An investigation of role-taking in histrionic personality disorder

Abstract

This research focuses its attention on role-taking ability, how a person interprets another’s impression of her. Gough proposed a theory of psychopathy in which he found that psychopaths are deficient in this ability. Genetic studies have linked psychopaths with hysterical personality disorder. Therefore, it was decided to investigate role-taking ability in hysterical personality disorders. Females, only, were considered for the study, since this is a diagnosis used primarily in females. A control group of treated depressives was used. All subjects were in-patients on two psychiatric units of general hospitals. -- Subjects were given a test battery: 1. Socialization Scale. 2. Meta-Impression Test (Bilsbury, 1978). These were tests to measure role-taking. 3. Beck Depression Inventory. This was used to detect the presence of depression in the groups. -- Results showed that females with hysterical personality disorder are deficient in role-taking ability while the control group demonstrated normal role-taking ability. The difference was significant at the p=0.0001 level for the Socialization Scale. The Meta-Impression Test did not yield significant results and recommendations have been made for its improvement. -- The significant results have important implications for diagnosis and treatment of hysterical personality disordered patients and the Socialization Scale has potential value for detection of hysterical traits in depressed women.