Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences - Theses

Permanent URI for this collection

http://hdl.handle.net/11343/267

Filters

1999 2
1 1
Reset filters

Settings
Statistics
Citations
Start date: 1999 × End date: 1999 ×

Search Results

Now showing 1 - 2 of 2
  • Item
    Thumbnail Image
    Psychometric properties of the Myers-Briggs type indicator
    Scott, Graham Douglas ( 1999)
    The Myers-Briggs type indicator is an extremely popular psychological instrument. Despite years of development, and much research, the psychometric properties of the instrument have not been definitely agreed upon. Two issues attract attention; that of categorisation associated with the concept of type, and the issue of what exactly the instrument measures. Previous factor analytical studies produced various results. Data from 309 psychology students from the University of Melbourne were used to conduct a confirmatory factor analysis, and a latent trait analysis. The confirmatory factor analysis was a good fit to the data, and confirmed that with the exception of two items, the 56 items tested fitted the expected four factor structure of the Myers-Briggs type indicator. A latent trait/latent class analysis showed that at least three (the extraversion-introversion, thinking-feeling and judgement-perception) of the four subscales were best conceptualised as a normally distributed latent trait. This finding is in agreement with some previous studies. These have suggested that the scoring and categorical interpretation of the Myers-Briggs type indicator may not be the optimal method for utilisation of the instrument.
  • Item
    Thumbnail Image
    Neuropsychological evidence for cognitive impairment in obsessive-compulsive disorder: relationship with clinical symptomatology
    Wainwright, Kylie ( 1999)
    Neuropsychological studies of obsessive-compulsive (OCD) disorder yield diverging results. Purcell, Maruff, Kyrios & Pantelis (1998a; 1998b) examined cognitive function in a group of patients with OCD, and found specific deficits in spatial working memory, spatial recognition memory, and motor execution. However, no relationships were identified between cognitive impairment and obsessive-compulsive (OC) symptoms. The present study investigated the nature of cognitive impairments in a large sample of patients with OCD and explored the relationship between cognitive impairments, obsessive-compulsive symptoms, and treatment outcome. Study 1 showed that patients with OCD exhibit specific impairments in spatial working memory, spatial span, spatial recognition, attentional set shifting, and motor slowing. This study replicated earlier findings by Purcell et al. (1998a; 1998b) and is consistent with a neurobiological model of OCD which implicates dysfunction in frontal and subcortical brain regions. Study 2 found that levels of OC symptoms in the entire group were not correlated with cognitive impairments. However, when patients were classified according to their predominant symptom subtype, cognitive impairments were greatest in those classified as ‘checkers’. This suggests that cognitive impairment is related to type of obsessive-compulsive symptoms. To determine whether cognitive impairment was secondary to OC symptoms, neuropsychological assessment was repeated in a subgroup of patients with OCD who had significantly reduced symptom levels following cognitive-behavioural group treatment. Despite the symptom reduction, no improvement in cognitive function was found, apart from on one measure of spatial working memory. Results suggest that cognitive impairment in OCD may be more basic to the disorder, rather than arising as a consequence of the obsessive-compulsive symptoms per se. These results expand the body of research exploring neuropsychological function in OCD, and provide the first exploration of the relationship between cognitive impairment, OCD subgroups, OC symptoms, and treatment outcome.