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Measuring hallucinations in the chronic mentally ill

Author

Scott Winslow Harrington, University of the Pacific

Date of Award

2003

Document Type

Thesis - Pacific Access Restricted

Degree Name

Master of Arts (M.A.)

Department

Psychology

First Advisor

Gary Howells

First Committee Member

Pam Fitzgerald

Second Committee Member

Cris Clay

Abstract

Hallucinations are one of the defining criteria for a diagnosis of schizophrenia, but extremely difficult to measure. This is simply because hallucinations are private events and the community does not have access to information within the skin. There are several measures of hallucinations, but most are cumbersome, expensive, and have questionable psychometric properties. This investigation attempted to look at the relationship between a clients' self-report of a hallucination and observable indicators of hallucinations. Participants in the study were chronically mentally ill individuals taking medication, but suffering from hallucinations. This study advanced a previous thesis on the same topic by revising the self-report tool, operationally defining hallucinatory behavior with a well-established instrument, and collecting reliability data. It was hypothesized that there would be a correlation between a client's self-report of hallucinations and observable indicators reported by staff (e.g., client talking to self or laughing while alone outside). The staff at a residential treatment center for the chronic mentally ill collected data on client hallucinatory behavior and correlated it with a revised self-report measure of hallucinations. The data indicated there is no relationship between a client's self-report of hallucinations and the staff report. The data did show however, that the staff reported more symptomology than the clients reported during the same time period.

Pages

75

Recommended Citation

Harrington, Scott Winslow. (2003). Measuring hallucinations in the chronic mentally ill. University of the Pacific, Thesis - Pacific Access Restricted. https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/uop_etds/2679