Introduction
The Hetero-Anamnestic Personality questionnaire (HAP) is a psychometrically validated instrument for personality assessment by informants (Barendse, Thissen, Rossi, Oei & Van Alphen, 2013).
The HAP may generally be completed in ten minutes by an informant such as a child, partner or friend of the patient. The HAP is suitable for assessment of aspects of the personality that are relevant for clinical practice, such as socially avoidant behavior, disorderly behavior, interpersonal sensitivity, perfectionism and antagonism.
The questionnaire can also be used for the screening of personality pathology. Pd-counts are based on expert opinions and empirical resarch findings.
The HAP was originally developed in the Netherlands (Barendse & Thissen, 2006) and is now used in a wide range of health institutions for elderly. Clinical practitioners in nursing homes missed tools for personality assessment because self-report of older patients was not possible or not reliable, e.g. because of Alzheimer Disease. The informant questionnaire is especially developed to address this need. Therefore, it covers the premorbid personality traits. It is of clinical relevance to differentiate between Axis-I disorders, such as dementia, and personality traits, in order to indicate optimal care or clinical services in mental health care.
Although not as widespread as in elderly care in the Netherlands and Belgium, the HAP is also used in the general hospital, rehabilitation center, psychiatric hospital, ambulatory mental health service, primary care psychology and forensic psychiatry.
Separate norms are available for the Dutch version of the HAP for: residential care for elderly, geriatric psychiatry, elderly in the general population and primary care psychology (adults).
To respond to the international interest in specific instruments for personality assessment by older adults (Van Alphen, Sadavoy, Derksen, & Rosowsky, 2012) an English version of the HAP became available.
English Version
The HAP consists of 62 items with 10 scales and 4 control scales. Three answering options are given: No – More or less- Yes.
Examples of items are:
Believed that others would take advantage of him or her
Had trouble changing plans
Was often enternainig and sociable
The Ten scales are: Socially avoidant behavior, Uncertain behavior, Vulnerability in interpersonal relationships, Somatizing behavior, Disorderly behavior, Rigid behavior, Perfectionist behavior, Antagonistic behavior, Self-satisfied behavior, Unpredictable and impulsive behavior.
By using the control scales Positive response tendency, Negative response tendency, Inconsistency and Acquiesce possible confounding of the results by the response tendencies of the informants can be measured. Scores are corrected for Response tendency and Acquiescene.
To stimulate research with the HAP in English-speaking countries the HAP is freely available on request (info@hapsite.nl). We are currently (june 2021) looking for native English speaking volunteers who want to complete the translated English version in order to analyse the psychometric properties and to adapt the translation if necessary. If you are native English speaking and interested to help us, please mail to: info@hapsite.nl .
TRANSLATION PROCEDURE
The translation of the Dutch questionnaire into American English took place according the guidelines of the International Test Commission (2010). The questionnaire was not directly translated from Dutch in English but ‘adapted’ to the cultural, content and language differences (Robin, Sireci & Hambleton, 2003). So far test adaption found place in three steps (Hertz, 2006). The first translation was made by one of the authors and a native speaking professional translater. They tried to maintain the original meaning and connotation of the items. Based on the independent critical remarks of two experienced psychologists who are fluent in both languages and knowledgeable about both cultures and familiar with the usage of psychological questionnaires, a new concept was made. Back-translation was done by a layperson well educated in English and gifted with a good feeling for nuances in both languages. This resulted in some small changes in the text. Further adaption of the questionnaire will consists of the research of the psychometric qualities in English speaking countries.
The authors thank the following persons for their efforts: Raymond Gosling, Nan Stevens, Ken Smith and Els van Hoorn.
Literature
Barendse, H., Thissen, A., Rossi, G., Oei, T., & Van, A. (2013). Psychometric properties of an informant personality questionnaire (the hap) in a sample of older adults in the netherlands and belgium. Aging and Mental Health, 17(5), 623-629. doi:10.1080/13607863.2012.756458
Barendse, H., Rossi, G., & Van, A. (2014). Personality disorders in older adults: Expert opinion as a first step toward evaluating the criterion validity of an informant questionnaire (hap). International Psychogeriatrics, 26(1), 173-174. doi:10.1017/S1041610213001312
Heijnen-Kohl, S., Kok, R., Wilting, R., Rossi, G., & Van, A. (2017). Screening of autism spectrum disorders in geriatric psychiatry. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 47(9), 2679-2689. doi:10.1007/s10803-017-3185-2