Research on child sexual abuse has been largely retrospective and anecdotal in nature, focusing on broad self-report measures of adjustment rather than on more explicit measures of psychopathology. Although there is general agreement that there are harmful effects, there is a lack of consistent empirical evidence. More specific measures, control groups, and larger Ns are needed to gain a clearer understanding. The present study examined Rorschach responses of sexually abused female children as associated with abuse characteristics. Rorschach responses of the sexually abused group were also compared with responses of female clinic controls. None of the a priori hypotheses predicting differences between the groups were supported.

The problem of assessment and diagnosis of depression in the elderly begins with the definition of depression being indefinite. In this study, the theory of learned helplessness was chosen because of its value in organizing research within a learning theory framework. The Beck Depression Inventory, measures of fluid and crystallized intellectual ability, locus of control, and attribution of success and failure were chosen as variables for an exploratory factor analysis. The purpose of selecting these variables was to assess the cognitive, motivational, and affective components of learned helplessness as they affected the responses of elderly subjects to depression items. Self report measures of income, education, and health, were included to assess the relationship of these variables to depression. A somatic factor was predicted to correlate with an affective factor of depression.

The present study was designed to test Frankel and Orne's hypothesis that persons with a clinically significant phobia also show high susceptibility to hypnosis. The hypnotic susceptibility scores of 10 persons who sought treatment with hypnosis for agoraphobia were compared with the susceptibility scores of a control group of 20 persons having comparable motivation to succeed in hypnosis. The susceptibility measure was the Stanford Hypnotic Susceptibility Scale: Form C (SHSS:C, Weitzenhoffer & Hilgard, 1962). The groups were also compared on: a) the Archaic Involvement Measure (AIM; Nash, 1984); b) the Field Depth Inventory (FDI; Field, 1965); and c) the Tellegen Absorption Scale (TAS; Tellegen & Atkinson, 1974). No significant differences were found between the groups on the dependent measures. Factors which qualify the results are discussed.

Ninety-six undergraduates were given four tasks under either reward or punishment conditions. Each task consisted of 20 trials of pressing or not pressing a button to make a light come on. Monetary reinforcement was contingent on light onset for all tasks and on accuracy of judgment of control for the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th tasks. Cognitive processing was comprehensively assessed for each task by measuring expectancy, judgment of control, perception of environmental stimuli, evaluation of performance, attribution, and reinforcement value. Results showed that subjects were more accurate in moderate than in low control and in low than moderate frequency. Females were more accurate in perceiving environmental stimuli and had lower self-esteem, lower efficacy expectancies, and higher self-rated reinforcement values for monetary incentives than males. Low defensives were accurate in expectancy of control, judgment of control in punishment, and estimation of environmental stimuli. Subjects in reward were more accurate in perceiving reinforcing events and they gave themselves more credit for task performance than subjects in punishment gave themselves blame for comparable performance. Those in punishment had more stable and external attributions and were more anxious, depressed, and hostile. Depressives and nondepressives reacted differently to the monetary contingency on accuracy of judgment …

The use of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) and the Health Attribution Test (HAT) for predicting referral compliance to a state vocational rehabilitation program was evaluated. Subjects included 53 patients (26 males, 27 females) who were chosen at random three to 18 months following discharge from an inpatient chronic and spinal pain center. Subjects were administered the MMPI and HAT upon hospital admission and seven outcome measures of referral compliance were obtained. A discriminant analysis was performed to test the hypothesis that certain items would best discriminate compliance. Most discriminative of compliance was the MMPI validity scale K (Wilks Lambda = .751, p ≤ .033). A regrouping of data into two groups, active and inactive, yielded ego strength (MMPI, ES) and ability to trust others (PA) as significant differentiating variables.

This study explored whether depression was related to the way college students interact with their parents. A second purpose was to explore whether the emotional states of depression, anxiety, and hostility were associated with different types of adolescent dependence (Functional, Attitudinal, Conflictual, and Emotional) on each parent. A total of 108 undergraduate students from intact families completed self-report measures of depression, anxiety, hostility and psychological separation. A non-significant relationship was found between the way students relate to their parents and level of depression. However, subjects reporting angry or guilty feelings toward parents had significantly greater depression and hostility scores. Subjects reporting attitudes, values and beliefs that are not distinct from their parents also displayed significantly greater hostility scores. Furthermore, anxiety in the sample was significantly related to subjects' reports of dependence on approval, closeness and emotional support from parents.

This study was undertaken to help determine the usefulness of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) for providing information regarding a person's object relations. Subjects were 136 college students (56 males, 80 females) ranging in age from 18 to 48. Subjects were administered the Rorschach, the Self Object Scale (SOS), and the MMPI. The Rorschach was scored using Blatt, Brenneis, Schimek, and Glick's (1976a) manual for scoring the level of object relations (Developmental Analysis of the Concept of the Object Scale-DACOS), the SOS scored as Blatt, Chevron, Quinlan, and Wein's manual (1981) directs, and the MMPI scored in the standardized manner using college-age norms. MANOVA's on the SOS and the DACOS resulted in significant effects for sex on MMPI scales 6, 7, and 8. Sex differences on MMPI scales 6 and 4 were obtained for high/low level of object relations on the DACOS. Pearson correlations showed positive correlations for males between level of object relations on the SOS and MMPI scale 5, and negative correlations on MMPI scale 5 for females. For males positive correlations between the DACOS and MMPI scale 4 and negative correlations on MMPI scale 10 were noted. These results were discussed as pertaining to the socialization …