An empirical investigation of the Movement Psychodiagnostic Inventory.

Abstract

Abnormal motor behavior associated with psychopathology was investigated in this study using a nontraditional inventory, the Movement Psychodiagnostic Inventory, with a sample of psychiatric patients that included personality disorders and individuals with schizophrenia and schizophrenia spectrum disorders. The study was designed to address several methodological and measurement problems noted in the literature, and to this end ratings were made from video-taped observations allowing detection of subtle movements described in terms of their dynamic, spatial, rhythmic, and muscular involvement rather than labeled with traditional terminology. In addition, parameters of nonverbal communicative behavior were also rated. Even though diagnostic groups not associated with disturbed motor behavior were included, univariate analysis failed to reveal differences between diagnostic groups with a long history of association with abnormal motor behavior and those without such a history. Multidimensional scaling and cluster analysis were thus employed to uncover the structure of the data in exploratory analyses that used two distance measures and several methods each of multidimensional scaling and cluster analysis. Results were interpreted to indicate that different patterns of movement behavior were observed for each group of patients that were not measure- or method-dependent. The results of the study are discussed within the context of the potential for the inventory and the advancement of the study of motor behavior and psychopathology, an area that has the potential to effect progress in diagnosis, etiology, pathogenesis, and treatment of mental disorders.