Relationships Between the Test of Attentional and Interpersonal Style and Psychiatric Sublcassification

Abstract

Examined the ability of a self-report measure of attentional and interpersonal characteristics to discriminate between groups of psychiatric patients and normal controls. Seventy-eight psychiatric patients and 30 nonpsychiatric medical inpatients completed the Test of Attentional and Interpersonal Style (TAIS). Discriminant analyses of TAIS scores showed that: (a) psychiatric patients in comparison with normal controls described themselves as more overloaded by external and internal stimuli and as less effective in narrowing their attentional focus to task-relevant stimuli; (b) good premorbid schizophrenics appeared more externally overloaded and less able to narrow attentional focus than poor premorbid schizophrenics; and (c) psychotics and neurotics described themselves as more introverted and less pleasant in social encounters, while individuals diagnosed as character or personality disorders tended to be more extroverted and impulsive. The results were compatible with past experimental work and clinical reports identifying attentional and interpersonal differences among psychiatric subgroups.

Type A behavior, attentional style, and symptom reporting among adult men and women.

“…Nideffer (1976) reported two-week, test-retest reliabilities for TAIS subscales ranging from .60 to .93. Regarding construct validity, the TAIS has been reported to discriminate between groups of police officers, business executives, and psychiatric patients on various attentional and interpersonal characteristics in expected directions (DePalma & Nideffer, 1977). For example, both police and business executives scored high on need for control and on ability to narrow attention effectively.…”

Coping strategies in patients undergoing surgery treatment for pituitary tumour in China: A cross‐sectional survey

“…Besides, they noted that coping modes were not considered to be as stable as personality traits, and generally lower internal consistency estimates may be expected on measures of coping. In addition, they reported excellent construct validity based on a personality measure (DePalma & Nideffer, 1977 ), a set of questions asking patients about their attitudes toward and coping reactions to their illness, and responses to a questionnaire from patients’ physicians and statistically significant others.…”

Attentional and Interpersonal Characteristics of Restaurant General Managers in Comparison With Other Groups of Interest

“…DePalma and Nideffer (1977) found that the test not only discriminated between relatively heterogeneous groups such as police, business executives, music students, introductory psychology students, and psychiatric patients, but within relatively homogeneous groups such as between psychiatric groups. Their results showed, for example, that business executives tended to score higher than the other groups on intellectual expressiveness (IEX) and analytical thinking (BIT) while both police and executives scored high on the need for control and on the ability to narrow attention effectively.…”