Reliability of Classification of Behaviors within Psychosexual Stages

Abstract

Items representing non-pathological behavior, attitudes and characteristics were presented to a panel of 6 clinicians intimately familiar with psychoanalytic theory. The clinicians were asked to assign each item to the psychosexual stage represented by it. 1 yr. later, a second panel repeated the task and interjudge agreement was calculated. Temporal agreement was calculated for the 4 judges common to both panels. The results indicate that psychoanalytically trained clinicians can reliably assign behaviors, attitudes and characteristics to psychosexual stages and that agreement exceeds the level reported for the American Psychological association diagnostic system. The implications of these findings are briefly discussed.