The SF-12 and HSQ-12 are acceptable and valid as health status instruments in large community-based studies of older people. The HSQ-12, but not the SF-12, is acceptable and valid for people with dementia.

No abstract

The relationship between values, social class, and duration of psychotherapy of patients and therapists at a moderate cost outpatient clinic in New York City was investigated. Values were measured by the following scales: Strong Vocational Interest Blank, Ways to Live scale, Study of Values, and the Optimal Personality Integration Scale. Lower-class patients tended to be more authoritarian-submissive than upper-class patients. The significant linear relationship indicated that the lower the social class and the higher (more authoritarian-submissive) the patient's score relative to his therapist, the longer the duration of treatment. The significant curvilinear relationship indicated that for lower-class patients, the greater the authoritarian-submissiveness relative to their therapists, the longer the duration of treatment. It was postulated that authoritarian-submissive patients might tend to remain in therapy precisely because of this quality.

This study reported further data on the effects of subliminally presented aggressive and symbiotic stimuli on the ego functioning of schizophrenics. The main positive findings were that the aggressive stimulus had an adverse effect on self-concept while the stimulation of the theme of symbiotic merging, as it had in earlier experiments, led to a reduction in pathological manifestations.

Perky's (1910) method of studying perception and imagery was adapted to study reality testing in schizophrenia. 10 schizophrenic and 10 non-schizophrenic Ss were seen in 2 identical sessions during which they were asked ' t o differentiate between sounds they imagined and sounds they heard through earphones. The schizophrenic Ss, although reporting fewer images, manifested more perceptual distortions and more misperceptions of actual sounds ar images. The procedure described seems to hold promise as both a research tool and a diagnostic technique for assessing reality resting in the laboratory.