정신과 환자의 자아강도에 관한 연구 - Barron 의 자아강도척도를 이용한-

A Study of Ego Strength of Psychiatric Patients

Ego strength of 90 psychiatric patients and 30 normal controls was measured using Barron’s Ego Strength Scale for the purpose of conforming whether there were any quantitative differences of the ego strength between the psychiatric and the normal subjects, and among chronic schizophrenia, major depression, and conversion disorder. Thirty cases of schizophrenia, 30 major depressions, and 30 conversion disorders who had been admitted to the neuropsychiatric wards of Hanyang University Hospital from January 1, 1981 to June 30, 1985, and 30 normal persons were selected as subjects-age, sex and education were duly controlled. From their MMPI (abreviated form) responses, 31 ego strength items were scored and compared by means of ANOVA and Scheffe test. The results were as follows ; 1) Score of the ego strength scale was significantly lower in psychatric population as a whole than in the normal. 2) Each clinical subgroup also manifested lower scores of ego strength than that of the normal, 3) Among the psychiatric populations, schizophrenia revealed the lowest score of ego strength. No significant difference of the scores could be found between the major depression and conversion disorder.