Robert W. Holmstrom

Alexithymia and affect pathology among adult male alcoholics

The present study attempts to validate earlier findings of a positive relationship between the severity of alexithymia and symptoms of affect pathology among alcoholics. One hundred adult male outpatient alcoholics were given instruments to assess alexithymia and symptoms of affect pathology. Controlling for alcoholism severity, Pearson Product Moment Correlations demonstrated that the severity of alexithymia was significantly correlated with dysphoria and affect intolerance, as well as with certain interpersonal difficulties resulting from these affective disturbances. Such findings support the usefulness of the alexithymia construct in the understanding and treatment of affect pathology and its consequences among alcoholics.

The Plight of the Woman Doctoral Student

Utilizing data from the 1969 ACE-Carnegie higher education survey, the present study investigated factors underlying discrimination against woman doctoral students. Stepwise multiple regression analyses were used to identify factors related to reports of experiencing emotional strain and doubts about completion of graduate work. Analyses revealed that faculty attitudes and behaviors toward woman doctoral students contributed significantly to their emotional stresses and self-doubts. Interaction with faculty, while related to general satisfaction with graduate school for both men and women doctoral students, revealed a bias in favor of men. Recommendations to remedy sex discrimination in doctoral programs are briefly presented.

Relationship between alexithymia and somatic complaints in a normal sample

Utilizing the MMPI Alexithymia Scale and the Cornell Medical Index, the relationship between alexithymia and somatic complaints was investigated in a normal college sample. Although an initial analysis showed alexithymia negatively related to somatic complaints, when the tendency to deny problems on self-report measures was controlled for, the two variables were positively related. The positive relation between alexithymia and somatic complaints found for females was not found for male in this sample.

Assessing Object Representations as a Continuous Variable: A Modification of the Concept of the Object on the Rorschach Scale

Current methods for assessing the quality of internalized object representations have not provided a continuous variable that simultaneously includes both an accuracy and a maturity component. A modification of Blatt, Brooks, Brenneis, and Schimeks (1976) Concept of the Object on the Rorschach scale that would combine the two components by weighting the quality of each response according to its form level was proposed. Initial discriminant and convergent validity of this modification was checked through correlations and multiple regression analyses using behavioral, diagnostic, and demographic data from 84 adolescent inpatients as dependent variables. Results indicate the modified score was directly related to measures of peer relatedness, intelligence, psychological health, and reality testing, and indirectly related to measures of psychosis and hostile, unmanageable behavior. The results support the utility of the modification for providing a continuous score that assesses both developmental maturity and accuracy, the two dimensions on which the concept of object representation is based.

Personality of rape survivors as a group and by relation of survivor to perpetrator

Adult survivors of rape were compared to controls on 34 scales of the Apperceptive Personality Test and Draw-A-Person Questionnaire. They also reported on present or past weight problems, alcohol or drug problems, and psychotherapy. They differed on 12 scales and on alcohol, weight problems, and therapy. These survivors more frequently reported problems or therapy and differed on personality scales in the direction of assigning fewer positive or more negative attributes to their characters. Those raped by relatives, dates, or acquaintances were more negative than those raped by strangers on four scales, but did not differ on alcohol or weight problems or participation in psychotherapy.

Relationship between the Apperceptive Personality Test and Verbal Intelligence in a University Sample

This study examined the relationship between verbal intelligence and the Apperceptive Personality Test/Brief Adult in a university sample. The recently developed test is a picture-story assessment technique and, as with its parent test, the Apperceptive Personality Test/Comprehensive Adult, combines both projective and objective features. Research to date with both tests has focused on some 19 (objectively scored) questionnaire variables selected for intensive study. The relationship of questionnaire variables to verbal intelligence has not been directly studied. To examine this question, a sample of 149 undergraduates (108 women, 41 men) took the personality test and the Shipley-Hartford Vocabulary Scale. As expected, results generally confirmed the expectation that personality variables would show minimal or no relation with verbal intelligence.

Prediction of depression with the Apperceptive Personality Test

This study examined the relationship between depression and the Apperceptive Personality Test (APT), a picture-story assessment device with an objective scoring system. Subjects were 206 undergraduate volunteer females who completed the APT and the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI). Multiple regression analysis showed significant APT predictors for the BDI. Results are discussed and directions for future research are proposed.

PREDICTION OF MMPI CLINICAL SCORES FROM THE APPERCEPTIVE PERSONALITY TEST

Eight independent scores from a new objective/projective personality test, the Apperceptive Personality Test (APT), were validated against eight clinical scores of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI). In parallel studies of 150 male and 150 female college volunteers given both tests, weighted combinations of the 8 APT measures significantly predicted MMPI raw scores in 15 of 16 analyses (Ma scores could not be predicted for men). Of 84 predicted zero-order correlations between APT and MMPI measures, 50 (60%) were confirmed, 74% for women and 45% for men; however, the vast majority of these correlations were below .30.

Personalities of women reporting incestuous abuse during childhood.

Previous studies of adult females reporting incestuous sexual abuse in childhood, using the Apperceptive Personality Test and Draw-a-Person Questionnaire, indicated abusees attributed more negative traits to their characters than did controls. No differences were found by type of abuse or relation to the abuser. In these studies abusees and controls were obtained from different sources, although matched on several characteristics. The present study compared 79 incestuous abusees to 79 matched controls all drawn from the same subject pool. Multivariate analysis of variance identified significant differences between the groups. In contrast with earlier studies questionnaire scores distinguished rape victims from those abused without rape and distinguished those abused by older relatives from those abused by peers in two additional multivariate analyses of variance.

Recommendations for the Clinical Use of the Apperceptive Personality Test

The Apperceptive Personality Test (APT) is a new technique that combines the traditional story-telling method with a questionnaire about the characters in the story, to be filled out by the person being tested. The resulting information is tabulated, and a variety of scores are generated which yield information about the persons personality. The identified clinical signposts indicated by such scores are summarized in this article, along with two illustrative protocol fragments showing how to usual interpretive method is supplemented by the information from the questionnaire.