APA Dictionary of Psychology

an interview-based rating instrument used to assess attitudes and behaviors of individuals with psychoses, typically administered on admission to mental institutions. It yields information on symptom severity and is used to classify patients into psychotic types, such as hostile–paranoid, excited–hostile, excited–grandiose, and so forth. The scale was originally published in 1962 as a revision of the 1953 Multidimensional Scale for Rating Psychiatric Patients. [developed by U.S. psychometrician Maurice Lorr (1910–1998) and U.S. psychologists C. James Klett (1926–  ), Douglas M. McNair (1927–2008), and Julian J. Lasky (1918–2012)]