Date of Award

1985

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Psychology

Abstract

Criteria of DSM-III were used as source material for items in a psychopathology inventory series. The inventories provided DSM-III diagnoses by reproducing the DSM-III decision process through diagnostic keys. The personality disorders inventory (ADI) was chosen as initial research instrument. Forty-seven voluntary clients from two sites served as clinical subjects and 29 non-clinical volunteers, given special directions to avoid diagnosis, served as subjects for validity scales. Four clinical psychologists matched DSM-III criteria with ADI items in measurement of content validity. Results showed that the ADI was not a useful psychometric instrument in its present form. The ADI gave too many false positive diagnoses, and also gave too many false negative diagnoses to serve usefully as a screening instrument. There were significant differences for sex, site, sex within site A and site within females. A framework of attribute quality and attribute quantity was suggested by data juxtaposition, and resultant instrument revisions were derived.

Pages

172

DOI

10.31390/gradschool_disstheses.4107

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