Using classification trees to identify psychotherapy patients at risk for poor treatment adherence.

To determine the relative importance of a wide variety of personality and psychopathology variables in influencing patients' adherence to psychotherapy treatment.Two classification trees were trained to predict patients' (1) treatment utilization (i.e., their likelihood of missing a given appointment) and (2) termination status (i.e., their likelihood of dropping out of therapy prematurely). Each tree was then validated in an external dataset to examine performance accuracy.Patients' social detachment was most influential in predicting their treatment utilization, followed by affective instability and activity/energy levels. Patients' interpersonal warmth was most influential in predicting their termination status, followed by levels of disordered thought and resentment. The overall accuracy rating for the tree for termination status was 71.4%, while the tree for treatment utilization had a 38.7% accuracy rating.Classification trees are a practical tool for clinicians to determine patients at risk of premature termination. More research is needed to develop trees that predict treatment utilization with high accuracy across different types of patients and settings.

Video-based Interpersonal Behavioral Evaluation (VIBE): A novel method for the assessment of interpersonal judgment.

One barrier to fully understanding and treating the interpersonal difficulties associated with a variety of psychiatric disorders is a current lack of suitable methodology, which aligns with contemporary interpersonal theory and offers a comprehensive assessment of interpersonal judgment. Specifically, no standardized behavioral interpersonal assessment exists that assesses the accuracy and biases of both interpersonal perceptions and anticipated reactions in a dyadic interaction. The present study presents the development and initial validation of a novel methodology, the Video-based Interpersonal Behavioral Evaluation (VIBE), which (a) utilizes a dynamic (i.e., video-based) behavioral assessment method, (b) assesses the accuracy and biases of both interpersonal perceptions and anticipated reactions, and (c) aligns with interpersonal theory and the structure of the interpersonal circumplex. The VIBE is anticipated to better direct research efforts investigating the interpersonal judgments of individuals with a variety of clinical presentations and ultimately aid in the development of more specifically targeted treatment interventions. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Relations Between Adolescent Sensation Seeking and Risky Sexual Behaviors Across Sex, Race, and Age: A Meta-Analysis.

Sensation seeking (SS)-the seeking of novel and intense sensations or experiences and the willingness to take risks for the sake of such experiences-has been shown to be related to various risky sexual behaviors (RSBs) in areas such as multiple sexual partners, condom use, and sexual initiation. The aims of the current meta-analysis were to examine (1) how SS relates to specific RSBs in adolescents and (2) how the overall relationship between SS and RSB differs across sex, race, and age. Overall, a total of 40 studies met the inclusion criteria for our meta-analysis examining the relationship between SS and RSB, contributing 102 effect sizes. RSB variables included unprotected sex; multiple sexual partners; hazardous sexual activity; sexual initiation; virginity status; and history of sexually transmitted disease (STD) diagnosis. Moderating effects of sex, race, and age were also examined. The overall mean effect size of the correlational relationship between adolescent SS and RSB was statistically significant, as were the mean effect sizes of the relationships between SS and RSB subgroups, except for history of STD diagnosis. Race and age did not significantly moderate the overall relationship between SS and RSB; however, results indicated that SS and RSB relations were stronger in females compared to males. Our findings suggest that adolescents with elevations in SS tendencies tend to engage in more RSBs compared to their peers with lower levels of SS, increasing their risk of unplanned pregnancy and STD acquisition.

The self-reference effect as a behavioral indicator of identity disturbances associated with borderline personality features in a non-clinical sample.

BACKGROUND: Identity disturbances are a common feature of personality pathology and BPD. The Self-Reference Effect paradigm is a method used to measure the impact of self-relevant processing on encoding/memory, whereby self-relevant information is typically advantaged in cognitive processes. We postulated that difficulties with identity might impede the process by which one encodes self-relevant information. Based on this reasoning, we predicted that high levels of identity disturbance could be associated with atypical impact of the SRE. METHODS: Undergraduate participants were randomized into one of three groups where they were exposed to 60 trait adjectives for seven seconds each. Depending on condition, participants either indicated whether a word was/wasn't capitalized (Capitalization condition), whether it was a good synonym for "openness" (Synonyms condition), or whether it described them as a person (Self-reference condition). After a brief delay, all participants were asked to recall as many of the 60 words as possible. Finally, we measured identity disturbance using the Borderline Features-Identity Problems (BOR-I) scale from the Personality Assessment Inventory. RESULTS: We found significant but modest correlations between Recall and scores on the BOR-I subscale in the Self-Reference condition, but not the two control conditions. Contrary to expectations, the interaction between BOR-I and Condition was not a significant predictor of Recall, suggesting that identity disturbance did not significantly moderate the SRE. CONCLUSIONS: While our primary hypothesis was not supported, there is a need for multimethod approaches to studying personality pathology. Future research should continue to examine the extent to which behavioral paradigms like the SRE might be useful indicators of identity disturbance/personality pathology, with an emphasis on the use of clinical populations.

Criterion A: Level of personality functioning in the alternative DSM-5 model for personality disorders.

Criterion A, as represented by Level of Personality Functioning (LPF), offers a means by which to conceptualize the core impairment in self and interpersonal functioning that distinguishes personality disorder (PD) from other forms of psychopathology. One of the most widely cited criticisms of the current Section II in Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition categorical diagnostic system is the high level of comorbidity among the categorical PD diagnoses. The Section III alternative Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition model for PDs (AMPD) addresses this problem by assessing the commonalities of the PDs using a single severity continuum, represented in the AMPD by the Level of Personality Functioning Scale (LPFS), which comprises both self and interpersonal pathology. Since its initial introduction, the LPFS has generated an expansive literature base and has also seen significant advancements in its measurement, including both semistructured and self-report methods. Such studies have generally demonstrated that the LPFS can be rated reliably, across both experienced and inexperienced raters, and demonstrates strong validity as evidenced by associations with relevant criterion variables and demonstrations of predictive and clinical utility. This review offers a brief history of the conceptualization and development of Criterion A and the LPFS, describes the major advancements in its measurement, and provides a summary of the status of the empirical literature regarding Criterion A's structure, reliability, and validity. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Development and Validation of a Validity Scale for Use with the UPPS-P and Short UPPS-P Impulsive Behavior Scales.

Two of the most widely used self-report measures of impulsivity are the UPPS-P Impulsive Behavior Scale and its shortened version, the SUPPS-P, which currently are limited by their inability to detect careless and/or random responding. The present study develops and cross-validates an inconsistency scale for use with the UPPS-P and SUPPS-P in order to accurately screen for data quality and better detect invalid responding. A total of 443 participants were recruited from Amazon's MTurk online data collection service to serve as the derivation sample and 231 undergraduates were recruited to serve as the cross-validation sample. The inconsistency scale demonstrated good classification accuracy in differentiating between genuine and random protocols and moderated the relationships between the UPPS-P/SUPPS-P and a criterion measure of impulsivity, the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale-11 (BIS-11). Thus, the inconsistency scale shows promise as an indicator of variable response inconsistency for use with both the UPPS-P and SUPPS-P in community and undergraduate research samples.

Assessing Autism Spectrum Disorder in Intellectually Able Adults with the Personality Assessment Inventory: Normative Data and a Novel Supplemental Indicator.

Differential diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) among intellectually-able adults often presents a clinical challenge, particularly when individuals present in crisis without diagnostic history. The Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI) is a multiscale personality and psychopathology instrument utilized across clinical settings, but to date there are no published normative data for use of the PAI with adults with ASD. This study provides normative PAI data for adults diagnosed with ASD, with effect size comparisons to the PAI clinical standardization sample and an inpatient sample. Additionally, a discriminant function was developed and cross-validated for identification of ASD-like symptomatology in a clinical population, which demonstrates promise as a screening tool to aid in the identification of individuals in need of specialized ASD assessment.

Temporal stability and dynamic convergence of the Personality Assessment Screener in a prison sample.

Although the Personality Assessment Screener (PAS; Morey, 1997) has garnered substantial research interest, the measure's temporal stability and sensitivity to change have remained largely uninvestigated. The present study employs a dynamic approach to investigating the convergent and discriminant validity of the PAS by examining relationships between temporal changes on the PAS and changes on external criterion measures, thereby exploring the extent to which changes on the PAS offer meaningful information regarding changes in psychological functioning. Data were obtained from a public dataset funded by the United States Department of Justice in which male inmates were administered various psychological measures at 5 time points spanning the course of a year. The PAS demonstrated appreciable stability across all testing intervals and the full study period, and temporal changes on the PAS correlated as expected with changes on both conceptually similar and distinct external criterion measures. These findings offer evidence to suggest that temporal variations across testing intervals are not fully explained by error, as conceptualized in classical test-retest analyses, but rather may indicate meaningful changes in functioning. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Convergence between Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) and self-report: Another look at some old questions.

OBJECTIVE: This study extends upon the investigation of the influence of response format on the convergence between performance-based and self-report assessments of similar mental health constructs, to further examine the role of method variance in poor heteromethod convergence. METHODS: An online sample of 455 participants (57% male; mean age = 35.5 years) completed a multiple-choice adaptation of the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)-the Iowa Picture Interpretation Test (IPIT)-and two self-report instruments: the Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI) and the International Personality Item Pool (IPIP) representation of the domain traits of the five-factor model. RESULTS: Several significant and meaningful interrelationships emerged between the IPIT and the PAI and IPIP five-factor scales. CONCLUSIONS: Findings suggest that TAT methodology can correlate meaningfully with similar constructs assessed using self-report when comparable response formats are utilized, offering further support for the role of method variance in precluding heteromethod relationships.

An investigation of the influence of case and clinician gender in clinical decision-making.

The present study was intended to assess the reliability of clinician judgments, with a particular interest in how such judgments vary by the gender of the case vignette and clinician. A national sample of 123 mental health professionals (57.7% male) provided clinical judgments on 12 case vignettes primarily representing personality pathology; two identical versions of each vignette were prepared, with the only difference being the use of masculine or feminine pronouns identifying the client. Clinical judgments included evaluations of adaptive functioning, long-term prognostic assessments, short-term risk evaluations, and treatment recommendations. Analyses included intraclass correlations between clinicians to assess reliability, as well as an examination of the variance of clinical judgments as a function of the identified gender of the case and the gender of the participating clinician. No significant two-way interactions were found between case gender and clinician gender in predicting the clinical judgments. A significant main effect of case gender in predicting vocational functioning was observed, such that female cases were rated as having better estimated vocational functioning than male cases. In addition, a significant main effect of clinician gender in predicting aggression and violence risk was found, such that ratings by female clinicians were higher than ratings by male clinicians. Results offer little if any evidence to suggest the influence of client or clinician gender on the majority of clinical judgments made in the present study. However, these results bear replication, particularly in light of the two significant main effects that did emerge. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Who Are the Turkers? A Characterization of MTurk Workers Using the Personality Assessment Inventory.

As online data collection services such as Amazon's Mechanical Turk (MTurk) gain popularity, the quality and representativeness of such data sources have gained research attention. To date, the majority of existing studies have compared MTurk workers with undergraduate samples, localized community samples, or other Internet-based samples, and thus, there remains little known about the personality and mental health constructs of MTurk workers relative to a national representative sample. The present study addresses these limitations and broadens the scope of existing research through the use of the Personality Assessment Inventory, a multiscale, self-report questionnaire which provides information regarding data validity and personality and psychopathology features standardized against a national U.S. census-matched normative sample. Results indicate that MTurk workers generally provide high-quality data and are reasonably representative of the general population across most psychological dimensions assessed. However, several distinguishing features of MTurk workers emerged that were consistent with prior findings of such individuals, primarily involving somewhat higher negative affect and lower social engagement.

Convergence between Rorschach and self-report: A new look at some old questions.

OBJECTIVE: This study presents an examination of the influence of response format on convergence between performance-based and self-report assessments of similar mental health constructs, to determine if such method variance might account for prior findings of lack of relationship. METHODS: An online sample of 455 participants (57% male; average age, 35.5) completed a multiple-choice version of the Rorschach and two self-report instruments, the Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI) and the International Personality Item Pool (IPIP) representation of the domain traits of the five-factor model (FFM). RESULTS: Several significant interrelationships emerged between the Rorschach Amplified Multiple Choice Test and the PAI and IPIP five-factor scales. CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that the Rorschach can correlate meaningfully with similar constructs assessed using self-report methodology when comparable response formats are utilized.

Prediction of psychotherapy process and outcome with the Personality Assessment Inventory.

The Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI; Morey, 1991) contains scales that were designed to make predictions about how an individual might respond to treatment, thereby allowing clinicians to attune treatment plans to a client's specific needs. The present study utilized two features of the PAI as predictors of treatment process and outcome in a sample of 47 outpatient veterans: the Treatment Rejection (RXR) scale and the Treatment Process Index (TPI). Data were collected for three treatment process and outcome measures: treatment utilization (ratio of appointments attended to appointments scheduled), therapist-rated therapeutic alliance, and symptom change over time. Results indicated that RXR significantly predicted utilization over and above the TPI. The TPI significantly predicted the rate of distress symptom decline over time, but RXR did not. Lastly, neither RXR nor the TPI were significant predictors of therapist-rated alliance.

Evaluating new supplemental indicators for the Personality Assessment Inventory: Standardization and cross-validation.

As the research literature on the Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI; Morey, 1991) has expanded, several supplemental indicators have been introduced to aid in the interpretation of PAI results for the purpose of addressing particular assessment questions, such as protocol validity or treatment-related considerations. However, many of these indicators have remained largely unexamined beyond the initial validation studies in which they were derived. The purpose of the present study was to provide normative data for these new supplemental indicators, as well as to cross-validate these indicators in other existing PAI data sets and provide information about incremental validity beyond existing PAI scales and indices. Comparison effect sizes indicated that nearly all of the new supplemental indicators discriminated as intended, with the majority of indicators also contributing significantly beyond existing PAI indicators. These results suggest that some of these supplemental indicators may prove to be useful additions to the standard scoring of the PAI. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).