A Multiphasic Personality Schedule (Minnesota): IV. Psychasthenia

Abstract

The derivation of a scale is reported for measuring psychasthenia, a condition involving compulsions, obsessions, phobias, vacillation, and excessive worry. 504 scale items were applied to large groups of normal adults and college students and to 20 psychiatric patients selected as cases of psychasthenia. The scale selected was further refined on the basis of correlation of items with total score for 100 normal adults and 100 psychiatric cases. The final scale, composed of 48 items, differentiates well between normal adults and the criterion group of 20 psychasthenic cases and also between normal adults and 50 psychiatric cases with symptoms of obsessions or compulsions. For normal adults there are small differences in scores between age groups and slightly larger differences between the sexes. Test-retest reliability is .79; split half reliability is .91-.94. The scale correlated .06 and .28 with the authors' test for hypochondriasis for 100 normal persons and 100 miscellaneous psychiatric cases, respectively, and .44 and .69 with their test for depression for the same groups. The scale with its scoring key is included in the article. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)