Semantic Differential Uses in Psychiatric Patients

A Study of Obsessive, Psychopath and Control Inpatients

¹ Research Worker and Senior Registrar, Institute of Psychiatry, The Maudsley Hospital, London, S.E.5

The semantic differential technique is useful for psychiatric problems to which meaning or attitude is relevant. Different patterns of meaning can be shown for contrasting psychiatric syndromes. This was done in matched groups of obsessive, psychopathic and control in-patients to test ideas about their aggression and guilt. Results suggested that obsessives do not fear their own aggression more than controls—their symptoms and inhibition of aggression require another explanation. Psychopaths from psychiatric hospitals in this sample showed evidence of guilt and anxiety, suggesting that they manifested aggression because they were lacking in control rather than in conscience or guilt.

Semantic differential scores are reasonably stable and run parallel to clinical events. Psychiatric patients use semantic differential scales slightly differently from controls. Although their scales form mildly different factors, a stable evaluative factor is generally present which is easier and preferable to use than its constituent scale scores. Psychiatric patients use intermediate scale positions less than controls.

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