Warren W. Webb

MMPI scales for DSM‐III personality disorders: A preliminary validation study

A preliminary investigation of the external validity of MMPI scales designed to measure certain DSM-III Personality disorders (N = 108) is reported. Results indicate that many of these scales are effective for discriminating clinically diagnosed personality disorders from control subjects (N = 640).

Psychological adaptation to jejunoileal bypass for morbid obesity.

Psychological adaptation to jejunoileal bypass procedures in 34 morbidly obese patients was evaluated preoperatively and followed postoperatively for an average of 23 months. Preoperative emotional disturbances were mainly those of mild personality disorders with passive-aggressive, passive-dependent, and emotionally immature traits. Following discharge from the hospital, nine patients (or 24 per cent) developed psychiatric difficulties, characterized by either increased neurotic symptoms and interpersonal problems, or the emergence of psychosis. Male patients and those with the greatest weight loss were statistically more likely to have psychiatric complications. The remaining patients expressed satisfaction with the operation, noted relief from the burden of dieting, experienced less excitement associated with eating, and felt more self-confident and hopeful.

Eye Movements as a Paradigm of Approach and Avoidance Behavior

Eye movements were recorded while Ss looked at items consisting of four horizontally arranged pictures. The pictures were small line-drawings of ordinary objects and scenes. Three of the pictures were affectively neutral, while the picture on either the right or left end was presumed to be affectively important. It was anticipated that the gradients of time-spent-looking would approximate Millers approach and avoidance gradients. In three exploratory sub-studies, the results were interpreted as confirmatory.

Jejunoileal bypass procedures in morbid obesity: preoperative psychological findings.

Seventy patients who averaged 155% overweight and requested jejunoileal bypass surgery as a treatment intervention for morbid obesity were studied preoperatively for prominent psychological characteristics. By use of standard personality tests and a structured psychiatric interview, it was found that 89% were judged to be psychologically favorable risks for the operation. Most frequently the diagnostic opinion was of a mild personality disorder.

Wechsler adult intelligence scale and wechsler adult intelligence scale-revised in a neurologically impaired population

Compared Verbal, Performance, and Full Scale IQ scores from two groups of neurologically impaired patients (N = 114) similar in age, years of education, occupation, race, sex, and etiology and location of cerebral dysfunction. One group had been given the WAIS and the other the WAIS-R. All three IQ scores were higher for the WAIS group, with Full Scale and Verbal scores significantly (p less than .05) higher. Changes in item content and standardization sample cohort effects are offered as partial possible explanation for the results. The IQ scores from the two tests cannot be considered as interchangeable for neurological patients.

Comparative psychiatric status of male applicants for sexual reassignment surgery jejunoileal bypass surgery, and psychiatric outpatient treatment.

MMPI data from persons seeking sexual reassignment surgery, jejunoileal bypass surgery and outpatient psychiatric care are compared. Results reinforce previous empirical evidence in failing to suggest that crossed gender identity and morbid obesity are symptomatic of psychiatric disorder.

The School Adjustment of Post-Meningitic Children

To explore relationships between success in school and infectious childhood diseases, 25 children who had survived laboratory confirmed acute bacterial meningitis without observable sequelae were matched with 25 non-meningitic controls and subjected to intensive multidisciplinary examinations. The postmeningitic children differed significantly from their controls on measures of instructional receptivity, student image, motor coordination, and visual orientation.

Psychological Sequelae to Bacterial Meningitis: Two Controlled Studies

There is a growing suspicion that survivors of bacterial meningitis have deficits which may not become apparent until the children encounter the stress of school. Controlled studies are needed to evaluate such subtle sequelae.The first study concerns the intelligence test results of 31 influenzal meningitis survivors, each of whom was paired with a near age sibling. All patients were ill before the age of 3, during 1960–64. All were tested at age of 6 to 15 years. The mean IQ of the postmeningitic (PM) children was 85 while that for sibling controls (C) was 97 (p = 0.04). It was found that 6 of 21 (29%) of the PM subjects were 15 IQ points (1 S.D.) and 2 (10%) were more than 30 IQ points (2 S.D.) lower than C while no C had an IQ which was 15 points below that of his affected sibling.The second study compared psychological test performance of 25 post-bacterial meningitic children, considered to be free of sequelae, who were controlled in regular public school classes in the first 3 grades. Each was matched by age, sex, social class and classroom membership with a peer control. All subjects were administered a battery of psychological tests. The results indicated that with each of the following, the PM subjects had significantly lower mean scores than peer controls. On the Illinois Test of Psycholinguistic Abilities, the psycholinguistic ages differed at the 0.004 level. On the Frostig Developmental Test of Visual Perception, the perceptual quotient differed at the 0.08 level. On the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test, the vocabulary quotient differed at the 0.03 level.It is concluded that these survivors of bacterial meningitis function intelligently at a significantly lower level than their sibling or peer controls.