjacent function words and placement of the words in the sentence. Output from CALAS lists the frequency of each category and can be used to construct measures of linguistic style and verb usage. Research employing CALAS includes the study of various types of psychotherapy, behavior therapy, classroom discourse, and literary texts.     

Computer-assisted observer training

Computerized interactive videotapes were used to train college students to use a 10-second partial-interval observational recording system. Students viewed videotapes and scored response occurrences on a computer keyboard. Incorrect scoring resulted in immediate computerized feedback and rescoring.     

Obtaining 16 PF Scores from the MMPI,and MMPI Scores from the 16 PF

Recent statistical analyses of the relation of the MMPI surface traits to the source traits in the 16 P.F. were extended to (a) the calculation of beta weights for estimating MMPI scale scores from the 16 P.F. and (b) deriving the MMPI item composition in terms of 16 P.F. scores from the MMPI, and vice versa. It has been argued from the specific nature of surface and source traits that additional diagnostic insight can be gained from their comparison, a principle which has been designated as depth psychometry.     

A Latent Trait Analysis of the MMPI

Commonly used techniques for analyzing the structure of the MMPI scales were discussed and the use of a latent trait model was suggested as an alternative. The items on each scale of the MMPI were calibrated using a discrimination statistic. The item calibration statistics obtained from a replication sample were highly correlated with those obtained in the first sample. Poor fitting items were identified, and possible reasons for poor fits were discussed. The scales generally had few poor fits. The poor fitting items were generally those identified by Wiener (1956) as comprising the "subtle" subscales of the test.