The British Journal of Psychiatry 130: 240-243 (1977)
© 1977 The Royal College of Psychiatrists
Psychomotor traits, social desirability and the personal illness hierarchy
GA Foulds and A Bedford
Seventy-eight psychiatric in-patients were allocated to personal illness
classes by means of the Delusions-Symptoms-States Inventory (DSSI). Paper
and pencil measures of psychomotor speed and scatter of tapping were
administered with an immediate retest. It is suggested that from a social
desirability position one would have to predict that the more personally
ill (i.e. those endorsing the more socially undesirable items) would be
slower and more diffuse on these measures. We found, however, such patients
to be more constricted and slower. It is concluded that such a combination
adds to the utility and validity of the hierarchy of classes of personal
illness.