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The Temporal Stability of Self‐Ratings of Neurotic Symptoms
Author(s) -
SHEFFIELD B. F.,
KELLNER R.
Publication year - 1970
Publication title -
british journal of social and clinical psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.479
H-Index - 92
eISSN - 2044-8260
pISSN - 0007-1293
DOI - 10.1111/j.2044-8260.1970.tb00637.x
Subject(s) - neuroticism , distress , psychology , rating scale , neurotic disorders , clinical psychology , personality , developmental psychology , social psychology
The intensity, frequency and duration of symptoms obtained by self‐ratings were compared in normal subjects and in neurotic patients before and after treatment. Before treatment neurotic patients rated their symptoms as more severe and more frequent than did normals. The self‐rated duration of symptoms did not differ significantly between neurotics and normals. Following one month's treatment, neurotic patients rated their symptoms as less severe than before treatment but still more severe than did normals. The changes in the self‐rated frequency depended on the type of symptoms and the type of scale used: one scale changed in the expected direction, whereas the other scale remained unchanged. Following treatment neurotic patients rated the duration of their symptoms shorter than did normals. The wording of the question and the types of response available seemed to affect the test‐retest stability of the scales. The scales which discriminated between neurotic patients and normals, and which changed following treatment in the expected direction, were selected and administered repeatedly together with the Personal Questionnaire to neurotic patients in a longitudinal study. The changes in total scores obtained by the two methods were similar. The findings suggest that the individual scaling of cues, and the number of cues available for the self‐rating of each symptom, do not appreciably influence the total score of a distress scale consisting of a large number of symptoms.