Psychological Reporis, 1977,41, 1309-1310.
@ Psychological Reports 1977
FUTURE OUTLOOK AND PSYCHOPATHOLOGY AMONG PSYCHIATRIC PATIENTS RONALD G. EVANS' A N D W. DAVID D I N N I N G Central Louisiana Stafe Hospital, Pineville Summary.-The Future Outlook Inventory, Rotter I-E Scale, State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, Beck Depression Inventory, Whitaker Index af Schizophrenic Thinking, and MMPI were administered to 1 0 9 hospitalized psychiatric patients. Lowered future outlook was associated with external locus of control, increased levels of depression, state and trait anxiety, and disordered thinking and with increased elevations o n 9 of 13 MMPI scales. Future outlook scores were nor related t o sex, age, education, or number of admissions. It has been a common clinical observation that the expectancies held by. hospitalized psychiatric patients for future post-hospitalization adjustment can greatly influence the severity of clinical symptoms as well as the response to subsequent rehabilitative techniques. The Future Outlook Inventory ( 3 ) was designed to measure individual differences in such attitudes and appears promising as both a clinical and research instrument. However, with the exception of a relationship between lowered scores, external locus of control and more prior hospitalizations ( 5 ) , there are few data o n the relationship of scores o n this inventory to relevant clinical variables. The present study pursued this issue by investigating the degree of association between scores o n the inventory and a variety of indices of psychopathology. A total of 1 0 9 ( 5 2 . m a l e and 57 female) hospitalized psychiatric patients served as subjects. All patients had been referred for group therapy from a short-term treatment unit and were rested within 10 days of admission and prior to receiving any form of psychotherapy. Patients ranged i n age from 1 6 t o 61 yr. ( M = 31.46, SD = 10.98) and included 7 0 first admissions and 38 readmissions (range 1 ro 7 ) . Diagnostic categories represented were: 5 3 functional psychoses, 38 neuroses, 11 personality disorders, and 7 siruational reactions. Patients completed the following instruments: ( a ) the Future Outlook Inventory ( 3 ) , a 30-item measure o n which subjects rate o n separate 7-point scales ( 1 = no chance to 7 = extremely high chance) their expectancies of achieving adequate economic, interpersonal, and intrapersonal adjustment following hospitalization; ( b ) the I-E Scale ( 4 ) , a ' 23-item measure of generalized expectancies for internal vs external control of reinforcements which is scored in the external direction; ( c ) the Beck Depression Inventory ( I ) , which has 26 items reflecting increasing depth of depression; ( d ) the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (G), which provides separate indices of current situational anxiety (A-State) and anxiety proneness (A-Trait) ; ( e ) the Whitaket Index of Schizophrenic Thinking ( 7 ) . which combines three subscales to give an over-all index of the severity of disordered thinking characterized by loose, reference, clang or nonsense associations; and ( f ) the MMPI. T h e product-mo&ent correlations between scores on the inventory and all other measures--including age, years of education, and number of admissions-were calculated separately for males and females. Differences in the correlations for males and females 'Reprints may be obtained from Ronald G. Evans, Department of Psychology, Washburn University, Topeka, Kansas 66621.
1310
R. G. EVANS
&
W. D. DINNING
were then tested using the formula given by Blalock (2, p. 309). These comparisons indicated that the only significant difference between correlations in the male and female samples was the correlation between the inventory and the MMPI Lie scale (z = 2.26, p .05). Correlation between scores on the inventory and the MMPI Lie scale was .38 (p .01) for males and -.03 ( p .05) for females. Since correladons for males and females did not differ, only correlations for the total sample are reported? Future Outlook scores were correlated ( d f = 107) significantly ( p < .01) with scores on the I-EScale ( r = -.41), Beck Depression Inventory (t = -.47), A-State ( r = - 3 1 ), A-Trait ( r = -.44), and several MMPI scales including: Fake Bad ( r = -.37), Hypochondrias ( r = -.36), Depression ( r = -.48), Hysteria ( r = -.28), Psychopathic Deviate ( r = -.35), Paranoia ( r = -.30), Psychasthenia ( r = - , 4 l ) , Schizophrenia ( r = -.45) and Social Introversion (r = -.42). These results indicate that lowered Furure Ourlook is associated with greater psychiatric impairment but is unrelated to age ( r = .01, p > .05), education ( r = q . 0 6 , p > .05), or number of admissions ( r = -.04, p > .05). Thus the inventory appears to have potential value in assessing response to treatment and in evaluating one class of attitudes which can be focused on in therapy. It is suggested that furure research might profitably be directed at these issues.
@ Psychological Reports 1977
FUTURE OUTLOOK AND PSYCHOPATHOLOGY AMONG PSYCHIATRIC PATIENTS RONALD G. EVANS' A N D W. DAVID D I N N I N G Central Louisiana Stafe Hospital, Pineville Summary.-The Future Outlook Inventory, Rotter I-E Scale, State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, Beck Depression Inventory, Whitaker Index af Schizophrenic Thinking, and MMPI were administered to 1 0 9 hospitalized psychiatric patients. Lowered future outlook was associated with external locus of control, increased levels of depression, state and trait anxiety, and disordered thinking and with increased elevations o n 9 of 13 MMPI scales. Future outlook scores were nor related t o sex, age, education, or number of admissions. It has been a common clinical observation that the expectancies held by. hospitalized psychiatric patients for future post-hospitalization adjustment can greatly influence the severity of clinical symptoms as well as the response to subsequent rehabilitative techniques. The Future Outlook Inventory ( 3 ) was designed to measure individual differences in such attitudes and appears promising as both a clinical and research instrument. However, with the exception of a relationship between lowered scores, external locus of control and more prior hospitalizations ( 5 ) , there are few data o n the relationship of scores o n this inventory to relevant clinical variables. The present study pursued this issue by investigating the degree of association between scores o n the inventory and a variety of indices of psychopathology. A total of 1 0 9 ( 5 2 . m a l e and 57 female) hospitalized psychiatric patients served as subjects. All patients had been referred for group therapy from a short-term treatment unit and were rested within 10 days of admission and prior to receiving any form of psychotherapy. Patients ranged i n age from 1 6 t o 61 yr. ( M = 31.46, SD = 10.98) and included 7 0 first admissions and 38 readmissions (range 1 ro 7 ) . Diagnostic categories represented were: 5 3 functional psychoses, 38 neuroses, 11 personality disorders, and 7 siruational reactions. Patients completed the following instruments: ( a ) the Future Outlook Inventory ( 3 ) , a 30-item measure o n which subjects rate o n separate 7-point scales ( 1 = no chance to 7 = extremely high chance) their expectancies of achieving adequate economic, interpersonal, and intrapersonal adjustment following hospitalization; ( b ) the I-E Scale ( 4 ) , a ' 23-item measure of generalized expectancies for internal vs external control of reinforcements which is scored in the external direction; ( c ) the Beck Depression Inventory ( I ) , which has 26 items reflecting increasing depth of depression; ( d ) the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (G), which provides separate indices of current situational anxiety (A-State) and anxiety proneness (A-Trait) ; ( e ) the Whitaket Index of Schizophrenic Thinking ( 7 ) . which combines three subscales to give an over-all index of the severity of disordered thinking characterized by loose, reference, clang or nonsense associations; and ( f ) the MMPI. T h e product-mo&ent correlations between scores on the inventory and all other measures--including age, years of education, and number of admissions-were calculated separately for males and females. Differences in the correlations for males and females 'Reprints may be obtained from Ronald G. Evans, Department of Psychology, Washburn University, Topeka, Kansas 66621.
1310
R. G. EVANS
&
W. D. DINNING
were then tested using the formula given by Blalock (2, p. 309). These comparisons indicated that the only significant difference between correlations in the male and female samples was the correlation between the inventory and the MMPI Lie scale (z = 2.26, p .05). Correlation between scores on the inventory and the MMPI Lie scale was .38 (p .01) for males and -.03 ( p .05) for females. Since correladons for males and females did not differ, only correlations for the total sample are reported? Future Outlook scores were correlated ( d f = 107) significantly ( p < .01) with scores on the I-EScale ( r = -.41), Beck Depression Inventory (t = -.47), A-State ( r = - 3 1 ), A-Trait ( r = -.44), and several MMPI scales including: Fake Bad ( r = -.37), Hypochondrias ( r = -.36), Depression ( r = -.48), Hysteria ( r = -.28), Psychopathic Deviate ( r = -.35), Paranoia ( r = -.30), Psychasthenia ( r = - , 4 l ) , Schizophrenia ( r = -.45) and Social Introversion (r = -.42). These results indicate that lowered Furure Ourlook is associated with greater psychiatric impairment but is unrelated to age ( r = .01, p > .05), education ( r = q . 0 6 , p > .05), or number of admissions ( r = -.04, p > .05). Thus the inventory appears to have potential value in assessing response to treatment and in evaluating one class of attitudes which can be focused on in therapy. It is suggested that furure research might profitably be directed at these issues.
