MMPI characteristics of good and poor social problem-solvers among psychiatric patients

In an attempt to delineate more precisely the relationship between problem-solving cognition in the social sphere and psychopathology, male (N = 83) and female (N = 107) psychiatric patients were divided into groups of good and poor problem-solvers on the Means-Ends Problem-Solving (MEPS) Procedure and contrasted on MMPI scales and indices of psychopathology. Poor problem-solvers among males, but not among females, were found to be (a) more clearly schizophrenic and socially inadequate, with significantly higher scores on the Pd, Sc, and Si scales; (b) more clearly psychotic on the Goldberg Index; and (c) more likely to have elevated F scale raw scores. The present findings explicate those of earlier studies in suggesting that male patients higher in social problem-solving ability are not only likely to be more socially competent, but also are more likely to be less severely impaired in terms of psychopathology. A possible explanation for the sex difference is that problem-solving cognition and psychopathology are not so directly related in females as in males.