Psychometry – 3

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49 Psychometry – 3

Ben Underwood, Deborah McCartney

	T	F
1. The Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) cannot be used to measure depression in schizophrenia.
2. The difference in scores between the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (Ham-D) and the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) relates to the method of administration.
3. Cattell’s 16-personality factor questionnaire includes a factor for intelligence.
4. In the continuous performance test the target stimulus is presented amongst a series of random stimuli on a computer screen.
5. Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ) is an ideographic test.
6. GHQ is commonly used in defining caseness.
7. Hachinski Ischaemia Score differentiates between Alzheimer’s disease with cerebrovascular disease and vascular dementia.
8. The Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (Ham-D) is more sensitive to change than the Montgomery and Asberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS).
9. The Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale focuses more on the somatic symptoms of depression than the Ham-D.
10. Intelligence shows regression towards the mean in generations.
11. The Flynn effect refers to an increase in IQ test scores.
12. Likert scales allow for a 5-point response.
13. MAKATON is used to assess people with learning disabilities.
14. The Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE) is highly sensitive in detecting delirium and dementia.
15. Correct awareness of passage of time is a good test of orientation.
16. Premorbid IQ can be estimated from the WAIS.
17. Concrete thinking is tested by interpretation of proverbs.
18. Reasoning is one of the primary mental abilities identified by Thurstone.
19. Kelly’s Repertory Grid (KRG) is usually used to measure attitudes.
20. Semantic-differential is used to measure attitudes.
21. The Stanford–Binet Intelligence Scale measures verbal reasoning.
22. Acquisition components of intelligence were defined by Sternberg.
23. Block design is more stable than vocabulary subtest in organic lesions.
24. In selective dominant hemisphere damage the performance scale on the WAIS is more impaired than the verbal scale.
25. The Yale–Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale (YBOCS) rates obsessive personality traits as well as obsessive compulsive symptoms.

ANSWERS

1. . The Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) cannot be used to measure depression in schizophrenia.

False: The BDI is a 21-item inventory. It is usually completed by the patient. Each item has 4–6 statements, one of which is chosen as best describing the current symptoms. BDI can be used to measure the severity of depression in schizophrenia. However, in some patients with schizophrenia, the negative symptoms and cognitive deficits may reduce its reliability. Moreover, in certain neuropsychiatric disorders, the patient may be unaware not only of their physical problems, but also of their cognitive or emotional difficulties. Consequently, assessments based on self-report scales may be less reliable (Gelder et al 2006, p. 66; Halligan et al 2003, p. 382).

2. The difference in scores between the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (Ham-D) and the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) relates to the method of administration.

False: Ham-D and BDI differ in terms of the content, form of administration and scoring. Ham-D is a clinician-administered depression rating scale while BDI is a self-report inventory. Ham-D focuses on somatic and behavioural symptoms of depression while BDI rates the subjective symptoms experienced by the patient. The highest score possible with Ham-D is 52 and with BDI is 60 (Gelder et al 2006, p. 66).

3. Cattell’s 16-personality factor questionnaire includes a factor for intelligence.

False: Cattell factor analysed 18 000 adjectives used to describe personality and derived 16 factors. They are reserved vs. warm, concrete vs. abstract, reactive vs. stable, deferential vs. dominant, serious vs. lively, expedient vs. rule-conscious, shy vs. bold, utilitarian vs. sensitive, trusting vs. vigilant, grounded vs. abstract, forthright vs. private, self-assured vs. apprehensive, traditional vs. open to change, group-orientated vs. self-reliant, tolerates disorder vs. perfectionist and relaxed vs. tense. They are further grouped into global factors: self-control, anxiety, extroversion, independence, and tough-mindedness. Even though some of these may indirectly measure some aspects of intelligence (e.g. concrete vs. abstract), there is no specific factor for intelligence (Aiken 2000, p. 311; Wright et al 2005, p. 76).

4. In the continuous performance test the target stimulus is presented amongst a series of random stimuli on a computer screen.

True: The classical test of sustained attention is the continuous performance test devised by Rosvold in 1956. In the continuous performance test, the subject has to react only to the target stimulus, e.g. letter ‘A’, which appears occasionally in a long series of letters which are non-target stimuli or distractors (Halligan et al 2003, p. 83).

5. Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ) is an ideographic test.

False: Personality theories are of two types: nomothetic and ideographic.

Ideographic approaches consider each individual as unique. EPQ is based on the nomothetic or named category approach, implying that different people have broad personality traits/types/dimensions in common with each other. It scores individuals on neuroticism, extroversion and psychoticism. There is also a lie scale. Normative data exist for children as young as 7 years. EPQ is relatively quick to complete (Aiken 2000, p. 312; Johnstone et al 2004, p. 111; Wright et al 2005, p. 75).

6. GHQ is commonly used in defining caseness.

True: The General Health Questionnaire is a screening tool originally developed for use in primary care. ‘Caseness’ is a term used in epidemiology to distinguish cases from non-cases. A score on GHQ above a certain level suggests the presence of a ‘case’, which would require further investigation before a diagnosis could be made (Gelder et al 2000, p. 1527).

7. Hachinski Ischaemia Score differentiates between Alzheimer’s disease with cerebrovascular disease and vascular dementia.

False: Hachinski Ischaemia Score differentiates patients with definite Alzheimer’s disease from those with definite vascular dementia.

However, it does not differentiate between Alzheimer’s disease with cerebrovascular disease and vascular dementia (Gelder et al 2000, p. 432).

8. The Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (Ham-D) is more sensitive to change than the Montgomery and Asberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS).

False: MADRS was designed to measure treatment-sensitive changes in the severity of depression. MADRS has a higher correlation (0.70) to changes in global ratings than Ham-D (0.59). Hence, MADRS is considered to be more sensitive to change.

9. The Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale focuses more on the somatic symptoms of depression than the Ham-D.

False: The Ham-D focuses on the somatic and behavioural features of depression. Hence, it tends to overrate depression in the elderly and the medically ill. The Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale was designed to screen for anxiety and depression in medically ill patients. In order to distinguish between the physical and the psychiatric symptoms, it focuses on the psychological and subjective features of anxiety and depression rather than on the physical signs.

10. Intelligence shows regression towards the mean in generations.

True: Galton investigated geniuses in various fields and their children. He found that their children, though typically gifted, were almost invariably closer to the average than their exceptional parents. He later described the same effect more numerically by comparing fathers’ heights to their sons’ heights. Galton termed this phenomenon ‘regression towards mediocrity’ and it is now called ‘regression towards the mean’. For example, if a couple’s IQ scores are 145 and 150, both higher than 99% of the population, it is likely that the IQ of their children would be closer to the mean IQ of the population, i.e. 100, and less than that of the parents. Similarly, if the parents’ IQs were 70 and 80, the children’s IQs are likely to be higher than those of the parents and closer to 100.

11. The Flynn effect refers to an increase in IQ test scores.

False: The Flynn effect refers to the large documented worldwide increases in IQ test scores. Suggested explanations include improved nutrition, a trend towards smaller families, better education and greater environmental complexity.

12. Likert scales allow for a 5-point response.

True: Likert scales present a statement and five alternative expressions of level of agreement with that statement, e.g. strongly agree, agree, neither agree nor disagree, disagree and strongly disagree. It is a technique used to measure attitudes. Alternative methods include Thurstone’s scales, Geltman’s methods and Osgood’s semantic-differential scales (Wright et al 2005, p. 78).

13. MAKATON is used to assess people with learning disabilities.

False: MAKATON started as a project to find an effective method of communication between deaf adults who also had learning difficulties. The name arises from the names of the three people who devised it: Margaret Walker, a speech therapist, Kathy Johnson and Tony Cornforth, both psychiatric hospital visitors from the Royal Association in aid of the Deaf and Dumb. Currently MAKATON is the main communication training programme in the UK for those with communication and learning disabilities. It uses speech, signs and written symbols. It is not an assessment tool (www.makaton.org).

14. The Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE) is highly sensitive in detecting delirium and dementia.

False: A score of 24 was initially suggested for distinguishing between impaired and normal subjects with a high degree of specificity (82%) and sensitivity (87%). However, these values were derived from screening elderly hospitalized patients with delirium or fairly advanced dementia. The normative values and ‘cut-off’ levels generally applied in this test veer towards specificity rather than sensitivity. A score below 24 is a good indicator of dementia in the absence of delirium. However, many patients with early Alzheimer’s disease score above this cut-off point. MMSE is insensitive to minor or restricted impairments that occur in early, mild or resolving delirium. Age, education and socio-economic status also affect the performance (Hodges 1994, p. 184; Jacoby & Oppenheimer 2002, p. 621; Lishman 1997, p. 123).

15. Correct awareness of passage of time is a good test of orientation.

True: Orientation is divided into orientation for time, place and person. Of these, orientation to time is often the first to become disturbed and, hence, considered most sensitive. Patients with even mild disorientation misjudge the passage of time. Disorientation is common in patients with delirium (Hodges 1994, p. 110).

16. Premorbid IQ can be estimated from the WAIS.

True: Verbal IQ assessed from the WAIS is often used as an estimate of premorbid IQ because it is an overlearned skill that is rather resistant to deterioration. However, the National Adult Reading Test (NART) gives a more accurate estimate of premorbid IQ (Mitchell 2004, p. 59).

17. Concrete thinking is tested by interpretation of proverbs.

True: Proverbs by their very nature require some elements of abstract thought to interpret them. For example ‘too many cooks spoil the broth’ is not literally a piece of advice for running a kitchen with specific regard to soup preparation but might be taken to be so by patients with concrete thinking. Frontal lobe damage, low educational background and schizophrenia are all potential causes (Hodges 1994, p. 119).

18. Reasoning is one of the primary mental abilities identified by Thurstone.

True: Thurstone proposed that intelligence can be defined only in terms of essential or primary mental abilities. They are the cognitive skills that enable a person to learn, think and reason. Thurstone’s seven primary mental abilities include spatial, perceptual speed, numerical reasoning, verbal meaning, word fluency, memory and inductive reasoning, i.e. the ability to generate a rule or relationship that describes a set of observations. He believed that together these make up intelligence.

19. Kelly’s Repertory Grid (KRG) is usually used to measure attitudes.

False: KRG is a personality test. It assesses the subject’s personal constructs. Personal constructs are dimensions that individuals use to interpret themselves and their social worlds and to predict events. These constructs tend to take an either/or form.

Usually, Likert scales, Thurstone scales and Semantic-differential scales are used to measure attitudes. Personality tests including KRG, Rorschach test and the Thematic Apperception Test can be used to study constructs.

20. Semantic-differential is used to measure attitudes.

True: Osgood’s semantic differential instrument was developed from the Likert scale. The subject is given a word and asked to rate the word with a variety of opposing adjectives on a 7-point scale. It is used to measure attitudes (Fear 2004, p. 28; Wright et al 2005, p. 78).

21. The Stanford–Binet Intelligence Scale measures verbal reasoning.

True: The Stanford–Binet Intelligence Scale contains subtests designed to measure Verbal reasoning, Abstract/visual reasoning, Quantitative reasoning, and Short-term memory. Verbal reasoning includes vocabulary, comprehension, absurdities and verbal relations tests (Aiken 2000, p. 138; Atkinson et al 2000, p. 430; Wright et al 2005, p. 72).

22. Acquisition components of intelligence were defined by Sternberg.

True: Sternberg’s Triarchic theory of intelligence has three subtheories:

1. Componential (analytical)

2. Experiential (creative)

3. Contextual (practical).

Within componential intelligence, there are:

• A1: Meta-components that control, monitor and evaluate cognitive processing

• A2: Performance components that execute the strategies and carry out the action and

• A3: Knowledge acquisition components that gain and store new knowledge.

23. Block design is more stable than vocabulary subtest in organic lesions.

False: ‘Hold’ tests, e.g. vocabulary, information, object assembly and picture completion, reflect the use of old knowledge and are relatively resistant to the effects of brain damage. ‘Don’t hold’ tests, e.g. digit symbol, digit span, similarities and block design, which require speed of response, working memory and the perception of new relations in verbal or spatial content show early decline (Lishman 1997, p. 111).

24. In selective dominant hemisphere damage the performance scale on the WAIS is more impaired than the verbal scale.

False: The dominant hemisphere is specialized for language and for logical, sequential analysis of information. Selective dominant hemisphere damage may severely affect comprehension, arithmetic and vocabulary subtests of the verbal scale, whilst the performance scale is unaffected (Lishman 1997, p. 111).

25. The Yale–Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale (YBOCS) rates obsessive personality traits as well as obsessive compulsive symptoms.

False: YBOCS rates obsessive compulsive symptoms in those diagnosed to have obsessive compulsive disorder. The clinician rates 10 symptoms using a 4-point scale. It does not rate obsessive personality traits or anxiety or depressive symptoms (Gelder et al 2006, p. 66).

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