Dimensions of psychopathology among alcoholic patients, college students, prison inmates and general psychiatric patients.

The Differential Personality Inventory was administered to four samples of subjects: 404 alcoholic patients, 292 college students, 720 prison inmates, and 181 general psychiatric patients. Exploratory factor analysis on the self-report data yielded seven factors in each sample. The six factors, interpreted as common across samples, were: hypochondriacal complaining, blunted affect versus emotional reactivity, interpersonal conflict, depressed withdrawal, cognitive disorganization, and dysfunctional coping. Implications for the empirical development of a multiaxial diagnostic system and the construction of a case-identifying instrument in psychiatric epidemiological research were discussed.