Advances in Personality Assessment

Volume 6

J. N. Butcher, C. D. Spielberger, Charles D. Spielberger, J. N. Butcher, C. D. Spielberger, Charles D. Spielberger

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2013
• Topic: Psychology
• eBook ISBN:
  9781317838272
• Subtopic: Mental Health in Psychology
• Index: Psychology

First published in 1987. This is Volume 6 of Advances in Personality Assessment and includes articles on personality in the U.S. Foreign Office, the interview questionnaire technique, assessment of shame and guilt, assessment of cognitive affective interactions in children and holistic health, amongst others.

1

Personality Profiles in the U.S. Foreign Service

Samuel Karson

Florida Institute of Technology

Jerry W. O’Dell

Eastern Michigan University

Members of the Foreign Service are among the most highly selected of all United States government employees. Only about 1 in 100 applicants for these positions actually obtains employment. Typically each year, some 20,000 candidates apply for and take the required entrance examinations; approximately 200 are subsequently appointed as junior Foreign Service officers. Thus the intellectual and medical screening that the candidates undergo is very rigorous indeed, and the competition for appointments is unrivalled in any other branch of the federal service.

The average American tends to have a rather romantic and unrealistic view of life and work in overseas American embassies and consulates. Life there is often fantasized as a long series of embassy parties, meetings with important dignitaries, and the like. So it comes as a surprise to many to learn that most American Foreign Service officers work long and hard at their difficult jobs. These positions or cones include political, economic, consular, and security officers; personnel and administrative officers; couriers, auditors, communicators, secretaries, physicians, nurses, and laboratory medical technicians. Some of these dedicated employees succumb to the demands of their jobs every year.

The most obvious of these stressful situations was the Iranian hostage crisis of 1979–1980; other, less publicized kidnappings and terrorist activities occur from time to time. Another well-known source of stress was the falsely suspected, albeit highly publicized, bombardment with high intensity microwave radiation of the American Embassy in Moscow.

Further causes of discomfort include the very real threats to one’s physical health and well being. Pernicious diseases exist in tropical countries that are unknown here. The poor level of sanitation in many posts is appalling to someone used to the amenities of North American life—the very food and water is unsafe in many countries. In other lands child health and dental care are at a very minimal level if they exist at all; medicines and procedures that we take for granted simply are not available. In this regard it is of interest to note that depending on many health and safety factors, overseas posts are classified as 0%, 10%, 15%, 20%, or 25% posts for pay differential purposes. Higher pay also may be awarded to those in locations officially classified as dangerous when the situation warrants it (for example, in Beirut, Lebanon).

Many sources of psychological stress exist. The most obvious arises from what has been called “culture shock”—all of the factors involved in living in a strange, perhaps unfriendly society. Even in congenial countries, relative unfamiliarity with the language and customs may lead many employees to feel isolated. Officers who have been overseas for many years often admit to feelings of homesickness and loneliness. Legal protections that we take for granted often are absent in many foreign countries. Many Foreign Service personnel at certain posts work what are essentially 12-hour days, 6 days per week on a routine basis. Even when not at their primary jobs, their behavior is closely scrutinized both by their rating officers and by representatives of foreign governments. At a party, for example, they must never forget their diplomatic status and the fact that they are always regarded by the host country as representatives of their nation. Under such circumstances, true relaxation may be unknown.

Foreign Service personnel are also subject to temptations that are unknown in our country; moral props and support systems such as friends and relatives that have reinforced proper behavior at home are frequently absent. Alcoholic beverages are available in many posts in unlimited quantities and at very low prices. Dangerous drugs such as heroin, long banned in the United States, may be easily available. Prostitution often flourishes openly, and can become a frequent temptation for a lonely employee. The combination of great pressure with the ready availability of drugs is a particularly dangerous one for many officers and their families.

Stress-related problems are not limited to persons directly employed by our government. The families of Foreign Service personnel often accompany them on assignments. The problems of adjustment previously mentioned are frequently magnified for these family members. Spouses may suffer from even greater isolation; job satisfaction that helps the Foreign Service member sustain an identity may not be available to the spouse, because the host foreign country may not allow the husband or wife to work. Such a routine matter as childbirth may be vastly complicated by political considerations. A woman may be forced by circumstances to give birth in a foreign hospital, under difficult sanitary conditions. She may not even know the language. Adolescents whose superegos and habits are imperfectly formed may have great difficulties in coping with obvious drug and sexual temptation. Thus, stress factors in dependents can be even more troublesome at times than for the Foreign Service members themselves.

It has been estimated that 60% of all referrals for medical treatment in the Foreign Service have a stress-related or psychological basis. Even in 1949, more money was spent for treatment of emotional disorders than for any other medical problem other than surgical and gastrointestinal problems (DeVault, 1982). Until recently, treatment of these disorders was handled by using part-time psychiatric consultants. But, with an increase in the problem, a formal position of Mental Health Services director was established in 1976 and Dr. Herbert C. Haynes, a senior psychiatrist, was appointed. A position for a senior psychologist officer was added in 1977. Later, as the mental health programs gained increased acceptance, positions for regional psychiatrists were established overseas in every bureau on a permanent career basis.¹

When they arise, medical and psychological problems are handled, whenever possible, at the post where the officer is employed. If appropriate treatment cannot be arranged there, various regional treatment centers may be used, and, that failing, patients are “evacuated” to Washington, DC either for further evaluation and treatment or for hospitalization. These persons are referred to as MEDEVACs. The term psychiatric MEDEVAC refers to employees or dependents whose psychological or psychiatric problems are so persistent or severe as to warrant the patient’s return to the United States.

As former chief clinical psychologist for the U. S. Department of State, the senior author (S.K.) had the opportunity to study the psychological characteristics of these psychiatric MEDEVACs as well as certain other Foreign Service personnel who were referred for evaluation. This chapter is a description of the results of that research.

Demographic Characteristics of the Subjects

Statistics for the period May, 1983 through January, 1984 show that the average age of employees MEDEVACed for all medical reasons was 41.7; 60% of them were male. The mean age of the sample of 464, used in the following factor analysis, was 39.96; 57% were male. Thus, the sample is quite comparable in these characteristics to the larger group.

A Study of MEDEVACs

The major purpose of this study was to look for significant differences on psychological tests between people with psychological problems who were medically evacuated and those who were not. A sample of 106 Foreign Service employees of both sexes who had been MEDEVACed was compared with a sample of 101 Foreign Service employees of both sexes with no history of psychiatric medical evacuation. Both groups were selected with great care from the psychological files of the Mental Health Service in Washington, DC, where all of the evaluations had been accomplished between 1978 and 1981.²

The two groups had routinely been administered the MMPI, Form R, the 16 PF, Forms A and B, and the Shipley Institute for Living Scale, a well-known intelligence test. These three tests, plus the Bender-Gestalt test comprised the basic battery that was administered to all referrals for psychological evaluation at that time. Typically, the testing of the MEDEVACs was accomplished routinely within a few days of arrival back in the department. All of the testing in both groups was done under the supervision of the senior author by an experienced secretary who individually administered and scored all of the tests on both groups.

Preliminary ANOVA analysis with all subjects showed that the interaction of sex with all other variables was not significant. Therefore, for ease of presentation, only simple ANOVAS combining the two sexes were calculated on each scale. The results are presented in Table 1.1; the standard scores presented were calculated by using means and standard deviations provided in the Handbooks for the respective tests.

Table 1.1 MEDVAC VS. NonMEDVAC ANOVA Results

*p < .05, **p < .01

The results are rather surprising. Of the seven significant differences found, four were with respect to intellectual functioning, especially abstract reasoning ability. Those persons evacuated for psychological reasons obtained lower scores on the 16 PF Intelligence scale (B), and on all three of the Shipley scales.

Thus, it is clear that the intellectual functioning of the MEDEVACs was substantially impaired. It seems reasonable that this was largely because of the disrupting anxiety and depression these patients were experiencing that initiated their evacuation. The MEDEVACs lower score on the 16 PF M (Walter Mitty factor) scale might likewise be reflecting a lower propensity for imaginative thinking, making fantasy activity less available as an habitual coping or escape mechanism. Further, the MEDEVACs also scored lower on the 16 PF I scale, showing a more “macho,” toughminded, realistic, no-nonsense approach to problems. This result, however, was not quite statistically significant.

The MEDEVACs also scored higher on the MMPI Pd scale than did the control group. Scale 4 on the MMPI has indicated anger, resentment of authority, and even aggressiveness in many studies. This interpretation might also be supported by the MEDEVAC’s comparatively high score on the 16 PF Random scale. This scale was derived in a manner similar to the MMPI F scale (see Karson & O’Dell, 1976), and simply measures unusual responses to items. Such responses can be obtained by someone who wants to “make a bad impression”; on the other hand, a high score on the Random scale will result if a person has many peculiar psychological symptoms and has difficulty concentrating on the items. This is a reasonable interpretation for most of the MEDEVAC sample.

A tendency toward greater pathology may be seen in the fact that the MEDEVACs’ MMPI Scale 2 (Depression), Scale 8 (Alienation), and Lie scale scores were higher than those of the control group. These scores only approached significance, however, so that these results must therefore be viewed with some caution.

Thus, the patients returned to the U. S. were found to be more intellectually impaired both with words and numbers (but especially the latter), to be more concrete and engage in less fantasy activity, to be more angry and resentful, and to give more unusual answers to personality test items than a control group. All of these results can be interpreted as lending support to the medical-administrative decision typically made by the regional medical officers at their respective posts that these employees needed to be returned to the United States for further evaluation and treatment.

Characteristics of Alcoholic Subjects

As suggested earlier, alcohol abuse and alcoholism are among the principal medical-psychiatric disorders found in the Foreign Service, as is true everywhere else. The ready availability of alcohol in many overseas posts, the perceived necessity for drinking at many diplomatic functions, and the relative stress and demands of many positions lead many employees to abuse ethanol.

Because of the comparative prominence of alcoholism among diplomatic personnel, it was believed to be of interest to compare a group of alcoholic subjects (N = 122) with a control group of nonalcoholic psychological referrals (N = 342). The diagnosis of alcoholism was arrived at with great care. It was based on (a) a medical examination, (b) a series of laboratory tests conducted by certified laboratory medical technicians including routine liver function tests, (c) a clinical psychological evaluation including the basic battery previously described plus the Bender-Gestalt, Color-Form, and Porteus Maze tests, (d) a psychiatric evaluation conducted by board certified psychiatrists each one of whom had over 10 years experience in evaluating Foreign Service personnel and, finally, (e) an evaluation by an experienced and adroit alcohol counselor who heads the alcohol awareness program of the Department of State.

Because the psychological testing was used in arriving at a diagnosis of alcoholism (unlike the decision to MEDEVAC), the possibility exists for criterion contamination. However, we suspect that it was minimal because the diagnosis was rarely made without support from the medical examination or corroborating evidence from a staff psychiatric soci...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Preface
• 1. Personality Profiles in the U S. Foreign Service
• 2. Identification of Dysthymia and Cyclothymia by the General Behavior Inventory
• 3. The Interview Questionnaire Technique: Reliability and Validity of a Mixed Idiographic-Nomothetic Measure of Motivation
• 4. Measurement of Irrational Beliefs: A Critical Review
• 5. The Cognitive-Perceptual Approach to the Interpretation of Early Memories: The Earliest Memories of Golda Meir
• 6. The Assessment of Shame and Guilt
• 7. Holistic Health: Definitions, Measurement, and Applications
• 8. Assessment of Cognitive Affective Interaction in Children: Creativity, Fantasy, and Play Research
• Author Index
• Subject Index