Date of Award
Spring 1986
Document Type
Dissertation - Restricted
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Department
Educational Policy and Leadership
First Advisor
Ivanoff, John
Second Advisor
Leslie, Lauren
Third Advisor
McDonald, Rita
Abstract
Prior to 1940, various techniques were utilized in the assessment and diagnosis of psychopathology. Generally, each technique was designed to deal with a distinct dimension of psychopathology, (i.e., one instrument for schizophrenia, another for depression, etc.). In 1940, McKinley and Hathaway attempted to develop one instrument which would provide a multiphasic inventory. They began with 1000 items which they gathered from other assessment instruments, psychology books, and their personal observations of psychopathology. Subsequently, they eliminated identical items and also those which they felt would not differentiate between psychopathologies. Left with 504 items, they tested adult male hospital patients to determine how these patients would fit into the various selected psychopathologies. This was done in an attempt to evaluate the validity of their previous observations and the appropriateness of the items selected. This clinical group, consisting of patients who represented the current clinical diagnostic categories, was then subdivided according to the psychiatric diagnosis into subgroups of hypochondriasis, depression, hysteria, psychopathic deviate, paranoia, psychasthenia, schizophrenia, and hypomania. The same items were further evaluated by administering them to the friends and relatives of these patients who then comprised the majority of the normal group...