Development of a scale to measure intense ambivalence.

Abstract

A 45-item true-false scale to measure intense ambivalence was developed using a procedure that ensured high internal consistency with minimal method variance. Meehl has argued that intense ambivalence is characteristic of those subjects who are genetically predisposed to the development of schizophrenia. The scale was first validated by interviewing college students who scored high and in the normal range on the scale. Students who score high on the scale spontaneously report feeling ambivalent and behave ambivalently more often than control subjects. The scale was then given to schizophrenics, hospitalized depressed patients, psychology clinic clients, and normal control subjects. As predicted, schizophrenics scored higher than control subjects, and the psychology clinic clients scored in the middle range. The depressed patients, however, scored the highest of all the groups. Several directions for further research are discussed.