During a 6 months period of group therapy, 8 female anorexia-nervosa patients in the age range of 15-35 years were presented with a list of self-statements selected from a general (Q-sort) questionnaire. The 12 items chosen expressed a certain degree (or lack) of self-confidence, of group conformity, and of wishes to look nice and younger than the actual age.
Each item contained three statements, expressing the three degrees of the item concerned, two of them being presented at a time (three possible combinations). The subject had to choose whether one or the other statement applied better to her present state. This procedure resulted in (self)ratings from 1 to 4 for each item. The list of statements was given once a month.
In the course of the six presentations, the ratings moved in the predicted direcdon (more self-confidence, less group conformity), especially for those patients that improved most, according to clinical judgment. Moreover, comparison with the results of a control group (30 female students in child psychology) showed an increasing similarity in this period. Firstly, the mean scores per item changed considerably in the direction of the item means for this control group. Secondly, the patients' profile score of the item means, having a Spearman rank correlation coefficient of .40 with the control group for the first presentation, raised to .73 (significant at 1% level) for the sixth presentation.
As far as this investigation goes, six out of the twelve items seem appropriate to indicate some aspects of mental improvement.