Sphere dominance, role orientation, and diagnosis.

Abstract

It was proposed that the psychiatric diagnosis assigned to a patient is related to particular life styles as inferred from specific symptom constellations. 2 aspects of life style as expressed in symptomatology were investigated: sphere dominance, that is, preferred mode of expression in thought, action, or affect; and role orientation, that is, predominant attitude toward self and others, such as "turning against the self, " "turning against others, " and "avoidance of others. " Results based on 521 Ss indicate that sphere dominance and role orientation in combination predict assigned diagnosis to a substantial degree. These findings suggest that various aspects of psychopathology may be investigated more fruitfully in terms of style variables than in terms of traditional diagnoses. Individual symptoms, as well as some complex combinations, have been found to be minimally related to conventional diagnostic categories (Freudenberg & Robertson, 1956; Wittenborn, Holzberg, & Simon, 19S3; Zigler & Phillips, 1961c). This is surprising since the classificatory principle for the present diagnostic system is supposedly symptom manifestation. Adding to the mystery is the finding that as long as diagnosis is confined to broad diagnostic categories it is reasonably reliable