Unidimensionality of the means-ends problem-solving (MEPS) procedure

Abstract

PROBLEMThe Means-Ends Problem-Solving Procedure'') (MEPS) is a measure of the ability to conceptualize, in interpersonal problem situations, appropriate and effective means to reach a specified goal in order to satisfy an aroused need. The MEPS consists of nine stories scored according to criteria presented in the manual") and has been used to assess real-life problem-solving ability in adult psychiatric patientsc3* 4 * 5*fi), adolescent psychiatric patients(', a), youthful heroin offenders(2), as well as various normal groups"' g ) .This stydy reports the results of factor analyses of scores on the stories that comprise this instrument in samples of male and female psychiatric patients and male delinquents. The purpose of these factor analyses was to confirm the impression gained from story intercorrelations and other analyses obtained in previous studies(3* ') that the MEPS measures a single underlying dimension. METHODThe psychiatric patient sample consisted of 72 males and 66 females who were on either the short-term hospitalization or extended care services of an urban community mental health center. The majority of Ss had a primary or secondary diagnosis of schizophrenia, and all cases that involved a diagnosis of primary or secondary organicity were screened out. The male delinquent sample consisted of 476 adolescent reformatory inmates.By means of the orthogonal varimax rotation method, factor analyses of the male and female patient and delinquent adolescent data were carried out separately on individual story scores obtained from the nine stories that comprise the MEPS. All nine stories were used for the psychiatric patient samples, while a shorter form that omitted stories 1 and 5 was used for the delinquent sample. The factor analyses were based upon an intercorrelation matrix in which the communality estimates were squared multiple correlations and the criterion for the number of factors extracted was the number of eigenvalues that exceeded unity. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONIn the case of both male and female patients and the delinquents, the results of the factor analyses indicated the existence of only one factor, which accounted for 37.1y0 of the variance in the case of male patients, 31.2% in the case of female patients, and 24.3% in the case of the delinquents. Rotated factor loadings on the nine stories ranged from .49 to .77 for male patients, from .31 to .70 for female patients, and .36 to .54 for the delinquents. This factor, labeled "means-ends cognition," can be described as the ability t o articulate (when presented with an aroused need and the satisfaction of that need in interpersonal situations) step-bystep means to reach the stated goal.This study provides content validity for the MEPS in that it demonstrates the factorial unidimensionality of the stories Ohat comprise it. Previous studies have demonstrated that means-ends cognition may be the most important of a number of elements that comprise the overall cognitive ability to deal with real-life interpersonal situations(5). One implicatio...

Remembering the past and imagining the future: Selective effects of an episodic specificity induction on detail generation

“…In a related vein, we have recently (Madore & Schacter, 2014) established that the specificity induction improves performance on a means-ends problem-solving task (Platt & Spivack, 1975) where participants are provided with beginning problems and ending solutions and are asked to fill in the steps they would take to solve each problem and reach the identified end state. Compared with the control induction, the specificity induction increased the number of relevant steps that participants generated in problem solving without increasing the number of irrelevant or off-topic steps.…”

Worrying about the future: An episodic specificity induction impacts problem solving, reappraisal, and well-being.

“…In the means-end problem-solving task (MEPS; adapted from Madore & Schacter, 2014; Platt & Spivack, 1975), participants viewed 6 different problem stories relating to the personal worrisome events they provided in session 1. Each story described the beginning of the problem (e.g., worrying about the problem) and an ending solution (e.g., achieving the positive outcome specified for the event in session 1).…”

“…Responses for the MEPS task were scored as a “relevant step”, “irrelevant step”, or “no step” using the step categories defined by Platt and Spivack (1975); for the analyses, irrelevant and no steps were collapsed into one “other steps” category (cf. Madore & Schacter, 2014; Sheldon et al, 2015).…”

Impairment of social and moral behavior related to early damage in human prefrontal cortex

“…Assessment of social knowledge and moral reasoning was based on four measures, Standard Issue Moral Judgement (SIMJ) 7 , the Optional Thinking Test (OTT) 25 , the Awareness of Consequences Test (ACT) 25 and the MeansEnds Problem Solving Procedure (MEPS) 26 . All of these procedures involve standardized verbal presentation to the subject of moral dilemmas or social situations, and require verbal responses.…”