.

This Week’s Citation Classic’

1McNaIr D M, Lon M & Droppelman L F. Manual for the profile of mood states.
CC/NUMBER 27

San Diego, CA: Educational and Industrial Testing Service,. 1971. 27 p.

IDepis. Psych., Boston Univ., MA; Catholic Univ. America, Washington, DC;
and Univ. Tennessee, Knoxville, TNJ

The series of studies described in the ly revised based on factor analytic

manual hypothesized and confirmed studies of data from several large treat-
the existence of six mood or affective ment outcome projects. After moving
state factors. They also determined to Boston University in 1964, I con-
their internal consistency and test- tinued work on the POMS, primarily
retest reliability and their sensitivity for
with Leo Droppleman, and in con-’
measuring the effects of brief psycho- tinued collaboration with Lorr. Recog-
therapeutic and psychopharmacologic
interventions. Norms were also ob-
tained for psychiatric outpatients and
normal individuals. [The Science Cita-
tion Index® (SC!®) and the Social Sci-
ences Citation Index® (SSCI®) indicate
nizing its generalizability to normals,
we changed the name to Profile of
Mood States, preserving the old
acronym. We did additional factor ana-
lytic studies that, resulted in revisions,
‘
that this book has been cited in over identified an additional factor’ dimen-
380 publications since 1971.1 sion, gathered the normative data for
outpatients and normals, and added a
- p
number of validity studies. The result-
ing brief, easy to administer and score
Douglas M. McNair POMS is a set of 65 five-point adjective
Department of Psychology rating scales with a six oblique unipolar
and factor structure: tension-anxiety, de-
Clinical Psychopharmacology pression-dejection, anger-hostility, fa-
Laboratory tigue, vigor, and confusion-bewilder-
Boston University ment.
Boston, MA 02215 “I think it is cited so much because it
june 12, 1984 met a widespread need for a sensitive
measure of change and has been ap-
“At the Outpatient Psychotherapy plied successfully in a host of treatment
Research Laboratory at the Veterans studies. Also its more general applica-
Administration in Washington, DC, bility has been recognized. To mention
Maury Lorr, I, and others on the staff one example, mood profiles of groups
struggled long and hard in the late of athletes—such as runners—have
2
1950s and early 1960s with the prob- been identified and compared.
lems of detecting and measuring “In the past few years, Lorr and I
changes in symptoms and affective ‘have worked on a bipolar factor version
mood states. We were deeply interest- of the scale (POMS-BI). We think a
ed in both early and long-term effects problem that plagued us for years has
of psychotherapies and in the short- been solved: why do factors on the
term effects of new and exciting phar- POMS that seem semantically bipolar,
macologic treatments, especially in such as vigor and fatigue, emerge from
combination. factor analysis as distinct unipolar fac-
“Our initial mood measure, the Psy- tors? A research version of the POMS-
chiatric Outpatient Mood Scale BI and a preliminary manual are now
3
(POMS), was developed’ and continual- available.”
I. McN.Ir D M & Lore M. An analysis of mood in neurotics. I. Abnormal Soc. Psychol. 69:620-7, 1964.

I
(Cited 220 times.)
2. Morgan W P. Test of champions: the iceberg profile. Psycho!. Today 14:92-3: 97-9: 102: lOB, 1980.
3. Lore M & MeNu, D M. Manual for rite profile of mood stases, bipolar form (POMS-BI).
San Diego. cA Educational and Industrial Testing Sctvice. 1982. 7 p.

20 S&BS @1984 by ISI® CURRENT CONTENTS®