This study examined the personality and cognitive characteristics of morbidly obese patients seeking gastroplasty. Rather than seeking “modal” psychological characteristics for the group as a whole, this investigation attempted to identify potentially relevant sources of variability that might serve as psychological markers for later identifying patients at risk for poor surgical outcome. Results indicate that while the patients share many life concerns and normal‐range personality characteristics, they are quite heterogenous in terms of psychopathological features, with 72% of the patients falling into one of three modal personality types on the MMPI. Cognitively, the patients' general intellectual abilities were normally distributed, and a substantial portion of the sample evidenced significant deficits in new concept formation and capacity to follow sequential procedures in a prescribed manner, abilities that seem, at face value, to be related to issues of compliance and ability to make lifestyle changes. The possibility of generating multivariate templates associated with different surgical outcomes from this data is discussed.

A model for defining competencies in clinical health psychology has recently been proposed (France et al., 2008), focusing on the core foundational and functional competency domains outlined by the Cube Model (Rodolfa, Bent, Eisman, Nelson, Rehm, & Richie, 2005). The model characterizes competencies expected of graduates of doctoral training programs with emerging interests and expertise in clinical health psychology. The current paper extends the model by specifically considering the third dimension of the cube model, namely the developmental perspective, with an emphasis beyond the parameters of doctoral training to the predoctoral internship, postdoctoral residency, and postlicensure continuum.

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Written educational materials and consent forms are often given to patients with little regard for their ability to read them. Nationwide sampling and data from the 1990 census suggest that 10% of U.S. adults are functionally illiterate. In this study, 100 adult patients (64 female, 36 male) seen consecutively in an oncology clinic were tested for reading vocabulary (RD-VOCAB) and reading comprehension (RD-COMP) using the Woodcock-Johnson Psychoeducational Battery. The mean grade levels of education (last grade completed), reading vocabulary, and reading comprehension of all participants were 12.5, 11.3, and 10.5, respectively. The discrepancy between the grade level of education and RD-COMP varied by age, the largest discrepancies being found in the 30-39 (three grades) and 60-69 (2 1/2 grades) age groups. After controlling for educational level, it was found that the mean grade level of RD-COMP was statistically lower than educational level. Statistically assuming all subjects to have completed high school, the mean levels of RD-COMP ranged from ninth grade in the 30-39 age group to twelfth grade in the 40-49 age group. This study underscores the fact that the health professional cannot assume that a patient who has completed a certain grade level in school can read at the corresponding level. Consent forms and other health education materials should be written at least three grade levels lower than the average educational level of the target population.