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The Relationship between the Maudsley Personality Inventory and the Course of Affective Disorders

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

T. A. Kerr
Affiliation:
Psychological Medicine Research Unit, University of Newcastle upon Tyne
Kurt Schapira
Affiliation:
Psychological Medicine Research Unit, University of Newcastle upon Tyne
Martin Roth
Affiliation:
Psychological Medicine Research Unit, University of Newcastle upon Tyne
R. F. Garside
Affiliation:
Psychological Medicine Research Unit, University of Newcastle upon Tyne

Extract

The Maudsley Personality Inventory (Eysenck, 1959a) measures the two factors of neuroticism and extraversion, which are considered to be independent and relatively stable aspects of personality in normal subjects. Bartholomew and Marley (1959) tentatively concluded that changes in the mental state did not greatly affect the N and E scores, and Mezey et al. (1963) found that the scores re mained relatively constant during depressive illness, although there was a slight increase in neuroticism. McGuire et al. (1963) noted that the relationship between N and E scores ceased to be orthogonal during illness when the scores became negatively correlated. Knowles (1960) found relatively high test-retest correlations in both a normal group and a neurotic group after a year, although the correlations in the neurotic group were lower than in the normal group; he also found some evidence that fluctuations in clinical state influenced the stability of the N scores. Moreover, on measuring neuroticism and extraversion with the Eysenck Personality Inventory (Eysenck and Eysenck, 1964), Knowles and Kreitman (1965) concluded that N (but not E) scores were influenced to a small but significant degree by changes in the patients' clinical state. Coppen and Metcalfe (1965) found that the mean N score of a group of depressed patients decreased significantly on recovery and that there was an associated significant increase in the mean E score. These changes were most marked in patients with endogenous depression. The scores of the recovered patients were within normal limits. Ingham (1966) demonstrated essentially similar changes over a three year period in a group of neurotic patients.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1970 

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