Although several measures of obsessive-compulsive (OC) symptoms exist, most are limited in that they are not consistent with the most recent empirical findings on the nature and dimensional structure of obsessions and compulsions. In the present research, the authors developed and evaluated a measure called the Dimensional Obsessive-Compulsive…

Acute stress disorder (ASD) is a poorly understood and controversial diagnosis (A. G. Harvey & R. A. Bryant, 2002). The present study used confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to test the factor structure of the most widely used self-report measure of ASD, the Acute Stress Disorder Scale (R. A. Bryant, M. L. Moulds, & R. M. Guthrie, 2000),…

A wealth of evidence attests to the extensive current and lifetime diagnostic comorbidity of the "Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders" (4th ed., "DSM-IV") anxiety and mood disorders. Research has shown that the considerable cross-sectional covariation of "DSM-IV" emotional disorders is accounted for by common higher order…

The measurement of dental fear is important due to its high prevalence and appreciable individual, clinical, and public health consequences. However, existing measures of dental anxiety and fear (DAF) have theoretical or practical limitations. This study describes the development and subsequent assessment of the reliability and validity of test…

Clear and empirically supported diagnostic symptoms are important for proper diagnosis and treatment of psychological disorders. Unfortunately, the symptoms of many disorders presented in the "Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders" (4th ed., text rev.; DSM-IV-TR; American Psychiatric Association, 2000) lack sufficient psychometric…

Psychological assessment research concerns how to describe psychological dysfunction in ways that are both valid and useful. Recent advances in assessment research hold the promise of facilitating significant improvements in description and diagnosis. One such contribution is in the classification of personality disorder symptomatology. The…

Providers of mental health services need tools to screen for acute psychosis and ultrahigh risk (UHR) for transition to psychosis in help-seeking individuals. In this study, the Eppendorf Schizophrenia Inventory (ESI) was examined as a screening tool and for its ability to correctly predict diagnostic group membership (e.g., help seeking, mild…

The construction of the American Psychiatric Association's diagnostic manual has been guided primarily by concerns of construct validity rather than of clinical utility, despite claims by its authors that the highest priority has in fact been clinical utility. The purpose of this article was to further articulate the concept and importance of…

Psychosocial functioning is an important focus of attention in the revision of the "Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders". Researchers and clinicians are converging upon the opinion that psychometrically strong, comprehensive assessment of individuals' functioning is needed to characterize disorder fully. Also shared is the…

Intolerance of uncertainty (IU) has contributed to our understanding of excessive worry and adult anxiety disorders, but there is a paucity of research on IU in child samples. This gap is due to the absence of a psychometrically sound measure of IU in youth. The present study adapted parallel child- and parent-report forms of the Intolerance of…

We evaluated the accuracy of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and major depression (MD) diagnoses using brief assessment instruments conducted by phone. PTSD and MD were assessed by telephone interview in a randomly selected sample of Jewish and Palestinian residents of Jerusalem (N = 150) during a period of marked threat of terrorism and war.…

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) diagnosis requires first identifying a traumatic event, but very few studies have evaluated methods of potential traumatic event assessment and their impact on PTSD diagnosis. The authors compared a behaviorally specific comprehensive multiple-item traumatic event measure with a single-item measure to…

The current study used factor mixture modeling to identify heterogeneity (i.e., latent classes) in 2 well-supported models of posttraumatic stress disorder's (PTSD) factor structure. Data were analyzed from a clinical sample of 405 Canadian veterans evaluated for PTSD. Results were consistent with our hypotheses. Each PTSD factor model was best…

Anxiety disorders are among the most prevalent mental disorders. In panic disorder, panic attacks often occur at unpredictable times, making it difficult to study these episodes in the laboratory. In specific phobias, symptoms occur in very circumscribed situations and specific triggers are sometimes difficult to reproduce in the laboratory.…

For diagnosing many mental disorders, the current "Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders" ("DSM") system weights each diagnostic criterion equally--each criterion counts the same toward meeting the diagnostic threshold. Research on the diagnostic efficiency of criteria, however, reveals that some diagnostic criteria are more useful…