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The House Imagery Test: A New Measure of Mental Status

Received: 21 January 2021     Accepted: 28 January 2021     Published: 2 February 2021
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Abstract

Imagery Communication Psychotherapy (ICP), a Chinese native psychotherapy, uses imagery as a medium to communicate in depth with clients. As the most essential and widely used imagery in ICP, house imagery had been found efficient to reveal global mental status. On this basis, the House Imagery Test (HIT), a new projective test, was developed. This article reports the development and validation of the HIT on a survey of 478 undergraduate students. Symptom Checklist 90 (SCL-90), Self-rating Depression Scale (SDS), Self-rating Anxiety Scale (SAS), Positive Affect and Negative Affect Scale (PANAS), and Trait Coping Style Questionnaire (TCSQ) were used as criterion in the current study. The results showed that the HIT had good test-retest reliability (r = .69) and internal consistency (r = .79). Exploratory factor analysis of the HIT exhibited a 4-factor structure, which was verified by further confirmatory factor analysis. The HIT also correlated significantly with SCL-90, SDS, SAS, PANAS and TCSQ. Overall, the HIT had acceptable reliability and validity. It was proved to be a novel and solid projective test for measurement of mental status. These findings provide a new tool to aid the clinic practice and suggest a new technical route for the development of projective tests.

Published in Psychology and Behavioral Sciences (Volume 10, Issue 1)
DOI 10.11648/j.pbs.20211001.16
Page(s) 49-55
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Projective Test, Imagery Communication Psychotherapy, Imagery, The House Imagery Test

References
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[2] Piotrowski, C. (2015). Projective techniques usage worldwide: A review of applied settings 1995-2015. Journal of the Indian Academy of Applied Psychology, 41 (3), 9-19.
[3] Frank, L. K. (1939). Projective methods for the study of personality. The Journal of Psychology, 8 (2), 389-413.
[4] Hunsley, J., & Bailey, J. M. (1999). The clinical utility of the Rorschach: Unfulfilled promises and an uncertain future. Psychological Assessment, 11 (3), 266-277.
[5] Tong, H. J. (2002). Surveying and expecting three major test technologies in psychology. Journal of Nanjing Normal University: Social Science, (3), 81-88.
[6] Yuan, Y., Cao, M. Y., & Liu, Y. (2018). Application of Imagery Communication Psychotherapy in projective test. Psychology and Behavioral Sciences. 7 (3), 38-44.
[7] Yuan, Y., Cao, Y., & Zhu, J. J. (2013). Clinical techniques of Imagery Communication Psychotherapy. Beijing: Beijing Normal University Publishing Group.
[8] Hu, T. T. (2015). Research on the role of confrontation technique of Imagery Communication Therapy in fear emotion regulation. Unpublished master’s dissertation. Beijing Forestry University, Beijing.
[9] Li, J. R., & Liu, H. J. (2005). Imagery conversing technique in psychological counseling of depression. Chinese Journal of Clinical Rehabilitation, 16 (9), 154-155.
[10] Wang, X. L. (2007). The study on the usage of the method of Imagery Communication in personality tests. Unpublished master’s dissertation. Beijing Forestry University, Beijing.
[11] Zhang, H. F., & He, K. (2007). Validity of imagery conversing technique. Journal of Clinical Rehabilitative Tissue Engineering Research, 30 (11), 6056-6058.
[12] Wang, X. D., Wang, X. L., & Ma, H. (1999). Rating scales for mental health. Beijing: Chinese Mental Health Journal.
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[14] Zung, W. W. K. (1971). Self-Rating Anxiety Scale. Psyehosomatics, 12 (6), 371-379.
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[16] Waston, D., Clark, L. A., & Tellegen, A. (1988). Development and validation brief measures of positive and negative affect: The PANAS scales. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 54 (6), 1063-1070.
[17] Shweder, R. A., & D’Andrade, R. G. (1979). Accurate reflection or systematic distortion? A reply to Block, Weiss, and Thorne. Journal of Personality & Social Psychology, 37 (6), 1075-1084.
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[19] Jain, M., Singh, A., Kar, S. K., Weiner, I. B., & Kuehnle, K. (2017). Projective Assessment of Children and Adolescents. Reference Module in Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Psychology. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-809324-5.05058-6
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Cite This Article
  • APA Style

    Yuan Yuan, Xiaoxia Yu, Hongchuan Zhang. (2021). The House Imagery Test: A New Measure of Mental Status. Psychology and Behavioral Sciences, 10(1), 49-55. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.pbs.20211001.16

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    ACS Style

    Yuan Yuan; Xiaoxia Yu; Hongchuan Zhang. The House Imagery Test: A New Measure of Mental Status. Psychol. Behav. Sci. 2021, 10(1), 49-55. doi: 10.11648/j.pbs.20211001.16

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    AMA Style

    Yuan Yuan, Xiaoxia Yu, Hongchuan Zhang. The House Imagery Test: A New Measure of Mental Status. Psychol Behav Sci. 2021;10(1):49-55. doi: 10.11648/j.pbs.20211001.16

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  • @article{10.11648/j.pbs.20211001.16,
      author = {Yuan Yuan and Xiaoxia Yu and Hongchuan Zhang},
      title = {The House Imagery Test: A New Measure of Mental Status},
      journal = {Psychology and Behavioral Sciences},
      volume = {10},
      number = {1},
      pages = {49-55},
      doi = {10.11648/j.pbs.20211001.16},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.pbs.20211001.16},
      eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.pbs.20211001.16},
      abstract = {Imagery Communication Psychotherapy (ICP), a Chinese native psychotherapy, uses imagery as a medium to communicate in depth with clients. As the most essential and widely used imagery in ICP, house imagery had been found efficient to reveal global mental status. On this basis, the House Imagery Test (HIT), a new projective test, was developed. This article reports the development and validation of the HIT on a survey of 478 undergraduate students. Symptom Checklist 90 (SCL-90), Self-rating Depression Scale (SDS), Self-rating Anxiety Scale (SAS), Positive Affect and Negative Affect Scale (PANAS), and Trait Coping Style Questionnaire (TCSQ) were used as criterion in the current study. The results showed that the HIT had good test-retest reliability (r = .69) and internal consistency (r = .79). Exploratory factor analysis of the HIT exhibited a 4-factor structure, which was verified by further confirmatory factor analysis. The HIT also correlated significantly with SCL-90, SDS, SAS, PANAS and TCSQ. Overall, the HIT had acceptable reliability and validity. It was proved to be a novel and solid projective test for measurement of mental status. These findings provide a new tool to aid the clinic practice and suggest a new technical route for the development of projective tests.},
     year = {2021}
    }
    

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    T1  - The House Imagery Test: A New Measure of Mental Status
    AU  - Yuan Yuan
    AU  - Xiaoxia Yu
    AU  - Hongchuan Zhang
    Y1  - 2021/02/02
    PY  - 2021
    N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.pbs.20211001.16
    DO  - 10.11648/j.pbs.20211001.16
    T2  - Psychology and Behavioral Sciences
    JF  - Psychology and Behavioral Sciences
    JO  - Psychology and Behavioral Sciences
    SP  - 49
    EP  - 55
    PB  - Science Publishing Group
    SN  - 2328-7845
    UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.pbs.20211001.16
    AB  - Imagery Communication Psychotherapy (ICP), a Chinese native psychotherapy, uses imagery as a medium to communicate in depth with clients. As the most essential and widely used imagery in ICP, house imagery had been found efficient to reveal global mental status. On this basis, the House Imagery Test (HIT), a new projective test, was developed. This article reports the development and validation of the HIT on a survey of 478 undergraduate students. Symptom Checklist 90 (SCL-90), Self-rating Depression Scale (SDS), Self-rating Anxiety Scale (SAS), Positive Affect and Negative Affect Scale (PANAS), and Trait Coping Style Questionnaire (TCSQ) were used as criterion in the current study. The results showed that the HIT had good test-retest reliability (r = .69) and internal consistency (r = .79). Exploratory factor analysis of the HIT exhibited a 4-factor structure, which was verified by further confirmatory factor analysis. The HIT also correlated significantly with SCL-90, SDS, SAS, PANAS and TCSQ. Overall, the HIT had acceptable reliability and validity. It was proved to be a novel and solid projective test for measurement of mental status. These findings provide a new tool to aid the clinic practice and suggest a new technical route for the development of projective tests.
    VL  - 10
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Author Information
  • Department of Psychology, School of Sociology and Psychology, Central University of Finance and Economics, Beijing, China

  • Mental Health Education Center, Students’ Affairs Department, North China Electric Power University, Beijing, China

  • Department of Psychology, School of Sociology and Psychology, Central University of Finance and Economics, Beijing, China

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