The authors use the development of one individualized mental health outcome measure, the Major Problem Rating System, to examine psychometric problems for instruments tailored to individual patients. A 280-item computer interview taken by the patient at the outset of treatment solves some reliability and validity problems by standardizing the menu from which a unique set ofproblems is derived Follow-up improvement ratings are made only for baseline-identifiedproblems. Decisions in the design of an individualized measure, testretest reliability, patterns of internal relationships among subscales, and external relationships with other outcome measures are provided.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
CALSYN, R. J.
and W. S. DAVIDSON (1978) "Do we really want a program evaluation strategy based solely on individualized goals?"Community Mental Health J.14 (4): 300-308.
2.
CIARLO, J. A.
(1981) "Final report: the assessment of client/patient outcome techniques for use in mental health programs."Denver: Univ. of Denver. (NIMH Contract 278-80-0005 [DB])
3.
CYTRYNBAUM, S.
, Y. GINATCH, J. BIRDWELL, and L. BRANDT (1979) "Goal attainment scaling: a critical review."Evaluation Q.3 (1): 5-40.
4.
DeWITT, K. N.
, N. B. KALTREIDER, D. S. WEISS, and M. J. HOROWITZ (1983)"Judging change in psychotherapy."Archives of General Psychiatry40: 1121-1128.
5.
ELLSWORTH, R. B.
(1979) "PARS scale: measuring personal adjustment and role skills."Institute for Program Evaluation, Box 4654, Roanoke, VA 24015.
6.
ENDICOTT, J.
, R. L. SPITZER, J. L. FLEISS, and J. COHEN (1976) 'The Global Assessment Scale: a procedure for measuring overall severity of psychiatric disturbance."Archives of General Psychiatry33: 776-771.
7.
FERAGNE, M.
, R. LONGABAUGH, and J. STEVENSON (1983) 'The Psychosocial Functioning Inventory."Evaluation & the Health Professions6 (1): 25-48.
8.
HANSSON, L.
, M. BERGLUND, and R. OHMAN (1987) "Individualized measures of outcome versus standardized rating scales in evaluation of in-hospital psychiatric treatment."Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavia75: 275-282.
9.
LAMPMAN, S.
, G. GARWICK, and M. GRYGELKO (1977) "Content analysis and goal attainment scaling."Goal Attainment Rev.3: 113-145.
10.
LONGABAUGH, R. L.
, D. R. FOWLER, R. STOUT, and G. KRIEBEL (1982) 'Validation of a problem focused nomenclature."Archives of General Psychiatry40: 453-461.
11.
LONGABAUGH, R.
, R. L. STOUT, G. W KRIEBEL, L. McCULLOUGH, and D. BISHOP (1986) "DSM-III and clinically identified problems as a guide to treatment."Archives of General Psychiatry43: 1097-1103.
12.
LONGABAUGH, R. L.
, R. STOUT, G. KRIEBEL, R. WESTLAKE, and D. R. FOWLER (1981) "Butler Hospital Code for Psychiatric Problems."JSAS Catalog of Selected Documents in Psychology 11 (February).
13.
McCULLOUGH, L. (1981a) 'The effects of feedback from a computerized problem behavior interview on treatment plans and problem outcomes for psychiatric patients." Dissertation, Boston College.
14.
McCULLOUGH, L.
(1981b) "Systematic evaluation of the impact of computer-acquired data on psychiatric care," pp. 426-430 in Proceedings in Medical Care, Washington, DC, November.
15.
McCULLOUGH, L.
, A. D. FARRELL, and R. LONGABAUGH (1984) 'The making of a computerized assessment system: problems, pitfalls and pleasures," pp. 173-183 in M. D. Schwartz (ed.) Using Computers in Clinical Practice. New York: Haworth.
16.
McCULLOUGH, L.
, A. D. FARRELL, and R. LONGABAUGH (1986) 'The development of a microcomputer-based mental health information system: a potential tool for bridging the scientist-practitioner gap."Amer. Psychologist41 (February): 207-214.
17.
McCULLOUGH, L., L. JENIK-RENEY, and R. LONGABAUGH (1984) "An assessment instrument digest (AID)." Providence, RI: Butler Hospital. (unpublished manuscript)
18.
McCULLOUGH, L.
, R. LONGABAUGH, and J. STEVENSON (1982) "Major problem rating system manual."Providence, RI: Butler Hospital, Department of Evaluation and Research.
19.
MINTZ, J.
(1972) "What is success in psychotherapy?"J. of Abnormal Psychology80: 11-19.
20.
MINTZ, J.
(1981) "Measuring outcome in psychodynamic psychotherapy."Archives of General Psychiatry38: 503-506.
21.
MINTZ, J.
and D. J. KIESLER (1982) "Individualized measures of psychotherapy outcome," in P. Kendall and J. N. Butcher (eds.) Handbook of Research Methods in Clinical Psychology. New York: John Wiley.
22.
MINTZ, J.
, L. LUBORSKY, and P. CHRISTOPH (1979) "Measuring outcomes of psychotherapy: findings of the Pennsylvania Psychotherapy Project."J. of Consulting and Clinical Psychology47 (2): 319-344.
23.
NUNNALLY, J. C.
(1978) Psychometric Theory. New York: McGraw-Hill.
24.
NUNNALLY, J. C.
and R. DURHAM (1975) 'Validity, reliability and the special problems of measurement in evaluation research," in E. Struening and M. Guttentag (eds.) Handbook of Evaluation Research (Vol. 1). Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.
25.
NUNNALLY, J.
and W WILSON (1975) "Method and theory for developing measures in evaluation research," in E. Struening and M. Guttentag (eds.) Handbook of Evaluation Research (Vol. 1). Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.
26.
SHERMAN, R.
(1974) 'The content validity agreement for the validity of the goal attainment score."Program Evaluation Resource Center Newsletter5: 5-6.
27.
SPITZER, R. L.
and J. ENDICOTT (1971) "An integrated group of forms for automated psychiatric case records."Archives of General Psychiatry24: 448-453.
28.
STEVENSON, J. E
, M. C. BEATTIE, R. R. ALVES, and R. LONGABAUGH (1987) "Development of a psychiatric treatment outcome monitoring system." Presented at the annual meeting of the American Evaluation Association, Boston, MA.
29.
WASKOW, I. E.
and M. B. PERLOFF [eds.] (1975) Psychotherapy Change Measures" (DHEW Publication [ADM] 74-120). Washington, DC: Government Printing Office.
