Horan, J. J. (1980). Experimentation in counseling and psychotherapy,
The Personnel and Guidance Journal,
part I: New myths about. old relations. Educational Researcher, 9,
5-10.
Hutchins, D.E. (1982). Ranking major counseling strategies with the
TFA/Matrix System. The Personnel and Guidance Journal, 60, 417-430.
Ibraham, F.A., & Thompson, D.L. (1982). Preparation of secondary
school counselors: A national survey. Counselor Education and Su-
pervision, 22, 113-122.
Kiresuk, T.J., & Sherman, R.E. (1968). Goal attainment scaling: A
general method for evaluating community mental health programs.
Community Mental Health Journal, 4, 443-453.
Krumboltz, J.D., & Thoresen, C.E. (1976). Counseling methods. New
York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.
Martin, J. (1983). Curriculum development in school counseling. The
Personnel and Guidance Journal, 61, 406-409.
Martin, J., & Hiebert, B.A. (1982). Instructional counselling. Vancouver:
University of British Columbia, Centre for Studies in Curriculum.
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193-202.
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of Psychology, 29, 373-404.
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TOC
Abused and Nonabused Women:
MMPI Profile Differences
MURRAY I. GELLEN
ROY A. HOFFMAN
MARGARET JONES
MARY STONE
Ten women—victims of conjugal abuse—were compared with 10 nonabused women by using the Minnesota
Multiphasic Personality Inventory. Implications for research, diagnosis, and counseling are discussed.
Violence against women by men is not a new problem. Certain
cultures have encouraged it; others have regulated it. English
common law, after which American laws are patterned, gave
husbands the right to chastise their wives. The rule of thumb
referred to the right of a husband to beat his wife with a stick
“no thicker than his thumb.” Most states adopted this policy,
acknowledging wife beating as acceptable, up to a point. This
attitude was best summed up by an 1864 North Carolina court
ruling that stated, “[unless] some permanent injury be inflicted
or there be an excess of violence . . . the law will not invade
the domestic forum and go behind the curtain” (Langley &
Levy, 1977, p. 38).
The incidence of abuse in conjugal relationships is difficult
to determine (Moore, 1979). Statistics reported by Coleman,
Weinman, and Hsi (1980), however, indicate that more than
one in four (28%) of American couples have experienced a
violent episode during their marriage. Because of the large
number of American households where violence has become
JUNE 1984
for assessing group counseling.
60, 381-384.
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accountability in human service programs. The Personnel and Guidance
Journal, 60, 491-495.
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factor dimensions in revised scales for student client evaluation of
counselors in a university counseling and testing center. Educational
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for measuring interpersonal reactions. Journal of Behavior Therapy and
Experimental Psychiatry, 3, 279-280.
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and supervisors. Counselor Education and Supervision, 22, 185-196.
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search and practice in social skills training New York: Plenum.
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preparation: Courses, program emphases, philosophical orientation
and experiential components. Counselor Education and Supervision,
21, 258-268.
Wheeler, R.T., & Loesch, L. (1981). Program evaluation and counsel-
ing: Yesterday, today and tomorrow. The Personnel and Guidance
Journal, 59, 573-577.
West, L.W. (1982). Teaching: The substance of counselling. The Ca-
nadian Counsellor, 16, 585-588.
Electronic Journal: To print this article select pages 33-36.
almost commonplace, many questions have arisen as to the
nature, cause, and possible solution to this problem.
Current research indicates that there are certain character-
istics common among women who remain in abusive rela-
tionships. Star, Goetz, and O’Malia (1979) found that abused
women, as a group, demonstrate low self-esteem, lack of self-
confidence, and a tendency to withdraw from interpersonal
contact. Bowen (1982) mentioned low self-esteem, depen-
dency, learned helplessness, fear, and psychological neediness
as characteristics of abused women. Other characteristics as-
cribed to abused women by Wetzel and Ross (1983) included
acceptance of traditional cultural roles, submissiveness, and
helplessness. Goodstein and Page (1981) suggested that mental
Murray I. Gellen and Roy A. Hoffman are members of the graduate faculty,
Department of Foundations, College of Education, Florida Atlantic Univer-
sity, Boca Raton. Margaret Jones and Mary Stone recently received master’s
degrees of education in school psychology at Florida Atlantic University.
601
illness and depression are prominent. Gillman (1980) con-
cluded that battered women exhibit borderline personality dis-
orders to the same degree as their abusive husbands. Martin
(1981) found that fear is the common denominator and that
sex-role conditioning plays a major part in the abusive rela-
tionship.
Most research on the topic of spouse abuse is derived from
subjective sources, such as interviews and case histories. The
study presented in this article accumulated data in an objective
way by using the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory
(MMPI), which identifies the presence of aberrant psycholog-
ical factors in the personalities of abused women.
A group of abused women was matched with a control group
of nonabused women with respect to age, race, and socioeco-
nomic status. Within the context of this study, an abused woman
is defined as one who has been physically harmed by a con-
jugal partner. No attempt was made to control for severity of
abuse or perception of severity in this study. It was hypoth-
esized that the group of abused women would manifest a large
number of characteristics associated with personality disorders
and that the obtained MMPI personality profile for them would
differ significantly from that of the nonabused (control) group
of women.
METHOD
Participants
The ten abused women in the experimental group were se-
lected from among the residents of a South Florida residential
treatment center for distressed women. The ten members of
the control group were picked from the general population,
using race, age, and socioeconomic criteria to ensure equiva-
lency with the experimental group. The mean age of both
groups was 31, with a range of 19 to 42. Each group was
composed of one Black, one Hispanic, and eight Caucasians.
The women were primarily middle class, and all had been
married for more than 6 months.
Instrument
The MMPI is an inventory widely used in the assessment of
personality characteristics. It consists of 566 statements to which
the participant responds “True,” “False,” or “Cannot Say.”
Originally designed as a means for categorizing psychiatric
groups, in recent years, it has been extensively used in per-
sonality research.
Raw scores are converted to standard scores based on a
normal distribution with a mean of 50 and a standard deviation
of 10. A score greater than 2 standard deviations above the
mean is considered to be a significant indicator of the presence
of a given pathological condition.
The 10 clinical scales used in this study, along with a de-
scription of the behavioral characteristics associated with high
scores, are as follows:
1. Hypochondriasis (Hs) is an abnormal concern over bodily
functions. Worries and concerns over physical symp-
toms usually persist in the face of strong evidence against
any valid illness and seriously restrict one’s activities.
Other characteristics include egocentricity, immaturity,
and lack of insight into the emotional basis for the preoc-
cupation.
2. Depression (D) is a mood state characterized by a pessi-
mistic outlook on life and the culture, feelings of hope-
lessness or worthlessness, slowing of thought and action,
and frequently a preoccupation with death and suicide.
3. Hysteria (Hy) is, when under stress, the use of physical
symptoms as a means of solving difficult conflicts or
mature responsibilities.
4. Psychopathic deviancy (Pd) is repeated and flagrant dis-
602
regard for social customs and mores, an inability to profit
from punishing experiences, and emotional shallowness
in relation to others.
5. Masculinity-femininity (Mf) is (for women) being adven-
turesome, having physical strength and endurance, and
being poised, easygoing, relaxed, balanced, and logical
in facing life.
6. Paranoia (Pa) is a delusional characteristic. It shows mis-
perceptions or misinterpretations of one’s life situation.
7. Psychasthenia (Pt) is an obsessive-compulsive syndrome.
In addition to obsessive ruminations and compulsive
behavioral rituals, there are abnormal fears, worrying,
difficulty in concentrating, and excessive vacillation in
making decisions.
8. Schizophrenia (SC) is bizarre or unusual thoughts or be-
haviors. One is usually constrained, cold, and apathetic
and has hallucinations, delusions, and disorientation.
9. Hypomania (Ma) is overt activity, emotional excitement,
and flight of ideas.
10. Social introversion (Si) is being introverted in one or all
of the following areas—thinking, social participation,
and emotional expression.
Procedure
The MMPI was administered orally. The examiner read the
questions, and the participants recorded responses on answer
sheets. The protocols were scored and analyzed using a com-
mercially produced microcomputer program (Williams, 1981).
The standard scores obtained were K corrected—a correction
based on the individuals’ obtained raw K score—allowing for
the tendency of the participants to be defensive or provide
socially acceptable answers.
The Fisher Exact Probability Test was used to determine whether
the proportion of abused women with abnormally high scores
on each of the ten clinical scales of the MMPI was significantly
different from the proportion of women with high scores in
the control group. The presence of significant differences be-
tween the two groups was determined by a series of one-tailed
t tests for each of the clinical scales (Siegel, 1956).
RESULTS
Table 1 summarizes the means and standard deviations for the
experimental group of abused women and the control group of
nonabused women. The t ratios for the tests of significance be-
tween the two groups are also presented. On eight of the ten
clinical scales, a highly significant difference (p < .005) was found
between the two groups. Abused women scored significantly
higher on the Hs, D, Hy, Pd, Pa, Pt, Sc, and Si scales.
Table 2 presents the results of the tests of significance be-
tween the proportions of abused and nonabused women with
scores high enough to indicate the presence of personality
disorders. Significant differences between the proportion of
abused women and the proportion of nonabused women were
noted on the Hy, D, and Pd scales.
DISCUSSION
Abused women differed from nonabused women in a number
of areas of personality, as measured by the ten clinical scales
of the MMPI. There were marked differences between the
personality profiles of abused women and the personality pro-
files of a matched group on eight of the ten clinical scales.
Abused women evidence a greater propensity toward the man-
ifestation of characteristics associated with a variety of per-
sonality disorders. The two groups did not differ in terms of
the Ma (hypomania) dimension or in their perception of the
female role. When compared to a matched group of nonabused
women, a significantly greater proportion of abused women
evidenced pathological conditions, as measured by the Hs, D,
and Pd scales of the MMPI.
The PERSONNEL AND GUIDANCE JOURNAL
 TABLE 1
Tests of Significance Between Groups of Abused and Nonabused Woman on MMPI Clinical Scales

Abused Women Nonabused Women

Standard Standard
Scale Mean Deviation Mean Deviation t ratio
HS
D
Hy
Pd
Mf
Pa
Pt
Sc
Ma
Si

*p < .005.

The fact that the areas assessed by the MMPI are commonly
associated with psychopathology should have meaning to those
who deal with abused women. Expecting behavior that is log-
ical, goal directed, and independent may be more than an
abused women is able to exhibit. Rather, realizing the limi-
tations of the woman and the emotional upset occurring at the
time may be helpful in understanding the woman’s motivation
and prescribing a course of action.
Perhaps the most significant finding is the high degree of
psychopathic deviancy found within the group of abused
women. Although women who seek shelter in a women‘s
center may differ from abused women in general, the authors
contend that failure to learn from past experience, as well as
a tendency to ascribe to one’s spouse the “bad” elements of
one‘s personality, may be a characteristic of abused women.
The woman in the relationship becomes the “good” partner
while the husband is often thought of as totally “bad.“ The
woman is thus relieved of responsibility for her actions and
her behavior as a result of responding to the negative forces
around her.
An interesting result is the similarity of abused and nona-
bused women on the Mf (Masculinity-femininity) scale. It was
expected that abused women would view themselves as tra-
ditionally female (i.e., helpless, dependent, and illogical). This
does not seem to be the case. Both abused and nonabused
women fall within the average-to-below-average range on this
dimension.
The results of this study confirm the findings of many pre-
vious studies. Women in abusive relationships manifest, to
some extent, disordered personalities. Consequently, they must
be treated in conjunction with the abuse to bring about change
within the relationship.
The authors recognize the limitations imposed on this study
by the small sample. The clarity of the findings, however, not
only warrants a recommendation to provide supportive evi-
dence of an MMPI profile that is characteristic of abused women
with a larger sample, but the findings also have implications
for counselors. The use of the MMPI will provide counselors
with reasonable diagnostic data for employing constructive
therapeutic approaches. In addition, administering the MMPI
at the outset in therapy may serve as a baseline to determine
change during therapy and also provide some data for mea-
suring process outcomes.
The syndrome reflected by the eight elevated scales suggests
elements of a personality profile that are similar with the con-
struct of learned helplessness (Seligman, 1967, 1975). The no-
tion of learned helplessness is based on the hypothesis that a
person’s cognitive belief system states that there is an inherent
futility to one’s actions. Abused women who evidence an MMPI
profile similar to the one found in this study may be confirming
this hypothesis. Therefore, such intervention strategies as as-
sertiveness training and rational emotive therapeutic tech-
niques may prove practical in helping abused women break
the learned helplessness syndrome.
It is important for the counselor to recognize that the use of
the MMPI as a follow-up assessment after a series of thera-
peutic sessions with the client may show a less elevated profile.
Even though the client may not be exhibiting confident and
assertive behaviors, the less elevated profile may indicate tacit
personality changes that give the counselor reason to believe
that there is therapeutic progress.
REFERENCES
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Coleman, K.H., Weinman, M., & Hsi, B.P. (1980). Factors affecting
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Dahlstrom, W.G., Welsh, G.S., & Dahlstrom, L.E. (1972). An MMPI
handbook, volume 1: Clinical interpretation. Minneapolis: University of
Minnesota Press.
Gillman, S. (1980). An object relations approach to the phenomenon
and treatment of battered women. Psychiatry, 34, 346-358.

TABLE 2
Fisher Exact Probability Tests for Abused and Nonabused Woman with High MMPI Clinical Scala Scores

Abused Women (N) Nonabused Women (N)

HS
D
Hy
Pd
Mf
Pa
Pt
Sc
Ma
Si

JUNE 1984 603

Goodstein, R.K., & Page, A.W. (1981). Battered wife syndrome: Ov-
erview of dynamics and treatment. American Journal of Psychiatry,
138, 1036-1044.
Langley, R., & Levy, R.C. (1977). Wife beatings: The silent crises. New
York: Pocket Books.
Martin, D. (1981). Battered wives. San Francisco: Volcano Press.
Moore, D.M. (1979). Battered women. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.
Seligman, M.E.P. (1967). Failure to escape traumatic shock. Journal of
Experimental Psychology, 74, 1-9.
Seligman, M.E.P. (1975). Helplessness. San Francisco: Freeman.
TOC
Is Counseling’s Bottom Line at the Top?
ROBERT E. GLENNEN
Decreases in higher education student enrollments and budget declines present problems for counseling. Some
changing roles and responsibilities of counselors are discussed.
Twenty years ago students were begging for admission to col-
leges and universities. Today the reverse is true, and institu-
tions must expend finances and energies to market their
institutions and convince students they should enroll. Those
involved in higher education are fully aware of the demo-
graphics of the coming decade. The decline in student enroll-
ments is truly severe, including a 25% decrease in the number
of 18-year-olds attending college (Breneman, 1982).
In addition to the shrinking pool of high school graduates,
there has been a reduction in federal aid to higher education;
spiralling inflation rates are affecting the operation of insti-
tutions and the income of students and their parents; opera-
tional costs are rising; and there is an increasing need for
special programs for the underprepared. Inflation, limited re-
sources, declining enrollments, and critical competition are
having a severe effect on the operating ability of the majority
of colleges and universities in the United States.
Most college administrators gained their experience during
the baby boom and prosperify periods on college campuses.
They now have to cope with managing declining enrollments
and budgets. They must prepare themselves and their insti-
tutions through research and planning to take specific actions
to curtail the economic problems they are facing. Some are
doing this by changing their curriculum, others by lowering
standards, and many by preparing new marketing approaches
geared to older students, part-time students, foreign students,
ethnic minority students, and special graduate students.
Growth has always been the American way of life, especially
in academic enteprises, so when enrollment decreases and the
flow of financial resources slows down, there is often a sense
of failure prevailing on the campus. In looking at the problems
facing higher education in the next decade, it is obvious that
there will be a great deal of internal and external scrutiny taking
place in all institutions. Taxpayers and legislators are watching
colleges and universities to see how they are handling their
budget reductions. Administrators within institutions are care-
fully monitoring budgets and establishing priorities in order
to stretch their finite resources.
604
Siegel, S. (1956). Nonparamentric statistics for the behavioral sciences. New
York: McGraw-Hill.
Star, B.C., Goetz, K., & O’Malia, L. (1979). Psychosocial aspects of
wife beating. Social Casework, 60, 479-487.
Wetzel, L., & Ross, M.A. (1983). Psychological and social ramifications
of battering: Observations leading to a counseling methodology for
victims of domestic violence. The Personnel and Guidance Journal, 61,
423-427.
Williams, R.J. (1981). User’s manual and interpretation guide for “MMPI/
TRS-80 Computer Program.” MMPI subscales and selected research scales.
Odessa, FL: Psychological Assessment Resources.
Electronic Journal: To print this article select pages 36-38.
Furthermore, most state institutions are funded on an en-
rollment-driven formula system. A system that works advan-
tageously for an institution during a period of growth may, in
periods of decline, hurt institutional budgets. The fixed over-
head costs have to be spread over fewer students, and this
places more pressure for budget cuts in non-essential areas.
Unfortunately, on many campuses the judgment of what is
non-essential often includes counseling and student personnel
areas. Therefore, counseling professionals need to be very cog-
nizant of financial difficulties and restrictions and make efforts
to overcome them.
Measures that institutions should consider to increase en-
rollments include increased admissions efforts to attract greater
numbers of students not of the traditional 18-year-old group
and retention of more students already enrolled. Student at-
trition and turnover exceeds 40% nationally (Carnegie Council,
1980). An effective academic advisement program would be a
prime method of increasing student retention (Glennen, 1983).
Schools also need to provide a pleasant environment through
physical plant renovations, expand academic support and stu-
dent services, improve faculty and student relationships, change
curricula to meet student needs, recruit and hire good teachers
for the campus, improve campus communications, provide for
a well-organized orientation program for new students, assist
students in completing financial aid forms, and increase fi-
nancial aid for students. Supporting personnel such as re-
cruiters, admissions counselors, financial aid workers, and
professional counselors will be essential to institutions during
the next decade in accomplishing these tasks. Also, of these
options, only retention is controlled by the institution, and the
intrusive advising approach has been found to be one way to
effectively retain students. To be intrusive means to involve
oneself in the affairs of others. The intrusive advising approach
is based on the philosophy that schools should not wait for
students to get into trouble, but should continually call them
Robert E. Glennen is President, Western New Mexico University, Silver City,
New Mexico.
The PERSONNEL AND GUIDANCE JOURNAL