title: Test purpose and test response in psychiatric patients and "normal" students.
abstract: The paper reports two experiments concerned with the effects of instructions on personality and self-report symptom measures. The first experiment investigated whether newly referred psychiatric patients respond differently according to whether they believe the questionnaires are being completed for research purposes or as part of a diagnostic procedure. Experiment II examined similar instructional effects with "normal" student Ss. Students either were told that the questionnaires were for research purposes or that they were part of a psychiatric screening procedure. Results showed that females in both groups reported more symptoms and had higher neuroticism scores than males. Instructions had no significant effect. It was concluded that such measures may be less sensitive to test-taking bias than often is assumed.
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis*; D008875:Middle Aged; D009042:Motivation; D009497:Neurotic Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis; D010555:Personality Inventory; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D011581:Psychological Tests; D012106:Research; D012649:Self Concept; D012647:Self-Assessment; D012718:Set, Psychology; D012737:Sex Factors