The effects of group psychotherapy on personality inventory scores.

Abstract

ROUP psychotherapy of a permissive nature has been carried on by the authors, a clinical psychologist and a neuropsychiatrist, with psychiatric battle casualties. Treatment has been afforded in two separate groups, each conducted by one of the authors, as described in separate articles (2) (3) (4). Patients attended the group meetings, in most cases, for approximately six weeks.The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (1) was administered to twenty-two patients, insofar as possible at the beginning and end of treatment. The mean and median period elapsing between original and retest was five weeks, with a range of from two to seven weeks. Records were secured on the basis of the patients' availability for testing.No records were taken on a control group. While such a comparison would be of unquestioned value, it would not be meaningful in this instance, as the patients with the most favorable prognoses were selected for therapy.

Changes in psychoneurotic patients with and without psychotherapy.

“…Other investigators, such as Kaufmann (5), Gallagher (4), Mosak (7), and Rashkis and Shaskin (8), have reported observations of MMPI changes following psychotherapy; the distinctive feature of the present research is the use of a control group consisting of patients who are in need of therapy and who want it, but who do not receive it.…”

Test-Retest Effect on Personality Questionnaires

“…The most serious error frequently made is the misinterpretation of results caused by the faulty assumption that there is no test-retest effect and that consequently differences between the initial and final test scores should be attributed to some external variable (7, 10, 11, 89,95,97). This error is common in the interpretation of test scores of individual clinical cases (3,20,30,46,65,68,75,93,96).…”

Chapter V: Counseling

“…Group psychotherapy has been studied experimentally (24), evaluated by means of tests (37), and in terms of improvement as judged by therapist or patient (1, 9,12,15,17).…”