DEVELOPMENT AND PRELIMINARY APPLICATION OF A NEW SCALE FOR ASSESSING DYSFUNCTIONAL WORKING MODELS OF SELF AND OTHERS (DWM-S) IN SEVERELY DISTURBED PATIENTS

Although several suggestions have been made concerning the content and characteristics of cognitive/emotive schemata held by people with dif ferent disorders, there is still a scarcity of suitable instruments fo r verifying or measuring such constructs. This is particularly true of schemata postulated to be present in patients with personality disord ers or a schizophrenic disorder. This article deals with the developme nt of a new scale for assessing dysfunctional internal working models of self and others (DWM-S) in psychiatric patients. Preliminary result s obtained in a sample of patients (n=110) and healthy subjects (n=40) suggest that the scale has a highly satisfactory internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha=0.97), and satisfactory test-retest reliability (rh o coefficient=0.90 in healthy subjects and 0.86 in patients). Moreover , the DWM-S is able to discriminate between patients and healthy subje cts and between patients suffering from various disorders. Further stu dies are in progress to assess the cross-national generalizability of the findings obtained so far.