Harmony-Disharmony Scale: Development and Initial Factorial Validation

The Harmony Restoration Theory (HRTheory) propounded by Ebigbo (1995, 2001a) is an African psychodiagnostic theory of health. It is a theory of harmony-disharmony, psychopathology, psychotherapy and a useful attempt to account for the aetiology of psychopathology in the African. Central to the theory is the notion that psychopathology arises from the disharmony in the cosmos of an individual. The objective of this study was to develop and validate a measuring scale, harmonydisharmony scale (HD Scale), for determining the areas of the cosmos which an individual needs harmony restoration before the initiation of harmony restoration therapy. Method - Based on the harmony restoration theory of health and Harmony restoration therapy, 120 items with 40 items per subscale were generated focusing on the three aspects of an individual‟s cosmos viz: endocosmos, mesocosmos and exocosmos needing harmony restoration. The outcome, a 120 likert-type scale, was administered to a cross-section of University undergraduates. The 258 responses obtained from the respondents (124 males and 128 females) aged 16 to 29 years (21.02 ± 4.083, mean ± s.d.) were subjected to factor analysis. Results - The data was examined to assess the suitability for factor analysis and was found suitable with good R-matrix, Bartlett‟s test of Sphericity and Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) sample sufficiency. A 3-factor model emerged from the result of the factor analysis with 59 pure and valid items loading on factor 1, 23 items loading on factor 2 and 16 items loading on factor 3. The factors retained their original theoretical names viz: endocosmos, mesocosmos and exocosmos. Conclusion - The finding of this study is consistent with the harmony restoration theory on the African personality consisting of three components. Suggestions on ways to advance this area of research were made and a short version of the harmonydisharmony scale was proposed

AFRICAN PERSONALITY ASSESSMENT CRITERIA: YORUBA EXAMPLE

This analysis presents personality assessment criteria often used by the Yoruba as psychological tools to position an individual on the social responsibility scale and also to determine the norm compliant level of the Yoruba person. The study focused on four core criteria upon which such assessment is anchored, namely, (i) norm development at the family level, which is the foundation of the personality building block, (ii) socialization processes from childhood to adulthood, (iii) classification of personality types and (iv) sources of attribution values. This is a response to a yearning that seeks to integrate contextualized sociocultural beliefs and practices into personality assessment, counselling and psychotherapy

Burnout and hostility as determinants of somatic complaints in Nigerian adults

This study was conducted to examine the role of burnout and hostility in somatic complaints. The participants were 277 working adults who ranged between 20-60 years in age (Mean= 32.04 years, SD = 22.74. Hundred and forty-four of the participants (i.e., 52%) were male, and hundred and thirty-three (i.e., 45%) were female. Somatisation was measured using the Enugu Somatization Scale (Ebigbo, 1982); burnout and hostility were measured using the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) and the hostility subscale of the Symptoms checklist-90R. The result of a hierarchical Multiple Regression analysis revealed that somatisation was significantly explained by emotional exhaustion (β=.47, ρ<.001), hostility (β=.24, ρ<.001), and reduced personal accomplishment (β=.11, ρ<.05). A significant interaction effect (β= .29, ρ<.001) was found between hostility and reduced personal accomplishment. Furthermore, all the independent variables entered the model for head somatisation, but reduced personal accomplishment did not play important role in body somatisation. These findings show that emotion and cognition play significant roles in functional somatic complaints. These should be taken in to account in clinical formulation and treatment planning