Premium
The role of alienation in mental hospitalization
Author(s) -
McDowell D. J.,
Miller I. W.,
Magaro P. A.
Publication year - 1977
Publication title -
journal of clinical psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.124
H-Index - 119
eISSN - 1097-4679
pISSN - 0021-9762
DOI - 10.1002/1097-4679(197701)33:1+<247::aid-jclp2270330157>3.0.co;2-9
Subject(s) - alienation , psychology , deviance (statistics) , clinical psychology , variance (accounting) , interpersonal communication , explained variation , social alienation , social psychology , psychiatry , statistics , mathematics , accounting , political science , law , business
A scale that assesses alienation was constructed from seven previously reported scales and administered to 74 psychiatric inpatients for whom behavioral and demographic data also were compiled. Factor analysis of alienation items yielded no major factors, which suggests that the construct is not unitary. A rotated factor matrix of alienation scores and behavioral and demographic variables showed that alienation does not account for a major proportion of variance in life history variables or current interpersonal functioning. Regression analysis indicated that alienation scores were predicted poorly from other variables. Moreover, alienation scores were poor predictors of length of hospitalization, which indicates that alienation has little power to account for relative severity of deviance.