Kenneth W. Wanberg

ON THE INTERNAL STRUCTURE OF THE MMPI

This article contains 2 principal parts: (1) a detailed criticism of the MMPI and the methods used to construct it; and (2) a report on studies of the factor structure in the behavior represented by responses to MMPI items. The criticisms are intended to banish the MMPI in its present form from the domain of psychological assessments.

Hospital versus Community Treatment of Alcoholism Problems

Recently it has been recognized that for some kinds of behavioral or psychiatric problems, treating people in their homes or other community settings may be just as effective as treating them in a mental health facility. Findings from empirical research have supported this view and provided some indication of the conditions under which treatment in the community is most appropriate. Formative studies by Friedman (1964), for example, indicate that 50% of the people with problems serious enough, according to present criteria, to warrant hospitalization can be effectively treated through services other than hospitalization. Similarly, Langsley & Kaplan (1968) have presented evidence that a majority of patients living in a family setting who apply for admission to a psychiatric hospital can be treated just as well at home. It is worth noting that there seems to be no relationship between the environment of a psychiatric treatment center and the patients behavior in that setting and his behavior in the nonhospital environment from which he comes and to which, hopefully, he will return (Ellsworth, Foster, Childers, Arthur, & Kreuker, 1968; Fairweather, Simon, Gebhard, Weingarten, Holland, Sanders, Stone, & Reahl, 1960; Ludwig, 1968). This observation has led Polak (1970) to conclude that the environment