Victor Manifold

The PTSD interview: Rationale, description, reliability, and concurrent validity of a DSM-III-based technique

This paper describes the PTSD Interview (PTSD-I). It was developed to meet four specifications: (a) close correspondence to DSM-III standards; (b) binary present/absent and continuous severity/frequency outputs on each symptom and the entire syndrome; (c) administrable by trained subprofessionals; and (d) substantial reliability and validity. It was written to meet the first three criteria. It demonstrated very high internal consistency (alpha = .92) and test-retest reliability (Total score r = .95; diagnostic agreement = 87%). It correlated strongly with parallel DIS criteria (Total score vs. DIS diagnosis rbis = .94, sensitivity = .89, specificity = .94, overall hit rate = .92, and kappa = .84). Earlier studies revealed correlations with a military stress scale and Keane et al.s MMPI PTSD subscale. It is apparently the only PTSD instrument that meets all of the above criteria.

Cognitive psychometrics: assessing storage and retrieval deficits in special populations with multinomial processing tree models.

This article demonstrates how multinomial processing tree models can be used as assessment tools to measure cognitive deficits in clinical populations. This is illustrated with a model developed by W. H. Batchelder and D. M. Riefer (1980) that separately measures storage and retrieval processes in memory. The validity of the model is tested in 2 experiments, which show that presentation rate affects the storage of items (Experiment 1) and part-list cuing hurts item retrieval (Experiment 2). Experiments 3 and 4 examine 2 clinical populations: schizophrenics and alcoholics with organic brain damage. The model reveals that each group exhibits deficits in storage and retrieval, with the retrieval deficits being stronger and occurring more consistently over trials. Also, the alcoholics with organic brain damage show no improvement in retrieval over trials, although their storage improves at the same rate as a control group.

Differences between posttraumatic stress disorder patients with delayed and undelayed onsets.

In an effort to determine whether they differ from one another in important ways, the authors compared posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) victims who reported delayed onsets with those who claimed undelayed onsets of PTSD symptom self-ratings, MMPI clinical and validity scale scores, stress histories, and repression measures. The number and the sizes of the differences did not exceed chance expectations and did not support the establishment of separate delayed- and undelayed-onset PTSD categories in the diagnostic manual, nor did they support the hypotheses that the delay, when it appears, is attributable to the magnitude of the trauma, the severity of the symptoms, repression, or a limited stress history.

What does the Keane et al. PTSD scale for the MMPI measure

The correlations of the Keane, Malloy, and Fairbank (1984) MMPI PTSD scale with DSM-III-based post-traumatic stress disorder symptom, section, and factor score ratings, and with combat history, were studied to determine what aspects of the disturbance it measures (N = 61). The scales correlations with the various symptom criteria were both substantial and strikingly consistent. However, its relationships with trauma history measures were modest and frequently nonsignificant. The data suggest that the scale is a moderately strong measure of the various PTSD symptoms, but is related only weakly to trauma history.

The relationships of post-traumatic stress disorder to adolescent illegal activities, drinking, and employment

The authors compared the self-reported incidences of adolescent legal problems, drinking, employment, and church attendance in psychiatric patients (N = 116) with and without post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and normals (N = 28). The differences did not exceed chance expectations. The data raise doubts about the validity of the theory that PTSD is at least partially a result of pre-traumatic personality maladjustment.

Childhood stress disorder behaviors in veterans who do and do not develop posttraumatic stress disorder

The purpose of this study was to test a variation of the stress-evaporation theory, which maintains that posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms are simply exacerbations of behaviors present before the trauma. Retrospective childhood self-ratings were made by 63 PTSD patients, 53 psychiatric controls, and 28 normals on 13 PTSD-like symptoms. The results did not support the hypothesis, and they give more support to the residual-stress model than to the stress-evaporation theory.

The comparative validities of six MMPI repression scales

The validities of six MMPI repression scales were compared using each of the other five and an independent measure as criteria (N = 190). The data gave little support to the Eichman, Welsh, and Haan Repression scales as operational definitions of this construct. The results for the Little-Fisher Denial, Byrne et al. R-S, and Haan Denial scales showed more promise.

Evaluation of a method for studying forgetting: Is data from split-half recognition tests contaminated by test interference?

Split-half recognition testing is a method of investigating forgetting. In this method, a subject studies a list of items and then is given a recognition test covering half the items on the list. At a later time, a final recognition test covering the other half of the items is given. The present study investigates whether data from split-half recognition tests is contaminated by test interference. Specifically, this study investigates whether taking the first recognition test affects the subject’s recognition accuracy on the second test. It is concluded that the first test does not affect performance on the second test provided that the two tests are separated by 24 h or more.

Performance asymptotes in schizophrenia: a further test of the Broen-Storms theory.

Broen and Storms have developed a theory that attributes schizophrenic cognitive deficit to the combination of high drive levels and low response strength ceiling. The authors tested four hypotheses drawn from the theory in a multiple-choice paired associates learning study (N = 90). The hypotheses were that schizophrenics would demonstrate faster acquisition of reinforced (dominant) responses, lower peak performances, and greater declines in post-peak performance than would two comparison groups. They also hypothesized that all three groups would manifest declines in number of dominant responses after peak performance levels were reached. None of the hypotheses was supported. These results, and the majority of the earlier research on the Broen-Storms hypothesis, cast doubt on the utility of the theory.