Personality Test Correlates of Psychiatric Case History Data

Scores on factor analytically derived traits of normal personality, as measured by the Comrey Personality Scales (CPS), were correlated with ratings of psychological disturbance and psychiatric diagnosis derived from case history data for 394 outpatients. Results strongly confirm findings from past statistical studies that extreme scores on these normal personality traits are associated with psychological disturbance, particularly low scores on Trust versus Defensiveness, Activity versus Lack of Energy, Emotional Stability versus Neuroticism, Extraversion versus Introversion, and high scores on Orderliness versus Lack of Compulsion. New statistical evidence was obtained in this study for the importance of certain extreme trait scores where only clinical evidence was available before. These results are seen as providing further support for the premise that objective tests of normal personality traits have an important role to play in psychiatric screening, diagnosis, and design of clinical interventions.