57 V.A. patients hospitalized for either psychiatric or medical reasons completed a role-taking test and the SCL-90-R symptom checklist. It was hypothesized that compared to medical patients, psychiatric patients would evidence inferior role-taking ability and report more symptomatology on a majority of the SCL-90-R dimensions. And, it was hypothesized that patients with low role-taking ability, compared to patients of high ability, would report more distress on SCL-90-R dimensions containing items dealing with disturbed interpersonal relationships. The latter two hypotheses were confirmed. Compared to medical patients, psychiatric patients complained of more distress due to the SCL-90-R dimensions of Paranoid Ideation, Interpersonal Sensitivity, Hostility, Psychoticism, Anxiety, Depression, Phobic Anxiety and Obsessive-compulsive. The psychiatric patients did not complain of greater distress on the SCL-90-R dimension labeled Somatization. Finally, patients of low role-taking ability, compared to high ability patients, reported more distress on SCL-90-R dimensions labeled Paranoid Ideation, Interpersonal Sensitivity, Hostility, and Psychoticism, suggesting that patients of low ability experience more distressful interpersonal interactions than subjects of high ability.
