An adapted version of the Rosenzweig Picture-Frustration Study (PFS-AV) for the measurement of hostility in violent forensic psychiatric patients.
BACKGROUND
The original Rosenzweig Picture-Frustration Study (PFS), designed to measure reactive aggressive behaviour in adults, contains 24 pictures of ambiguous situations in which someone is making a remark that can be interpreted as provocative.


OBJECTIVE
An adapted version of Rosenzweig's PFS (PFS-AV) was developed to assess the hostile thoughts elicited by interpersonal frustrating situations in forensic psychiatric patients with a conduct disorder or an antisocial personality disorder.


METHODS
Patients were asked to give their responses in a few words on paper, which were then evaluated for hostility using a seven-point Likert scale. The patients also completed questionnaires on personality and on aggressive and socially competent behaviour.


RESULTS
Twelve of the 24 pictures that had a good internal consistency, inter-rater reliability, and test-retest reliability were selected. In support of the instrument's concurrent validity, scores on the PFS-AV were positively correlated with those on the aggressive behaviour questionnaires but less strongly than the correlations between the aggressive behaviour questionnaires mutually. The validity of the PFS-AV was demonstrated by the positive correlation between PFS-AV hostility and neuroticism, and by the negative correlation with extraversion, openness, agreeableness and conscientiousness. A relatively low but positive correlation was found with social anxiety and a negative correlation was found with social skills in situations where approaching behaviour may be exhibited.


CONCLUSIONS
The adapted version of the PFS-AV appears reliably and validly to measure hostility in violent forensic psychiatric patients.
Hornsveld
Ruud H J
RH
Department of Medical Psychology, Radboud University Nijmegen, Nijmegen, The Netherlands. r.hornsveld@tiscali.nl
Nijman
Henk L I
HL
Hollin
Clive R
CR
Kraaimaat
Floor W
FW
D000328:Adult; D000987:Antisocial Personality Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D005639:Frustration; D006791:Hostility; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011329:Prisoners / Q000523:psychology*; D011581:Psychological Tests; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014754:Violence