The personality construct of cynical hostility, as measured by the Cook-Medley scale (an MMPI subscale)

The clinical phenomena of the conduct of EMDR and Thought Field Therapy were interpreted in light of concepts in the field of classical conditioning with emphasis on the orienting reflex and its external inhibiting effects on conditioned responses. A model was proposed using the temporary suppression through external inhibition of the fear and avoidance conditioned responses to disturbing memories. The clinically helpful effect proposed is the emergence of previously suppressed competing responses to the troublesome memories. Those newly emerged responses are responsible for spontaneous cognitive restructuring of the meaning attribution of the memories, thus lowering SUDS ratings. [Word Count:2057] This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers.This article is intended solely for the personal use of the individual user and is not to be disseminated broadly.

A paradigmatic shift in post‐traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) research is underway. Formistic and mechanistic reserch designs, characterized by single‐category, single‐cause, single‐effect models, gradually are being replaced by contextual and organistic research designs that feature multi‐category, multi‐cause, and multi‐effect interactional models. Such changes in diagnostic and treatment outcome research require solving many methodological issues in such areas as: (1) measuring types of traumas and stressors; (2) measuring PTSD symptoms and subtypes; (3) measuring subject dispositional characteristics (such as ethnic differences); (4) assessing concurrent and/or pre‐existing psychiatric (Axis I) disorders; (5) classifying personality styles and concurrent and/or pre‐existing personality (Axis II) disorders; (6) evaluating phase in the development of PTSD as a disorder; (7) measuring current environmental stresses and interpersonal interactions; and (8) assessing secondary gains and readiness for treatment. These and other methodological problems must be addressed as research on PTSD shifts to longitudinal measurement of subjects randomly assigned to treatment conditions.

The personality construct of cynical hostility, as measured by the Cook-Medley scale (an MMPI subscale), has been implicated as a risk factor for cardiovascular disease. A literature review suggests that Vietnam veterans exhibit many cynical hostility-like characteristics. We examined the association between Cook-Medley scores and PTSD among Vietnam and other-era veterans. Study 1 involved analyses of data from 1293 MMPIs administered at Department of Veterans Affairs in Honolulu between 1986-1991. Cook-Medley scores were highly correlated with MMPI PTSD scores, and Vietnam Era veterans obtained higher scores than veterans from other eras. In Study 2, twenty nine Vietnam veterans with PTSD disability ratings obtained very high Cook-Medley scores which were higher than Vietnam Era veterans without rated PTSD. Findings indicate that the cynical hostility literature has considerable relevance for study of PTSD and suggest that PTSD veterans may have heightened risk for developing cardiovascular disease. Several directions for future research are suggested.

No abstract