Circular structure of the MCMI-III personality disorder scales.

Millon's (1987) circular model of personality disorders was examined in a large sample of psychiatric patients (N = 2,366) who completed the Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory-III (MCMI-III; Millon, 1997) as part of routine assessment after presentation for treatment. Principal components analyses were conducted to identify the first two dimensions in MCMI-III base rate scores, weighted and unweighted raw scores, and nonoverlapping scale scores. Similar analyses were made on these scores when acquiescence was partialled out. Circular plots of the scales were examined against Millon's hypothesized arrangement and the model was tested using confirmatory factor analysis. Results replicated those of Strack, Lorr, and Campbell (1990) with the MCMI-II. Millon's horizontal Impassive-Expressive dimension was recovered in both regular and residual scores but the vertical axis appeared to represent an Impulsivity-Compulsivity dimension rather than the Autonomous-Enmeshed continuum envisioned by Millon. Although scale order followed Millon's predictions for the most part, a number of departures from theoretical expectations were noted and none of the score sets yielded a good fit to the hypothetical structure. Millon's model appears to have promise as a circumplex that can encompass all of the personality disorders but changes are needed to rectify discrepancies between the theory and empirical findings.

Effects of shock and darkness on alcohol consumption by rats.

Alcohol consumption by three groups of rats, one subjected to electric shocks, one placed in darkness and a control group, increased as a function of time.

The Halstead Category Test: a fifty year perspective.

The Category Test, a major part of the Halstead-Reitan Neuropsychological Battery, was first described in a 1943 article by Halstead and Settlage. This paper reviews the development of the test, the psychometric properties of the instrument, available administration and scoring methods, discusses various interpretative strategies, and the empirical support for the test's clinical validity. Recent developments are then reviewed, as well as what the authors see as the future potential for this instrument.

Racial bias and the MCMI.

We studied the scores obtained on the Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory (MCMI) by Black and White male psychiatric inpatients to determine the presence or absence of racial bias. In predicting psychopathology for the two races, comparisons of MCMI performance indicated significant differences for all diagnoses except the personality disorders. The subjects were then matched into two groups of 209 patients each, according to DSM-III psychiatric diagnoses. The data were analyzed at the item, scale, and structural levels. At the item level, application of the Mantel-Haenszel Procedure revealed that 45 of the 175 items of the inventory were answered significantly different by the two racial groups. Because this number was higher than what could be expected by chance, the finding suggested possible deficiencies in terms of the culture-fairness of the items used in the test. At the scale level, an analysis of variance (ANOVA) demonstrated that the scores obtained by the Black and White groups were significantly different in 9 of the 20 scales (Histrionic, Narcissistic, Antisocial, Paraphrenia, Hypomania, Dysthymia, Alcohol Abuse, Drug Abuse, and Psychotic Delusion). With the exception of the Dysthymic scale, all of the differences were in the direction of the Blacks obtaining a higher score than the Whites. At the structural level, however, a principal components factor analysis performed on each group resulted in factor structures that looked identical.