Similarity between persons and related problems of profile analysis report No. 2

Study performed under Contract N6ori-07135 with the Bureau of Naval Research.Cover title

Measuring Program Outcome

The Progress Evaluation Scales (PES) provide an efficient measuring devicefor evaluating current functioning, setting treatment goals, and assessing change over time in clinically relevant aspects of personal, social, and community adjustment. The PES can be completed by patients, significant others, and therapists, making it possible to obtain various points of view of the outcome of mental health services. This article describes the seven domains measured by the PES and the underlying dimensions they were designed to tap, and presents the generalizability, validity, and usefulness of the scales as applied to an adult mental health center population.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/67322/2/10.1177_0193841X8100500402.pd

An objective instrument for measuring defense mechanisms.

measure the relative intensity of usage of five major groups of defenses, is described. The inventory consists of 10 brief stories, two per conflict area, followed by four questions regarding S's actual behavior, fantasy behavior, thoughts, and feelings in the situations described. Five responses typifying the five defenses (i.e., hostility-out, projection, principalization, turning-against-self, and reversal) are provided for each question, from which S selects the one most representative and the one least representative of his reaction. Reliability, validity, and normative studies are presented, all indicating that this inventory has many potential uses as a clinical and research instrument. Increased preoccupation with the theory of ego processes during the last few decades has led to greater concentration on operational definition, classification, and measurement of various ego functions. Recently, several in-vestigators (e.g., Haan, 1963; Kroeber, 1963) have made progress in differentiating and assessing defensive and adaptive ego function-ing. However, there is still much need for ob-jective studies in this area. This preliminary report on the construction and validation of a new instrument designed specifically for the measurement of five general defense mecha-nisms should be, therefore, of considerable interest to researchers and clinicians. Many defense mechanisms have been identi-fied, some with rather tenuous differences. This multiplicity has led to attempts to achieve a more parsimonious classificatio

War Stressors and Symptom Persistence in Posttraumatic Stress Disorder

This study focused on delineating aspects of war stressors associated with risk for posttraumatic stress disorder in Vietnam veterans. Findings from 191 Vietnam war veterans are presented, addressing which elements of the war experience predicted PTSD in remission or persistent PTSD. Some experiences, like loss and injury, predicted having had PTSD symptoms in the past, while other experiences, such as exposure to grotesque death, predicted current (persistent) PTSD. Discriminant analysis showed that the more extreme/intense the stressor experiences, the higher the risk for developing PTSD and for persistent symptoms. These findings provide empirical support for the PTSD diagnosis and additional data for refining the PTSD stressor criterion