SOME PICTURE STORY CHARACTERISTICS AS MEASURES OF PERSONALITY TRAITS OF CHILDREN

141 Pages·06.352 MB·English

by  RINGWALL, EGAN AUGUST

some Picture story craracteri s ti c s as iveastjres
OF PERSONALITY TRAITS OF CHILDREN
’°y
Egan A. Ringwall
A dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment
of the requirements for the degree of
Doctor of Philosophy in the
University of Michigan
1951
Committee in charge:
Associate Professor Max L. Hutt, Chairman
Assistant Professor Gerald Blum
Professor E. Lowell Kelly
Assistant Professor George A. Satter
Professor Raymond W. Waggoner
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The writer gratefully acknowledges the guidance
and encouragement he has received from Professors
Max Lo Hutt, E. Lowell Kelly, George A. Satter,
Gerald Blum, and Raymond W. Waggoner.
A special debt of gratitude is expressed to Dr.
Hutt for his personal interest and direction during
the course of this study, and for his invaluable
assistance in his capacity as consultant to the
Michigan Picture Test research project. Many thanks
are due the staff of the Michigan Picture research
project, especially Dr. Samuel W. Hartwell, Ralph E.
Walton, and Gwen Andrew, for their cooperation in pro
viding the test protocols used in this study.
To the writer’s wife, deepest gratitude is express
for her encouragement and for her many patient hours
of scoring protocols.
Egan A. Ringwall
ii
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
TABLE OP CONTENTS
Chapter Page
I. BACKGROUND OF THE PROBLEM...................... 1
Introduction ................................ 1
Review of theL iterature.................... .2
The Problem................................ 12
II. METHODS AND PROCEDURES........................ lip
Rationale and Overview of Procedures . . . . iLp
The Michigan Picture Test Research Project . 17
The Experimental Population..... ............ 21
The Indices............................ 27
The External Criterion: The Emotional
Adequacy Score.............................. 3k-
Scoring of Protocols........................ Ip2
Other Relevant Variables................... ij-3
III. RESULTS......................................... Ip5
Introduction................................ 1|5
Occupational Level.......................... 4.6
Intellectual Level.......................... 50
School Differences .......................... 53
Test Form Differences........................ 57
Sex Differences............................ 59
Emotional Adequacy Scores and the Indices . 62
Clinic Versus Well-Adjusted Group ........ 65
IV. EVALUATION AND DISCUSSION OF THEF INDINGS ON
THE INDICES.................................... 70
Introduction.........................'. . . . 70
The Indices Found Significant in this Study. 72
The Non-Significant Indices of this Study ... 85
The Significant Indices ................... 91
The Relationship Among the Indices........ 93
The Clinic Group and the School Low Group. . 97
Evaluation of the Significant Indices. . . . 101
Implications for Further Research............. 103
iii
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
TABLE OP CONTENTS---continued
Chapter Page
V. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS....................... 10£
Purpose of this S t u d y ..................... 105
Methods and Procedures ..................... 105
Summary of the Results..................... 107
Conclusions................................109
BIBLIOGRAPHY ........................................ Ill
APPENDICES.......................................... 115
iv
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
LIST OF TABLES
Table Page
I. Stimulus Cards in Each Series Used for
Boys and Girls............................... 19
II. Age Distribution of the School Group . . . 23
III. Mean Ages of Boys and Girls in Each of the
School Groups ............................ 23
IV. Distribution of the Clinic Group by Sex
and Clinic S o u r c e ....................... 26
V. Intercorrelations of Teacher Rating Scale
Items for the Total School Sample........ 38
VI. Means and Standard Deviations of Raw
Scores on Rating Scale Items............. ipO
VII. Mean Standard Score Values of Rating Scale
Items for Each S c h o o l ................... ij_l
VIII. Distribution of Emotional Adequacy Scores
for the School S a m p l e ................... l\.2
IX. Occupational Rating Distribution by
Schools..................................... i|_7
X. t Tests for the Significance of Differences
Between Mean Occupational Levels of Three
Schools..................................... Ip8
XI. Correlations Between Occupational Level
and Emotional Adequacy Scores for the
Three School Groups.......................... I4.9
XII. t Tests for the Significance of Differences
Between Mean Occupational Levels of Pairs
of Subgroups................................ 50
XIII. Mean IQ, Standard Deviation, and Tests of
Intelligence Used for Each of the Groups
in this S t u d y .............................. 5l
XIV. Correlations of Intellectual Level with
Emotional Adequacy Scores and Words per
Story for the Three School Groups . . . . 52
v
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
LIST OF TABLES continued
Table Page
XV. t Tests of Significance of Differences
Between Mean Index Scores of Scnools . . . .
XVI. t Tests for Significance of Differences
Between Mean Index Scores of Test Form
Groups A and B .............................. 38
XVII. t Tests for Significance of Differences
Between Mean Scores of Boys and Girls . . . 61
XVIII. Correlations Between Emotional Adequacy
Scores and Scores on Each of the Indices
for the Combined School Sample ............. 63
XIX. t Tests of Significance of Differences
Between Mean Scores of Well-Adjusted and
Clinic Group .............................. 67
XX. Intercorrelations of Selected Indices for
the School Population ..................... 93
XXI. Intercorrelations of Selected Indices for
the Clinic Group............................ 96
XXII. t Tests for the Significance of Differences
Between Mean Index Scores of the Clinic
Group and the Low G r o u p ................... 98
XXIII. Comparison of the Mean Raw Scores on the
10 Significant Indices for the Well-
Adjusted, Low, and Clinic. Groups........... 99
vi
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
CHAPTER I
BACKGROUND OP THE PROBLEM
Introduction
This study is designed to explore the relationship between
emotional adjustment in children and a series of variables
which, in the literature, are found to be common in the
analysis of picture story test protocols. The subjects used
in the study are fifth grade public school children in Mich­
igan, while the stimulus cards are from the Michigan Picture
Test, a new projective picture story test designed for use
with children. The major purpose of this study, in brief,
is to investigate the problem of whether the variables re­
ported in the literature, as measures of various picture story
characteristics, are related to the emotional adjustment of
the children producing the stories.
The picture story method as a projective technique has
gained increasing acceptance in recent years as an aid in
personality evaluation and diagnosis. Concomitant with the
increased use of this method has developed an increasing
awareness of the complexity of the problems involved in this
method. Some of the problems are common to most projective
techniques — the problems of reliability, validity, and the
relationship of personality traits to the personality de­
scriptions resulting from test interpretations. Other
problems appear to be unique to the clinical use of the picture
1
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
2
story methodc
A basic problem which has received wide recognition in the
literature and which faces the field of clinical psychology
today, is the need for a method of systematic analysis and
interpretation of picture story protocols. During the past
decade, a variety of methods have been developed for the
analysis and interpretation of picture story protocols, but
each new method has met with criticisms concerning subjec­
tivity, lack of clarification of basic variables, and length
and complexity of procedure. Although the methods of analy­
sis have been subject to criticism, they have yielded results
in terms of new hypotheses and new variables for interpreta­
tion, and they have stimulated and intensified the need for
further research in the area of clinical interpretation.
Review of the Literature
The history, development, and methods of analysis of pic­
ture story tests are adequately reviewed by, among others,
Aron (3), Balken (I).), Bell (7), Combs (10), Hutt (28),
Sarason (ip.), Symonds (I|i|.), and Wyatt (52). Although these
reviews deal mainly with the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)
developed by Morgan and Murray (3^4-) , many of the problems of
analysis and interpretation cited in these reviews have wider
applicability to other picture story tests and to the ration­
ale underlying the clinical use of projective techniques.
Two approaches to the clinical use of picture story tests
have appeared in the past. The first involves a detailed
frame of reference in a classificatory system in which the
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
3
attempt is made to classify either the stories or themes on a
series of variables which are considered to be related to per­
sonality factors. The typical pattern in this approach
involves the use of qualitative categories and subjective
evaluations which are subsequently quantified. The final in­
terpretation is then made on the basis of the quantified
variables together with whatever skill and experience the
clinician has had in interpretation of protocols. The second
approach is frankly intuitive, with the clinician using his
clinical experience and understanding of personality theory
to give meaning to the protocols. In neither approach is
there a systematic attempt to investigate the cues and/or
hunches the clinician uses in his analysis of the protocols
or the processes by which the clinician moves from the
stories as raw material to the description of personality
dynamics as an end product.
The intuitive approach is used by Harrison (23), who,
although he reports a nigh reliability and validity for his
method, emphasizes the need for the interpreter to have a
wide background of supervised experience in interpretation.
He adds that any mechanical analysis of story protocols
should be avoided because subtle cues and idiosyncratic story
content would be lost in the process of analysis. Wyatt (5l)
and Combs (11) are in basic agreement in their criticism of
the intuitive methods. Wyatt stresses the need for clear
differentiation between dream analysis and the analysis of
the processes resulting in fantasy productions on the TAT.
Combs suggests a need for examining the projections of the
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
interpreter. Both Wyatt and Combs in recent publications
raise the question of whether it is the knowledge of person­
ality and personality theory, rather than the TAT protocols,
which enable clinicians to speak of the genesis of a conflict
in any specific case. Wyatt (52) summarizes the approaches
utilizing some system of classification by pointing out that
"they all arrive at similar viewpoints and variables. All
these studies converge in the attempt to introduce guiding
principles into interpretation, but all acknowledge at the
same time the intuitive approach as a common matrix of any
clinical use of the test -- which is indeed as adequate a
definition of the present state of the TAT as we could have."
Murray's analysis of need, press, and thema has also re­
ceived criticism. Combs (10) states Murray's method is of
limited value because it is based on a theory of personality
which is not widely accepted and because the nomenclature is
confusing and involved. Sanford, in his introduction to
Aron's manual, says "neither Murray nor any of his associates
has presented a manual for scoring that was both sufficiently
complete to be usable and accompanied by enough supporting
evidence to convince of its promise." He then adds:
One cannot justifiably offer a conceptual scheme
and manual for scoring without presenting at the same
time norms — preliminary ones at least -- and evidence
that the categories used are sufficiently significant
diagnostically; and if the labor directed to supplying
these supports leads instead to the conclusion that
the conceptual scheme or scoring procedure ought to
be revised, and if the revision is made and the whole
process repeated, one progresses slowly.
Sanford (IpO) attempted to overcome some of the limitations
of Murray's procedures by the introduction of a weighted
. ^
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.