Association of Rorschach and MMPI Psychosis Indicators and Schizophrenia Spectrum Diagnoses in a Russian Clinical Sample

Abstract

In this study, I investigated the relationships among psychological test variables and schizophrenia spectrum diagnoses in a Russian sample of 180 psychiatric patients. Schizophrenia is understood somewhat differently in Russia than in the West. Analyses compared Rorschach (SCZI, PTI; Exner, 2001) and MMPI (Berezin, Mitroshinkov, & Sokolova, 1994) ciation, 1994). Results showed modest support for the SCZI and PTI but not the MMPI indicators. While the field awaits further evidence, psychologists should proceed with caution when using the Rorschach and MMPI to assess for psychosis among Russians.

Differentiation of Psychotic From Nonpsychotic Psychiatric Inpatients: The Rorschach Perceptual Thinking Index

“…In Slovenia, for example, the Comprehensive System has only been widely used in the past few years, but has become increasingly popular among clinical psychologists. These findings are consistent with those found in a Finnish sample (Iloenen et al, 1999), a Serbian sample (DzamonjaIgnjatovic et al, 2012), and a Russian sample (Ritsher, 2004). Interestingly, in the latter study, the results demonstrated poorer sensitivity than in other studies, a finding that was attributed to different diagnostic criteria.…”

“…The authors concluded that the PTI has the advantage of accurately identifying persons with thought disorders. Ritsher (2004) researched the relationship between Rorschach and Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 (MMPI-2; Butcher, Dahlstrom, Graham, Tellegen, & Kaemmer, 1989) indicators of psychosis in adult psychiatric patients and found modest support for the PTI but not the MMPI-2 indicators in discriminating patients diagnosed with schizophrenia from those diagnosed with depression. Similar results were obtained by Dao, Prevatt, and Horne (2008) in a study that confirmed better discriminative validity of the the PTI as compared to the MMPI-2 scales.…”

Relationship between the Rorschach Perceptual Thinking Index (PTI) and the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) in psychotic patients: A validity study

“…These results indicate adequate interrater reliability according to guidelines (Meyer, 1999). These results were consistent with the Rorschach CS variables interrater reliability reported in other studies (Smith et al, 2001;Ritsher, 2004). …”

“…Several lines of evidence have suggested that the PTI may be useful in differentiating between psychotic and non-psychotic patients, even when comparing cross-culturally (Smith et al, 2001;Ritsher, 2004;Dao and Prevatt, 2006;Hilsenroth et al, 2007;Dao et al, 2008;Ilonen et al, 2010;Mihura et al, 2013;Benedik et al, 2013). Smith and colleagues demonstrated that the Rorschach variable M-, used to calculate the PTI, was a predictor of thought disorder (Smith et al, 2001), as it was correlated with the scores of the Behavior Assessment System for Children (Reynolds and Kamphaus, 1992) and Personality Inventory for Youth (Lachar and Gruber, 1995).…”

A Comparison of New and Revised Rorschach Measures of Schizophrenic Functioning in a Serbian Clinical Sample

“…In addition, Kalla et al (2004) found that first break schizophrenics in Finland and Spain produced substantially similar Rorschach protocols. Finally, a study by Ritsher (2004) found that the SCZI and the PTI were moderately successful in differentiating schizophrenics from nonschizophrenic patients in Russia. In particular, she found acceptable specificity (.80-.91), but inadequate sensitivity (.29-.31) for both measures, depending on the specific diagnostic criteria used.…”