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Psychiatric symptom dimensions in the Cornell Medical Index among normal adult males
Author(s) -
Costa Paul T.,
McCrae Robert R.
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(197710)33:4<941::aid-jclp2270330404>3.0.co;2-#
Subject(s) - neuroticism , irritability , psychology , anxiety , personality , clinical psychology , depression (economics) , psychiatry , internal consistency , psychometrics , social psychology , economics , macroeconomics
Abstract Factor analysis of items from the psychiatric portion of the Cornell Medical Index (CMI) was performed to determine the empirical symptom dimensions in a sample of 1682 normal adult males. Six factors were extracted and interpreted as Irritability, Inability to Cope, Depression, Timidity, Normal Anxiety, and Clinical Anxiety. The factors showed some correspondence to the clinical groupings in the CMI and to factors discovered in other studies. While all showed small positive correlations with a measure of Neuroticism, the consistency of these results argues against the hypothesis that the CMI M‐R sections measure only a unitary factor of neurotic complaining. Some modifications in the CMI are recommended that could enbance its utility as a diagnostic or personality instrument.