David C. Watson

Gender, age, and cultural differences in the Defense Style Questionnaire-40

The Defense Style Questionnaire-40 is a 40 item short form of the 88 item Defense Style Questionnaire. A cross-cultural comparison was made between a sample of 635 Canadian university students and an Australian sample of 388 subjects reported by Andrews, Singh, and Bond. Differences between the two samples were noted for several of the defense scales. These may be a reflection of differential socialization patterns in coping with stress for the two countries. Gender and age comparisons were made for the 20 defense scales. Some interesting differences were noted for gender on the suppression, pseudoaltruism, and isolation scales. The internal structure of defense styles was also found to have similarities and differences for males and females with the DSQ-40.

Comorbidity of DSM‐IV personality disorders in a nonclinical sample

The issue of comorbidity within the Axis II personality disorders was explored using a large sample of university students who were administered the Coolidge Axis II Inventory (CATI). Comorbidity patterns with this normal sample were compared with recent clinical data reported by several other researchers. The results confirm the high degree of comorbidity within Axis II and the similarity in the comorbidity patterns with clinical and nonclinical samples. With the CATI, a 30.4% comorbidity rate was obtained for Histrionic and Narcissistic Personality disorders (Pd). The paranoid, passive-aggressive and borderline personality disorder traits were comorbid with several other Pds. For Cluster A, there was low comorbidity except for Paranoid Pd and Schizotypal Pd. With Cluster B, the co-occurrence was moderate to strong. A moderate amount of interrelationship was obtained for the Cluster C Pds. The DSM-IV clusters were also strongly interrelated. An additional finding was the similarity between self-report and structured interview methodology in obtained personality disorder comorbidity.

A Cross-Cultural Comparison of the Brief Symptom Inventory

A cross-cultural study of the Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI) was conducted with a sample of university students from India and Canada. The results indicated much higher rates of symptom reporting in the Indian sample. Canadian students also had higher reported symptom scales when compared to a similar size USA sample. A small sample of older respondents was also compared with a British sample. Examination of the structure of the BSI scale was investigated using a multidimensional scaling analysis. The Indian data had a somatization—paranoid ideation dimension and a psychoticism—interpersonal sensitivity dimension. With the Canadian sample, there was a hostility—phobic anxiety dimension along with a somatization—paranoid ideation dimension.

Psychosocial predictors of personality disorder traits in a non-clinical sample

Abstract This research investigated the relationship between DSM-III-R Axis II personality disorders measured by the Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory and a number of psychosocial variables, namely, perceived stress, self-esteem, social desirability, self-efficacy, hopelessness, anger expression, coping, locus of control and optimism. These variables were reduced to six factors through a principal components analysis with a varimax rotation. Stepwise multiple regression analyses were used to ascertain the percentage of variance accounted for by the six psychosocial factors in predicting each of the 11 personality disorders. The data were obtained from 157 introductory psychology students. The results indicate a distinguishing pattern of association between psychosocial factors and specific personality disorders. The factor representing perceived stress and self-esteem explains a relatively large percentage of variance in almost all the personality disorders. Unexpectedly, coping contributes very little to the total variance in any personality disorder.

A normative study of the Coolidge Axis II Inventory.

The Coolidge Axis-II Inventory (CATI) is a 200-item self-report inventory that is designed to measure DSM-IV personality disorders (PDs). Norms with a sample of 1,790 Canadian college students are compared with a US sample of 573 college students and 36 elderly subjects. Comparisons for the 11 DSM-IV personality disorder scales are made with several age groups and with gender. Some interesting similarities and differences were observed. With the Canadian sample, a gender difference was found on the antisocial scale. Age differences were found for on several PD scales in that younger respondents (17-24 years) scored higher than the older ones (25-57 years). This information is likely to be helpful to clinicians in monitoring age related behavioral changes in personality disorder.

Stress, Emotion, and Coping Strategies as Predictors of Personality Disorder Pathology

The utility of coping strategies, stress, and emotion as predictors of personality disorder pathology was examined by exposing subjects to a set of stressful scenarios. It was predicted that personality disorder (PD) would be associated with less adaptive coping strategies, higher stress, low control, and low perception of coping efficacy. In general, the results indicated strong correlations between PD and the coping strategies of escape-avoidance and accepting responsibility and weak or negative associations with the problem-solving and positive reappraisal strategies. Personality disorder was associated with stress, negative emotions, and low control/efficacy. The coping/emotion profiles are useful in elaborating and discriminating similarities and differences between PDs.

Dimensional structure of personality disorder inventories: A comparison of normal and clinical populations

Abstract A number of inventories have been developed to measure personality disorders in recent years. The authors of these inventories are not completely in agreement as to the underlying structure of the psychological traits being measured. Multidimensional scaling has been suggested by some recent investigators in order to clarify conceptual issues. In the present study, four personality disorder inventories (Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory, Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory-II, Coolidge Axis-II Inventory, and MMPI-PD scales) were administered to two samples of introductory psychology students. The data were then analyzed through multidimensional scaling in order to highlight similarities and differences between various dimensional models reported in the literature that were derived from clinical populations.

A normative study of the Coolidge axis‐II inventory, short form

Coolidge (2001) has developed a short-form, the short Coolidge axis-two inventory (SCATI), a 70-item version of the original 225-item Coolidge axis-II inventory (CATI). In a normative study of this instrument, the test was found to have many of the psychometric properties of the original. Multivariate analysis revealed that the internal structure of the SCATI is similar to the original.

Individual differences, social arousal and the electrodermal detection of deception

Abstract Thirty-six subjects, 18 introverts and 18 extraverts, as measured by the Eysenck Personality Inventory, either lied or told the truth in response to four personal information questions while their electridermal activity was being measured. The subjects were randomly assigned to either a group tested individually or another group tested in front of a group of peers. One purpose of the study was to test the hypothesis that due to the greater arousability of introverts, they would have a higher detection rate of deception. A second hypothesis was that the social arousal created by lying in front of a group of peers would produce a higher detection rate for both introverts and extraverts. Similarly, the introverts would have a higher detection rate in the group setting compared to the individual setting. The data were analyzed using a 2 × 2 ANOVA. None of the hypotheses was confirmed statistically. However, a trend in favor of a greater detection rate for introverts was noted.

Materialism, Temporal Orientation, and Well-Being:

The research is an exploration of temporal orientation (past, present, and future) and materialism. Temporal orientation has been related to negative outcomes in the case of past orientation and both positive and negative outcomes with the present or future temporal focus. Given the well-established relationship between low-subjective well-being and materialism, it is hypothesized that materialism will be associated with past- and present-fatalistic temporal focus. Two studies were conducted using self-report with samples of 406 and 409 university students using measures of materialism, temporal orientation, and subjective well-being. The results indicated that materialism was correlated with past temporal orientation. Past-negative, rather than past-positive experiences were associated with materialism. Focus on present fatalism was also related to materialism. Past-negative and past temporal orientation was found to mediate the relationship between subjective well-being and materialism.