The Unsicherheitsfragebogen -: Application to a nationally representative sample and to psychotherapy patients

The psychometric properties of the "Unsicherheitsfragebogen" (Insecurity Questionnaire) by Ullrich & Ullrich de Muynck (1978) are examined using data drawn from a nationally representative survey of 652 former East and 1283 former West Germans. In addition, the questionnaire was tested on a clinical sample of 318 psychotherapy inpatients. The study demonstrates good test-theoretical means regarding the item parameters. However, the six factors of the original version could not be clearly replicated. Further more results indicate that women score higher than men on such scales as fear of criticism, incapacity in saying NO, feelings of guilt and decency. On the other hand women score lower on the scale being able to demand. When comparing psychotherapy patients to the population sample, patients score higher on all scales with the exception of guilt feelings. The authors report scale means as reference values for the population sample as well as for the psychotherapy patients.