Replicability Of Factors Derived From Individual P-Technique Analyses

Four hospitalized female schizophrenics performed self-ratings on a battery of variables for 60 consecutive days. The variables were factored, separately for each subject, and the factors were then rotated to solutions which were maximally invariant from each other. Factor matching among subjects was then assessed by congruence coefficients. The factors which replicated over persons appeared to be broad, second-order dimensions identifiable as Social Desirability, Extraversion and Anxiety. The results are discussed in relation to nomothetic vs. idiographic systems of psychology and the study of intraindividual change by P-technique as a methodology of clinical interest.