Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rcrh6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-23T13:39:36.606Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Temporal reliability of personality in psychiatric patients

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 July 2009

P. Tyrer ,
J. Strauss  and
D. Cicchetti
P. Tyrer*
Affiliation:
Mapperley Hospital, Nottingham, University of Southampton Medical School, and the Veterans Administration Medical Center, West Haven, Connecticut, USA
J. Strauss
Affiliation:
Mapperley Hospital, Nottingham, University of Southampton Medical School, and the Veterans Administration Medical Center, West Haven, Connecticut, USA
D. Cicchetti
Affiliation:
Mapperley Hospital, Nottingham, University of Southampton Medical School, and the Veterans Administration Medical Center, West Haven, Connecticut, USA
*
1Address for correspondence: Dr P. Tyrer, Mapperley Hospital Porchester Road, Nottingham NG3 6AA.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Synopsis

The Personality Assessment Schedule, an interview schedule specifically designed for assessing personality disorder, was administered twice to 28 psychiatric patients, with a mean interval of 2·9 years between each assessment. The first assessment was made by a psychiatrist and the second by a medical student who had no prior knowledge of the patients. The reliability of the 2 assessments was measured using 4 different techniques. Although the reliability of individual personality traits was inconsistent over time, the categorical diagnosis of personality disorder was good (Kωw = 0·64), giving some support to the validity of the schedule. Reasons for discordance in the assessments were examined and appeared to be due mainly to confusion between clinical symptoms and personality traits, retrospective errors in recording past personality in chronic patients, and special difficulties in determining the primary abnormality in severe personality disorder.

Type
Research Article
Information
Psychological Medicine , Volume 13 , Issue 2 , May 1983 , pp. 393 - 398
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1983

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Bianchi, G. N. & Ferguson, G. M. (1977). The effect of mental State on EPI scores. British Journal of Psychiatry 131, 306–309.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ciechetti, D. V. & Sparrow, S. S. (1981). Developing criteria for establishing inter-rater reliability of specific items in a given inventory: application of the assessment of adaptive behavior. American Journal of Mental Deficiency 86, 127–137.Google Scholar
Coppen, A. & Metcalfe, M. (1965). Effect of a depressive illness on MPI scores. British Journal of Psychiatry 111, 236–239.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Landis, J. R. & Koch, G. G. (1977). The measurement of observer agreement for categorical data. Biometrics 33, 159–174.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lewis, A. (1974). Psychopathic personality: a most elusive category. Psychological Medicine 4, 133–140.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mann, A. H., Jenkins, R., Cutting, J. C. & Cowen, P. J. (1981). The development and use of a standardized assessment of abnormal personality. Psychological Medicine 11, 839–847.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Presly, A. S. & Walton, H. J. (1973). Dimensions of abnormal personality. British Journal of Psychiatry 122, 269–276.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shepherd, M. & Sartorius, N. (1974). Personality disorder and the International Classification of Diseases. Psychological Medicine 4, 141–146.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Snaith, R. P. (1976). Personality and depressive illness. British Journal of Psychiatry 128, 101–102.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Tyrer, P. & Alexander, J. (1979). Classification of personality disorder. British Journal of Psychiatry 135, 163–167.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Tyrer, P., Alexander, M. S., Cicchetti, D., Cohen, M. S. & Remington, M. (1979). Reliability of a schedule for rating personality disorders. British Journal of Psychiatry 135, 168–174.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Walton, H. J. & Presly, A. S. (1973). Use of a category system in the diagnosis of abnormal personality. British Journal of Psychiatry 122, 259–268.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Walton, H. J., Foulds, G. A., Littman, S. K. & Presly, A. S. (1970). Abnormal personality. British Journal of Psychiatry 116, 497–510.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wing, J. K., Cooper, J. E. & Sartorius, N. (1974). Measurement and Classification of Psychiatric Symptoms. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge.Google Scholar
World Health Organization (1965). International Classification of Disease (8th edn). WHO: Geneva.Google Scholar