Scale 7: Psychasthenia
High Scorers: High scores on this scale suggest anxious, tense, and agitated behavior. High scorers show high discomfort and are worried and apprehensive, high strung and jumpy, and have difficulties in concentrating. They are overly ruminative, obsessive, and compulsive. They feel insecure and inferior; lack self-confidence; and are self-doubting, self-critical, self-conscious, and self-derogatory. They are rigid and moralistic; maintain high standards for self and others; are overly perfectionistic and conscientious; and are guilty and depressed. They are neat, orderly, organized, meticulous, persistent, and reliable. They lack ingenuity and originality in problem-solving, are dull and formal, are vacillating and indecisive, distort importance of problems, overreact, are shy, do not interact well socially, are hard to get to know and worry about popularity and acceptance. They are sensitive and have physical complaints, show some insight into problems, intellectualize and rationalize, are resistant to interpretations in therapy, express hostility toward therapist, remain in therapy longer than most patients, and make slow but steady progress in therapy