| Abstract: | Developed a 45-item true–false scale to measure intense ambivalence using a procedure that ensured high internal consistency with minimal method variance. It has been argued that intense ambivalance is characteristic of Ss who are genetically predisposed to the development of schizophrenia. The scale was first validated by interviewing 72 (of 759 Ss who completed the scale) college students who scored high and in the normal range on the scale. Ss who scored high on the scale spontaneously reported feeling ambivalent and behaved ambivalently more often than low-scoring controls. The scale was then given to 85 schizophrenics (mean age 35.6 yrs), 30 hospitalized depressives (mean age 35.5 yrs), 192 psychology clinic patients (mean age 27.1 yrs), and 139 normal controls (mean age 31.3 yrs). As predicted, schizophrenics scored higher than controls; clinic clients scored in the middle range. Depressives scored the highest of all the groups. (40 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved) |
