[Self-evaluation questionnaires--factorial structure and indications for general practice].

Abstract

The following self-rating inventories were administered to 613 subjects (289 psychically ill patients and 324 healthy persons): The Basel Mood Inventory (BBI), the Freiburg Personality Inventory (FPI), the Giessen-Test (GT), the Complaint-List (HHM), and the Paranoid-Neuroticism-Depression-Scale (PND-S'). The main interest was put on examining the dimensionality of each inventory separately and all the inventories combined. The results are discussed with respect to the practical applicability. FPI and GT proved as two polyvalently applicable personality inventories (clinically as well as non-clinically) whose factorial structure is essentially verified. It was justified to eliminate "N" (neuroticism) from the PND in the newly revised version. Although "P" (paranoid) covers only a particular domain of paranoid tendencies the new test version (PD and PD') will be valuable in clinical use for group differentiation (a.o. for global diagnoses of depression and schizophrenia) in longitudinal as well as cross-sectional studies. The HHM covers mood state variables additionally, little differentiated though. The newer parallel forms suffer from the same deficiency. It could be confirmed that the BBI measures a particular mood-drive dimension and thus can be used independently or in combination with multidimensional personality inventories in longitudinal studies.