APPLICATION
Theoretically, it seems that the catescale technique is applicable wherever rating scales or tests are applicable. There are two instances where the catescale might well permit new and radical solutions t o old, tough problems.
First, the critical evaluation of malingering and falsification. This problem has plagued clinical psychologists recently and psychiatrists, physicians, insurance companies and administrators for a long time. Present methods of detecting malingering in regard t o the sensorium are rather adequate. They are very inadequate, however, in cases of backache, headache, visceral pains and also in determining the genuineness of fears, dissociated states, psychotic episodes, compulsive behavior, etc. The evaluation of the last three types of behavior is relevant to legal questions concerning the state of an individual at the time he committed a crime. Because categories can be scaled where no apparent phenomenal order exists, catescales should be most difficult to falsify.
Second, the catescale technique suggests a scientific and systematic method for constructing certain types of data-gathering instruments. The author knows,of no major theoretical contribution t o the construction of case histories, information files, interview forms, etc. The catescale technique indicates a new procedure for the construction, organization, and evaluation of case histories, biographical data sheets, interview forms, questionnaires, job analyses, job descriptions and other analytic, multivariate data-gathering instruments of psychosocial phenomena. A SCALE O F NEUROTICISM: AN ADAPTATION O F THE MINNESOTA MULTIPHASIC PERSONALITY INVENTORY' JOHN F, WINNE, PH.D.
V . A. Neuropsychiatric Hospital
Northampton, Mass.
'The study reported in this paper is an extension of part of an experiment performed in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor in Philosophy a t the University of Pennsylvania under the direction of Professors Malcolm G. Preston, Robert A. Brotemarkle, and Morrls s.
Viteles. Reviewed in the Veterans Administration and published with the approval of the. Chief Medical Director. The statements and conclusions published by the author aTe a result of his OW study and do not necessarily reflect the opinion or policy of the Veterans Adminlstration.