Convergent Validity of the Early Memory Index in Two Primary Care Samples.

Karliner, Westrich, Shedler, and Mayman (1996) developed the Early Memory Index (EMI) to assess mental health, narrative coherence, and traumatic experiences in reports of early memories. We assessed the convergent validity of EMI scales with data from 103 women from an urban primary care clinic (Study 1) and data from 48 women and 24 men from a suburban primary care clinic (Study 2). Patients provided early memory narratives and completed self-report measures of psychopathology, trauma, and health care utilization.

Personality Assessment Screener, Childhood Abuse, and Adult Partner Violence in African American Women Using Primary Care.

This study assessed the relationship between psychopathology with the Personality Assessment Screener (PAS) and childhood physical and sexual abuse and adult physical and sexual partner violence in a primary care sample of 98 urban-dwelling African American women. Patients completed the PAS, the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire, and the Conflict Tactics Scale. The PAS total score significantly correlated with all measures of childhood and adult abuse.

Validation of the Shedler-Westen Assessment Procedure Insight Scale.

In this cross-sectional study, we compare the Shedler-Westen Assessment Procedure (SWAP) Insight Scale scores in three groups of psychoanalytic patients. Psychoanalysts completed the SWAP to describe a real patient at the beginning of analysis, a real patient at the end of analysis, or a hypothetical ideal patient at the end of a successful analysis. The SWAP Insight Scale scores were lowest for the patients at the beginning of analysis and highest for the hypothetical patients at the ideal end of analysis.

Test-retest reliability and discriminant validity of the SWAP-200 in a psychoanalytic treatment sample.

To assess the test-retest reliability of the Shedler-Westen Assessment Procedure-200 (SWAP-200) personality disorder, high functioning, and Q-factor (trait/symptom) scales, we correlated the reports of 47 psychoanalysts describing a patient at the beginning of analysis and at 6 months of analysis. Since the length of psychoanalysis averages almost 6 years, and since personality disorders change slowly, we hypothesized that the test-retest reliabilities of the personality disorder scale scores would be higher than those of the Q-factor scales, which should change more quickly. The average personality disorder scale test-retest reliability was r = .

Personality assessment screener in a primary care sample of low-income urban women.

The diagnostic efficiency of the Personality Assessment Screener (PAS; Morey, 1997) total score was evaluated using selected scales from the Patient Health Questionnaire (Spitzer, Kroenke, & Williams, 1999), the fourth edition of the Personality Diagnostic Questionnaire (Hyler, 1994), and the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (Saunders, Aasland, Babor, DeLaFuente, & Grant, 1993) as reference standards. Complete data were collected from 110 women seeking treatment at an urban family medicine training clinic. Total PAS scores were effective in identifying patients with mood disorders, cluster B personality disorders, and alcohol use disorders, but the optimum cut scores were higher than the cut score of 19 recommended by Morey (1997).

The mental functioning axis of the psychodynamic diagnostic manual: an adolescent case study.

We describe the assessment of a troubled adolescent boy to demonstrate the use of the Shedler-Westen Assessment Profile for Adolescents (Westen, Dutra, & Shedler, 2005) and the Social Cognition and Object Relations Scale-Global (Westen, 1995) to formulate the Mental Functioning for Children and Adolescents Axis (MCA) of the Psychodynamic Diagnostic Manual (PDM Task Force, 2006). The assessment made possible a meaningful psychodynamic therapy.

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition Defensive Functioning Scale: a validity study.

Objective: We assess the convergent and predictive validity of the Defensive Functioning Scale (DFS) with measures of life events, including childhood abuse and adult partner victimization; dimensions of psychopathology, including axis I (depressive) and axis II (borderline personality disorder) symptoms; and quality of object relations.

Method: One hundred and ten women from a university-based urban primary care clinic completed a research interview from which defense mechanisms were assessed. The quality of object relations was also assessed from interview data.

Convergent validity of the Defense Mechanisms Manual and the Defensive Functioning Scale.

We examined the convergent validity of Cramer's Defense Mechanisms Manual (DMM; Cramer, 1991b) by comparing it to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th ed.; American Psychiatric Association, 1994) Defensive Functioning Scale (DFS). A total of 60 low income urban women from a primary care medical facility responded to four Thematic Apperception Test (TAT; Murray, 1943) cards and an interview of early memories and descriptions of significant others.

Abuse, outpatient charges and utilization, and psychiatric symptoms among urban women on medicaid.

Background: Adult and childhood sexual and physical abuse are common and intertwined. Our objectives were to assess (1) the relationship between different forms of abuse; (2) outpatient charges and hospital and emergency department use among women with and without childhood and adult abuse; (3) psychiatric symptoms of women with and without childhood and adult abuse; and (4) the relationship between psychiatric symptoms and outpatient charges and hospital and emergency department use among a group of Medicaid-insured women seeking outpatient services in a primary care setting.

Methods: We recruited female primary care patients for this cross-sectional study.

Diagnosis of ovarian cancer and object relationships in early memories: a pilot study.

Women newly diagnosed with ovarian cancer (N = 16) and women from the community (N = 17) each described 3 early memories. We assessed the developmental maturity level of the memories with Mayman's Libidinal Level of Relationships scale, which assesses the maturity of memories form oral to latency levels. The early memories of the cancer patients were at a significantly lower libidinal level and more often involved oral relationship themes than the memories of the community women.

Sexuality and the commission of physical violence to partners and non-partners by men and women.

In 2 studies of physical violence and sexuality among college students, more than 75% of men and more than 60% of women reported committing physical violence in the past year, including more women to partners and more men to non-partners. More than 90% of men who committed violence to partners were also violent to non-partners. In Study 1, among 193 men and 203 women, people who committed violence had higher scores on sexual depression and general depression than did people who were not violent.

Alcohol problems and the differentiation of partner, stranger, and general violence.

To explore the relationship between alcohol problems and physical violence with partners and strangers, 457 college men and 958 college women with low, intermediate, or high scores on the Short Michigan Alcohol Screening Test reported conflict tactics on the Conflict Tactics Scale in the past year to and by partners and strangers. More men than women had high alcohol problems scores. Men with alcohol problems were more likely than other men to commit violence toward strangers or to partners and strangers.

Physical and psychological symptoms in emotionally abused and non-abused women.

Background: This brief report compares emotionally abused and non-abused female family practice patients on physical and emotional symptoms, alcohol use problems, and social support problems.

Methods: We conducted a secondary analysis of data from a cross-sectional, multicenter study of victimization of family practice patients. Forty-seven adult women meeting criteria for emotional abuse (within the past year) and no physical abuse were matched demographically with 47 non-abused women.

Defense mechanisms and self-reported violence toward strangers.

College men who reported committing violence toward strangers (N = 30) and nonviolent college men (N = 30) completed Thematic Apperception Test cards (TAT) and responded to the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 (MMPI-2). Defense mechanisms were coded from the TAT responses with the Defense Mechanism Manual (DMM). The men who reported violence toward strangers had higher DMM Denial scores and higher MMPI-2 Antisocial Practices scores than the nonviolent men.

Clinician reports of personality pathology of patients beginning and patients ending psychoanalysis.

Objectives: The purpose of this work was to use a clinician Q-sort procedure to describe the personality pathology and adaptive functioning of patients beginning and ending psychoanalysis.

Design: With a cross-sectional design, we compared a group of patients beginning and a group of patients ending psychoanalysis.

Methods: Twenty-six psychoanalysts described a patient beginning psychoanalysis and 26 described a patient ending psychoanalysis using the Shedler-Westen Assessment Procedure 200 (SWAP-200).

Obsessiveness and a thematic apperception test-based measure of aggression.

Freud (1909/1955) hypothesized a conflict between love and hate in obsessive neurosis. To test this relationship, we compared a Thematic Apperception Test-based measure of aggressive fantasies in college men who scored either high or low on the Obsessive-Compulsive Inventory-Revised. 64 undergraduate men from beginning classes in psychology participated.

Personality characteristics of partner violent men: a Q-sort approach.

Our objective was to develop a personality profile of men who are violent toward their partners. A total of 52 experienced clinicians described either a current male patient who was violent toward his partner (and only toward his partner) or who was maritally distressed but nonviolent using the Shedler-Westen Assessment Procedure-200 (SWAP-200), a Q-sort instrument designed to harness the judgments of clinicians. Partner-violent patients showed significantly higher scores on the SWAP-200 antisocial and borderline personality disorder scales.

Defense mechanisms and self-reported violence toward partners and strangers.

We examined the relationship between defense mechanisms and self-reported violence toward partners and toward strangers in a sample of college student men. Fifty men completed the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT; Murray, 1943) and the Conflict Tactics Scale (CTS; Straus, 1979), a self-report measure of strategies (including violence) for resolving conflicts with partners and strangers. The TAT responses were coded for defense mechanisms with the Defense Mechanisms Manual (Cramer, 1991b).

Castration anxiety and phobias.

Based on Freud's case study of "Little Hans," the authors tested the hypothesis that men with phobias would score higher on castration anxiety than men without phobias. College men with either average or high scores on the Fears Scale of the MMPI-2 (n = 10 men in each group) responded to the Thematic Apperception Test, which was scored for castration anxiety. Men with high scores on the Fears Scale had higher scores on castration anxiety than men with average scores on the Fears Scale.

Violent victimization of women and men: physical and psychiatric symptoms.

Background: Our objectives for this exploratory study were (1) to assess the prevalence in a family practice of violent victimization of women and men by partners, friends, families, and strangers, and (2) to compare the physical symptoms, depression, alcohol use problems, and social support of women and men who were or were not victimized in the previous 12 months.

Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional, multicenter study of family practice patients (1999-2000). One-thousand twenty-four patients, including 679 women and 345 men from 18 to 64 years of age completed a standard health history and a demographic questionnaire.

Pain and discomfort thresholds in late pregnancy.

Gintzler found an abrupt increase in pain thresholds in rats during the last days of gestation. While some data suggest a similar increase in pain thresholds for pregnant women, Goolkasian and Rimer have found, using signal detection procedures, that women are increasingly likely to report stimuli as painful during the last 2 weeks of pregnancy. The present studies were carried out to assess pain and discomfort thresholds in the last weeks of women's pregnancies.