Psychedelic psychometrics: The Linton-Langs questionnaire

Psychometrics is the field concerned with objectively quantifying the subjective human experience. As the name implies, it is measurement of the psyche.

A longtime issue in the study of psychedelics is how to objectively describe, quantify, and scale subjective effects. This seems to be an issue in psychology in general, especially in the study of mental illness, of how to take immensely variable patterns of thought and behavior and restrict them to set classifications for ease of study and treatment. Psychedelics do indeed have an absurd diversity in effects, with an equally diverse variability in how they manifest in users. In this series of posts, I intend to create an effective objective psychometric evaluation of the psychedelic experience. The Linton-Langs questionnaire serves as historical context and a framework from which to work. I will attempt a revision of the survey that will likely be heavily altered to be near unrecognizable from the source material.
In my opinion psychonautwiki's subjective effect index is one of the best contemporary models for this, in terms of thoroughness and clear definition of these effects. This is certainly effective as a means of standardizing and easily describing subjective effects. But what about a means of actively grading the depth and array of effects one is currently experiencing? I dug up an old survey, oft referenced in older studies of psychedelics, called the Linton-Langs questionnaire- devised in the paper "Subjective reactions to Lysergic Acid Diethylamide (LSD-25)" (Linton, Langs, 1962) (courtesy of erowid.org). I found it to be an interesting active survey of an ongoing psychedelic experience, and just maybe I'm trying to lend legitimacy to my stupid hobby by citing obscure scholarly papers.... The paper was written in order to "monitor the strength of the drug effect throughout the experimental day and as a way of studying the subjective effects of LSD". Setting was kept constant, and the questionnaire was administered 7 times throughout the course of the experiment (Pretest, T0:30, T2:00, T5:00, T8:00, Post test, Retrospective). The study seems to be grounded in the psychoanalytic theory of psychology and seems to have been created with the intention of applying it within that theory. In my limited knowledge, that has largely been discredited, but I still feel the survey holds merit in providing an effective array of how psychedelics can alter cognition.
Nevertheless, with the widening scope of psychedelic substances, studies, and experiences, this could certainly be adapted and updated, with some questions seeming vague and poorly defined. Perhaps in the near future I will adapt it and use it as the framework to a more effective version that takes into account the further reaches of the psychedelic experience that have been encountered since 1962, along with adorning the text with greater detail and clarity. I had never heard of it before though, and figured it would be interesting to share. It should be noted that this seems to entirely deal with cognitive effects and not sensory ones. (For sensory effects I devised this sort of dichotomous model based on the aforementioned subjective effect index: http://pastebin.com/VPyQgpER). I fear my limited knowledge of psychology and theories of consciousness limits my ability to fully comprehend, respond to, and alter this test, but fuck it its really interesting to me.
Without further ado, here it is transcribed for ease of reading:

1. Have things felt unreal, as if you were in a dream?
2. Have people looked different than they usually do?1
3. Have objects or the things about you looked different in any way?2
4. Do you find yourself talking about personal things you wouldn't usually talk about?
5. Have you felt somehow as if you were melting or merging into your surroundings?
6. Have you been thinking or talking a lot about your childhood (other than in response to questions about it)?
7. Have you felt occasionally that you have lost your sense of time?
8a. Have you felt that you have lost control of yourself?3
8b. Have you felt that you might?
9a. Have you found it difficult to move?
9b. easier than usual?4
10. Have you found it hard to concentrate on the tasks being given to you?
11. Have you felt that certain things were especially clear to you or that you understood them better?
12. Have you seen any new connections between certain events or experiences that you hadn't seen before?
13. Have you felt depressed or sad?
14. Has your body looked or felt strange in any way? (if so, how?)
15. Have you been especially happy?
16a. Have you been feeling silly?5
16b. Have you been acting silly?
17. Have you been thinking about things you don't usually think about?
18. Have you felt like a child?
19. Have events or experiences seemed illogical or disconnected?
20. Have you felt that under the drug you have acquired any new power or ability?6
21a. Has time been passing faster than usual?
21b. Has it been passing slower than usual?
22. Have some things seemed meaningless to you?
23. Have you felt as if you were standing aside and watching yourself?
24. Have you felt like an old person?7
25. Has any particular thing fascinated you-held your attention so that you found it hard to leave it?
26. Has it felt as if some part of your body was disconnected or somehow didn't belong to the rest of your body?
27. Have you been afraid or upset?
28. Have you lots control of your thoughts? If so:
28a. Have they taken possession of you?
28b. Does it feel as if someone were controlling them?
29a. Have you felt you would rather not talk?
29b. Have you found it hard to talk?
29c. Have you been talking more than usual?
30. Has it felt that time has come to a standstill or stopped now and then?
31. Have certain objects or other things taken on meanings they never had before?
32a. Have your thoughts been moving faster than usual at times?
32b. Slower than usual at times?
33. Have you felt angry or annoyed?8
33a. If yes, at self?
33b. At others?
34. Have you felt at times that you have lost control of your body or that you might?
34a. If so, as if someone or something else has taken over?9
35. Do you think that your judgment and ability to evaluate have been different from usual? (if yes, how? Impaired or improved?)
36. Is it hard to hold onto thoughts, ideas, or images-do they seem to get away from you when you try to catch them?
37. Have you felt like a different person at times?
38. Have you felt that you were withdrawing from reality or losing your hold on the real world?
39. Has your mind been a blank at times, so that you have had no thoughts at all?
40. Have you been at all afraid that you might go crazy or lose your mind?
41. Have you lost control over your emotions or feelings?
41a. Have they taken possession of you?
41b. Does it feel as if someone else were controlling them?
42. Have you been seeing imaginary things?
43.  Have you felt as if some of what you have been doing is really not your doing at all?
44. Does one idea, thought, or image keep coming back again and again?
45. Are you unsure of how others are responding or reacting to you?
46. Have you had any of the following physical sensations?
a. Dizziness or grogginess?
b. Numbness or tingling?
c. Chills or a cold feeling?
d. Felt hot or sweating?
e. Funny taste in your mouth?
f. Unusual or heightened smells or odors?
g. Felt Nauseous?
h. Blurred vision or trouble focusing your vision?
i. Mouth dry or less saliva than usual?
j. Pressure or ringing in ears?
k. Felt weak physically?
l. Body felt lighter or like it was floating in space?
m. Body felt heavier?
47. Do you find that while you are answering a question you tend to forget what the question was?

The scale is then split into 12 categories, to ease analysis:
I. Difficulty in thinking (10, 28, 28a, 32a, 32b, 35 (impaired), 36, 39, 47)
II. Disturbances of time sense (7, 21a, 21b, 30)
III. Feeling inhibited, slowed down (9a, 21b, 29b, 32b, 39, 46m)
IV. Feeling of loss of control (8a, 8b, 16b, 28, 28a, 34, 36, 40, 41, 41a, 44)
V. Ego-environment relationships
   a-Closer to environment (5, 25)
   b-Contact loss (1, 7, 38, 45)
   c-Ego change, alienation (18, 23, 24, 28b, 34a, 37, 41b, 43)
VI. Distortion of visual perception (2, 3, 42)
VII. Feeling less inhibited, opened up (4, 6, 9b, 17, 21a, 29c, 32a, 46l)
VIII. Meaning changes
   a-New meanings acquired (11, 12, 31)
   b-Old meanings lost (19, 22)
IX. Feeling of increased functioning (20, 35 (improved))
X. Suspiciousness (29a, 28b, 33 (external), 34a, 41b, 45)
XI. Bodily effects
   a-Body image change (5, 14 (body image report), 26, 46l, 46m + 18, 24 (if body image effect reported)
   b-Somatic symptoms (46 a-k)
XII. Affect changes
   a-Positive affect (15, 16a, 16b)
   b-Negative affect (13, 24 (depressive), 27, 33, 40)

Annotations:
1(2)-First example and very clear example of how this survey glosses over the wide range of sensory effects that psychedelics impose on users. Possibilities for a more detailed survey of visual effects are listed below, for now I use this http://pastebin.com/VPyQgpER (also linked above) as a quick on the fly survey of visual effects.
2(2)-I found it interesting that they split the sensory effects between how they affect the perception of human beings and the perception of inanimate objects. In some experiences, the sensory-cognitive effects blur the distinction between the two.
3(8A)-A very vague question, especially considering questions 28, 34, and 41, which seem to be more detailed versions of this.
4(9B)-Interesting mention as this is something I rarely hear about when surveying effects of psychedelics. Maybe I'm just reading the wrong  reports, but few seem to mention a heightened sense of proprioception and heightened control over one's own momentum/spatial awareness, something I've experienced several times (mostly with LSD).
5(16A)-What does this even mean exactly? What is considered "silly"?
6(20)-See note 4. I've experienced this/can understand how others can experience this mentally though and it's a very fascinating area of exploration especially with respect to transhumanism.
7(24)-I'm confused as to how one would know this feeling.
8(33)-Perhaps a redefinition is required, I have rarely if never observed or felt anger on psychedelics in myself and others. while primal aggression and recklessness can present, it doesn't really manifest as anger as much as it does a manifests as a form of psychosis.
9(34a)-My eeriest delusions involving this feeling seem to encompass some sort of overmind working behind our world. Eerie for me to think about people having experienced likely similar delusions so long ago.

Assessment:
This list presents a thorough examination of the psychological effects of psychedelics. However, I think with the increased knowledge of psychedelics, much can be added and much can be revised.
A more thorough section on the physical and sensory effects is certainly necessary. Unfortunately, I am very pedantic on detail and if I really tried to capture this in depth, it would be way too long. An excellent framework for this is psychonautwiki's list of visual effects. From this, a list of dichotomies can be created which can be answered simply and easily. Of course, reducing those effects to two poles somewhat obscures the full range and intensity of those effects, but it's an easy and efficient way to document them.
Considering the focus on cognitive effects, it is obvious that the L-L questionnaire was built from the context of and for the purpose of serving the field of psychology. And while a psychedelic experiecne certainly falls under the umbrella of 'psychology', a revised survey could perhaps touch on several more areas of the experience, such as sensory or more abstract and esoteric aspects. All in all however, the L-L questionnaire represents an early and comprehensive effort to establish psychometrics for the psychedelic experience. It reflects people trying to gain an understanding of the experience when knowledge of psychedelics was still relatively new. Legal obstacles have appeared since then, although they are slowly beginning to be broken down. Perhaps this new age of study would be aided by a new set of psychometric evaluations of the experience.
(fun fact one of timothy leary's first gigs was as a psychometrician for the army)