David W. Harder

Additional validity evidence for the harder personal feelings questionnaire‐2 (PFQ2): A measure of shame and guilt proneness

The present study sought to provide additional evidence for the construct validity of the Harder (Harder & Zalma, 1990) Personal Feelings Questionnaire-2 (PFQ2), a recently revised measure of shame and guilt proneness. Seventy university students, 35 male and 35 female, completed the PFQ2 and scales that assess self-derogation, instability of self-concept, shyness, social anxiety, public self-consciousness, private self-consciousness, and locus of control. The correlation results were generally consistent with validity predictions. As in previous studies, however, the discriminant validity of the shame and guilt scales was supported, but not strongly.

Further Validation of the Shame and Guilt Scales of the Harder Personal Feelings Questionnaire-2:

Previous research using the Harder Personal Feelings Questionnaire-2 has generally supported the validity of its subscales for the measurement of the traits of proneness to shame and guilt. This study extended the construct validity by investigating hypothesized relationships between scores on the questionnaire and several personality constructs not previously examined, including attachment style, the five personality factors assessed by the NEO-Five Factor Inventory, Sensation Seeking and Positive Affect (both from the Multiple Affect Adjective Check List–Revised). Shame and guilt scales were each expected to correlate inversely with secure attachment, Extraversion, Openness, Sensation Seeking (uninhibitedness), and Positive Affect, while they were predicted to correlate positively with Neuroticism from the NEO measure. Shame was expected to show stronger relationships than guilt with Extraversion, Openness, and Sensation Seeking. For the 41 college students results were mostly as predicted, even after shame and guilt scores were partialled for each other, thereby providing further evidence for the construct validity of the Personal Feelings Questionnaire-2 scales.

The dimensions of spirituality.

The purpose of the study was to identify the major dimensions of spirituality by asking 147 participants to rate 122 adjectives for how spiritual each seemed. Participants were 70% female, 30% male, with an average age of 24 yr. 66% were college undergraduates, and their ethnicities were 44% Euro-American, 20% African American, 14% Asian or Asian American, and 14% Latino. A principal components factor analysis was performed on the responses, and seven interpretable factors emerged. Four represented various dimensions of spirituality. One indicated what is not spiritual. One reflected the positive tone of many of the items. And the last represented adventurousness. The four spiritual factors were named Loving Connection to others, Self-effacing Altruism, Blissful Transcendence, and Religiosity/Sacredness. The one factor that garnered very low ratings for spirituality was named Lonely/Angry and consisted of items related to anger, pointlessness, selfishness, abandonment, and loneliness.

The case record rating scale: a method for rating symptom and social function data from case records

Case records provide a vast resource of information for clinical research, yet their value has been limited by several methodological problems. One of these has been the absence of standardized approaches for making diagnoses and other clinical judgments from case record data. This report describes the Case Record Rating Scale, an instrument designed to provide a standardized method for abstracting case record information. The reliability of the scale is demonstrated, and the advantages and problems encountered using case record data for research are described.

Fantasies, coping behavior, and psychopathology*

This study assessed whether consistent relationships exist between the content of self-reported coping behaviors, sustaining fantasies, and ordinary daydreams. A second goal was the identification of coping behaviors associated with psychopathology and an exploration of connections between coping behaviors, fantasies, and daydreams correlated with pathology. College students (N = 119) completed the Tanck and Robbins Coping Behaviors Scale, the Sustaining Fantasy Questionnaire, and 12 Imaginal Processes Inventory scales. Pearson correlations indicated strong support for similar content between coping behaviors and the two types of fantasy. Previously reported relationships between coping behaviors and psychopathology were replicated. Significant intercorrelations were found between sustaining fantasies, daydreams, and coping behaviors that, separately, were found to be significantly associated with psychopathology.

Sustaining fantasies, daydreams, and psychopathology

This study compared daydreaming to fantasies used for self-comfort at times of stress in order to assess the degree of overlap in content between the two types of fantasy and to determine what types of daydreams are associated with indices of psychopathology. One hundred nineteen college undergraduates completed the Sustaining Fantasy Questionnaire (Zelin et al., 1983) and the Imaginal Processes Inventory (Singer & Antrobus, 1972), along with five general measures of maladjustment, which reflect ideational deviance, low or unstable self-concept, and reliance upon regressive defenses. The results supported the hypotheses of considerable overlap in content and of parallels between the two types of fantasy. Three IPI scales--Fear Reaction, Bizarre, and Hostile--were observed to be particularly linked to psychopathology.

The Urist Rorschach Mutuality of Autonomy Scale as an indicator of psychopathology

The Urist Rorschach Mutuality of Autonomy Scale (MAS), which assesses development along a self-object differentiation and mutuality dimension, has shown considerable promise as an index of interpersonal relationship capacities. As such, MAS scores were predicted to correlate significantly with three measures of psychological pathology/health. The reliability of the scale was investigated with non-S Rorschachs and found to be satisfactory. Four-card Rorschachs from 60 previously hospitalized adults comprised the data source for the hypothesis test. Results suggest that the Mutuality Scale accurately reflects observed pathology severity at time of hospitalization and over a lifetime, but not at the time of assessment. Hence, the Urist MAS may indicate potential for pathology.

Additional Construct Validity Evidence for the Harder Personal Feelings Questionnaire Measure of Shame and Guilt Proneness

The present study was done to provide additional evidence for the construct validity of the Harder Personal Feelings Questionnaire, a measure of shame and guilt proneness. Two samples of university students (n = 96 and n = 109) completed the questionnaire and scales assessing self-derogation, instability of self-concept, inadequacy of self-concept, social desirability, and locus of control. The correlations among these scores were generally consistent with predictions, although the evidence was only mildly supportive of the discriminant validity of the shame and guilt scales.

Sustaining fantasies and psychopathology in a normal sample

This study tested the hypothesis that the types of sustaining fantasy (fantasy used as a source of comfort at times of high stress) previously found to be associated with inpatient status also would be related to indications of psychopathology in a college sample (N = 124). The Sustaining Fantasy Questionnaire (SFQ; Zelin et al., 1983) provided a measure of fantasies of power/revenge, death/illness, withdrawal/protection, suffering, love/closeness, and restitution. The F scale of the MMPI and the number of MMPI clinical scales at or above 70 were used as the measures of general pathology. Results indicated that four of the hypothesized six types of fantasy-power/revenge, death/illness, withdrawal/protection, and suffering-related to psychopathology. No specific configuration of scores on the MMPI clinical scales was noted for any of these four types of fantasy.

IQ as a prognostic indicator in adult psychiatric first‐admissions

This study used IQ, along with measures of premorbid adjustment, health-sickness, symptom level, diagnostic severity and demographic data, to predict to 2-year outcome measures of level of functioning, health-sickness, and symptoms for a sample of 145 adult psychiatric first-admissions. It was hypothesized that IQ as an indicator of cognitive ability, or of general ability to adapt, would predict positively to improvement over the 2-year period. Data analysis was conducted with bivariate correlations and multiple regressions, using both absolute-level and residualized outcome variables. IQ showed modest, significant relationships with all absolute outcome indices and six of seven residualized measures, especially for a subsample of those with non-average IQ scores. Regressions showed that IQ provided independent prediction of symptom outcomes.