Van Kampen (1993) has published a paper in which he criticizes the concept of psychoticism and the use of the P scale as a measuring device, and advances measures for his own S scale and its validity. This reply attempts to clarify the notion of ‘validity’, and to demonstrate that there is a considerable body of experimental evidence to show that P has a high degree of construct validity, whereas the Van Kampen S scale lacks completely any degree of construct validity. Several examples are given of how the experimental evidence legitimates both the P scale, and the theory (nomological network) on which it is based.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
BleulerM. (1978). The Schizophrenic Disorders, Yale University Press, New Haven, CT.
2.
CameronN. (1939). ‘Schizophrenia thinking in a problem‐solving situation’, Journal of Mental Science, 85:1012–1035.
CronbachL. J.MeehlP. E. (1955). ‘Construct validity in psychological tests’, Psychologi‐cal Bulletin, 52:281–302.
5.
EysenckH. J. (1950). ‘Criterion analysis: an application of the hypothetico‐deductive method to factor analysis’, Psychological Review, 47:38–53.
6.
EysenckH. J. (1952). ‘Schizophrenic‐cyclothymia as a dimension of personality. II. Experimental,’ Journal of Personality, 20:345–384.
7.
EysenckH. J. (1983).The roots of creativity: cognition ability or personality trait?Roeper Review, 5:10–12.
8.
EysenckH. J. (1991). ‘Dimensions of personality: 16, 5 or 32—criteria for a taxonomic paradigm’, Personality and Individual Differences, 12:773–790.
9.
EysenckH. J. (1992a). ‘The definition and measurement of psychoticism’, Personality and Individual Differences, 13:757–785.
10.
EysenckH. J. (1992b). ‘A reply to Costa and McCrae: P or A and C–the role of theory’, Personality and Individual Differences, 13:867–868.
11.
EysenckH. J. (1992c). ‘Four ways five factors are not basic’, Personality and Individual Differences, 13:667–673.
12.
EysenckH. J. (1992d). A Hundred Years of Personality Research, from Heymans to Modern Times, Bohn Stafleu Van Loghum, Amsterdam.
13.
EysenckH. J. (1993) ‘Creativity and personality: a theoretical perspective’, Psychological Inquiry, 7:147–178.
14.
EysenckH. J. (1995). Genius: the Natural History of Creativity, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
15.
EysenckH. J.BarrettP. T. (1993). ‘The nature of schizotypy’, Psychological Reports, 73:59–63.
16.
EysenckH. J.EysenckM. W. (1985). Personality and Individual Differences: a Natural Science Approach, Plenum, New York.
17.
GarberJ.StrasbergZ. (1991). ‘ Construct validity: history and application to developmental psychopathology’. In: Grove, W. M. and Cicchetti, D. (Eds), Personality and Psychopathology, University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, MN, pp.219–258.
18.
GoetzK. O.GoetzK. (1979a). ‘Personality characteristics of successful artists’, Perceptual and Motor Skills, 49:919–924.
19.
GoetzK. O.GoetzK. (1979b). ‘Personality characteristics of professional artists’, Perceptual and Motor Skills, 49:327–334.
20.
GrayJ. A.FeldonJ.RawlinsJ. N.HemsleyD. R.SmithA. D. (1991). ‘The neuropsychology of schizophrenia’, Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 14:1–84.
21.
GrayN. S.PickeringA. D.GrayJ. A. (1994). ‘Psychoticism and dopamine D2 binding in the basal ganglia using single photon emission tomography’, Personality and Individual Differences, 17:431–434.
22.
KendlerK. S.HewittJ. (1992). “The structure of self‐report schizotypy in twins”, Journal of Personality Disorders, 6:1–17.
23.
LubowR. E. (1989). Latent Inhibition and Conditional Alleles on Theory, Cambridge University Press, New York.
24.
MednickS. A. (1962). ‘The associative basis of the creative process’, Psychological Review, 69:220–232.
25.
MednickS. A.MednickM. T. (1964). ‘ An associative interpretation of the creative person’. In: Taylor, C. W. (Ed), Widening Horizons in Creativity, Wiley, New York, pp.54–68.
26.
PayneR. W.HewlettJ. H. G. (1960). ‘ Thought disorder in psychotic patients’. In: Eysenck, H. J. (Ed), Experiments in Personality, Routledge and Kegan Paul, London, pp.3–104.
27.
PervinL. A. (1980). Personality: Theory, Assessment, and Research, Wiley, New York.
28.
Van KampenD. , (1993).The 3 DPT dimensions S, E, and N: a critical evaluation of Eysenck's Psychoticism model', European Journal of Personality, 7:65–105.
29.
WoodyE.ClaridgeG. (1977). ‘Psychoticism and thinking’, British Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 16:241–248.
