[The psychometric properties of the Proverb-Metaphor Test].

UNLABELLED: Abstract thinking belongs to intellectual abilities of the highest level of the evolutionary development, thanks to which operations such a classification, systematisation and comparison are possible.

AIM: An analysis of the psychometric properties of the Proverb-Metaphor Test (TPM) which has been used in the German speaking countries since 2001. The TPM was subject to the process of translation--retranslation--travesty in order to be adapted to clinical conditions in Poland.

MATERIAL: 60 patients of the Department of Psychiatry, Medical University of Lublin with diagnosed paranoid schizophrenia (according to ICD-10 criteria).

METHODS

PANSS and TPM was carried out amongst 15 patients at the beginning of the hospitalisation (the first stage of the research) and among all persons during the remission of syndromes (the second stage). The WAIS-R (PL) was used in the second stage.

RESULTS AND

CONCLUSION

1. The TPM is a reliable instrument, of high criteria propriety. 2. The evaluated test is a relatively homogeneous research tool. 3. The TPM is, thanks to its simple construction and the short carrying out time, a practical method of abstract thinking evaluation. 4. The TPM may be a useful instrument enabling long term prognosis.