Performance of psychiatric patients on two measures of ego strength

Abstract

PROBLEMThis study investigated the performance of hospitalized psychiatric patients on the Bender-Gestalt (BG) scored by the Pascal and Suttell technique@) and on Barron's Ego Strength Scale (Es) (l). Specifically, the study tried to answer three questions: (a) Is the Pascal and Suttell BG Z score significantly related to the Es scale? (b) Do the Z score and the Es scale significantly differentiate between hospitalized groups of schizophrenic, psychoneurotic, and character disorder patients? (c) Are the Z score and the Es scale significantly related to age and intelligence? Available evidence suggests the need for clarification of answers to these questions. The BG Z score and the Es scale have both been interpreted as measures of ego strength (1, 8 ) . Tamkin(12), however, has reported a nonsignificant correlation between the two measures. Some 3, 6 i ', ,lo, l l ) have reported that both the Z score and the Es scale successfully differentiate among psychiatric groups, whereas 13) have presented conflicting results. Reports,", 6 , 8 , 9 , 12, I b ) on the whole, have not agreed on the relationship of the two measures to age and int elligence. METHODSubjects. Ss were selected from admissions to a private psychiatric hospital who had been routinely tested by the psychology department as part of an initial evaluation. Only patients diagnosed by a staff psychiatrist as schizophrenic, psychoneurotic, or character disorder were included. Since no standard test battery was administered, the number of cases used for the various aspects of the study is not constant. Z scores and Es scores were both available for 75 Ss distributed in the three diagnostic categories (36 males and 39 females). Z scores were available for 54 character disorders (15 males and 39 females), 92 schizophrenics (23 males and 69 females), and 24 psychoneurotics (6 males and 18 females). Es scores were computed for 28 character disorders (12 males and 16 females), 73 schizophrenics (20 males and 53 females), and 21 psychoneurotics (3 males and 18 females). Since sex does not appear to be significantly related to Z score or MMPI Es, data from males and females were combined. No significant age or intellectual differences (measured by the Shipley Hartford total score) were found between the diagnostic groups.Procedure. The Shipley Hartford Vocabulary and Abstraction scales were administered to all Ss as a measure of intelligence. The BG was administered according to the instructions of Pascal and Suttell(*). Each record was scored using Pascal and Suttell's criteria and raw scores were converted to Z scores. All Benders were analyzed by the same technician who had no knowledge of the patients' diagnoses or other psychological test results. Barron's Es scale was obtained from the individual form of the MMPI, administered as part of an intake test battery.The degree of relationship of Z to Es, and of each of these measures to age and intelligence, was determined by computation of Pearson product moment correlations. Simple analysis of variance followed ...

Projective Methodologies

“…The distribution of correlations between ratings from different tests made by any one rater on any one subject averaged only .13 and did not differ significantly from the distribution obtained when ratings for different subjects were correlated. Roos (119) found no relation ship between scores on ego strength derived from the Bender-Gestalt and scores on Barron's ego strength scale from the MMPI for 75 mixed psychi atric patients. Both scores differentiated schizophrenics from patients with character disorders.…”