No More Learning

The comparative lack of ability for affectionate and individualized inter- personal relations, together with the conception of a threatening and dan- gerous environment, must be seen as underlying the prejudiced individual's striving for the attainment of power, either directly or by having the power- ful on his side. In this vein, weakness is considered dangerous since it may lead to being "devoured" by the strong (see Simmel, II r), or at least to deprivation or starvation, dangers only too readily anticipated by the high scorer.
In this context we often find a frame of mind best characterized as "over-_ realism," a tendency to utilize everything and everybody as means to an end. Needless to say, such overrealism seems but rarely to lead to a real attain- ment of the goals involved and thus to ultimate satisfaction; it often involves strained interpersonal relations and possible or actual retaliation, of which
? SUMMARY OF INTERVIEW RESULTS
479
there is much fear. The conflict ar. ising between an unaccepted and un- recognized dependency on others for things and benefits, on the one hand, and the hostility stemming from distrust, envy, and feelings of being thwarted, on the other, cannot be resolved.
It is especially the prejudiced man who-as mentioned before-often con- siders ruthless opportunism as an essential attribute of masculinity. As a reaction to his fear of his passivity and dependency, he develops a propensity for power and success as the only measures of his value.
Modern authors have repeatedly stressed the fact that status as a meas- ure of one's worth is a general phenomenon in American civilization. Assuming that this is the case, there still is a difference between the picture of the composite high scorer and of the composite low scorer in this respect. Whereas the striving for status and power, in their purely external aspects, seems to be the major concern of the extremely prejudiced, the riQprejudiced individual-though as a rule by no means disinterested in status-still has a greater variety of other resources and pleasures at his disposal.
The search for affection and love in one's personal relationships is an important determinant of the behavior of the typical low scorer. To develop a satisfactory relation to one's mate and to friends is considered essential for happiness. In fact, much thought-often of an obsessional intensity-seems to be devoted to the striving for such ideal bonds, and to anxiety over the actual or potential failure of this striving. If successfully established, such intense relations constitute one of the most important sources of gratifica- tion. At the same time, the often insatiable wish for being fully accepted and loved leads to frustration and open ambivalence for the object of attachment. Thus it is that low scorers often manifest painful emotional dependence on others; this is a further way in which they may become maladjusted.
Not only contact with other people but also work tends to become more libidinized in the low scorers than in the high scorers. Though far from being indifferent to recognition, low scorers place comparatively little em- phasis on their activities as means to an end; rather, these activities tend to become a source of pleasure and satisfaction in their own right, or else the emphasis lies on their social implications. Activity contributing to the reali- zation of what may be called liberal values may also become important to the low scorer. Finally, interest and liking for art, music, literature, and philosophy are more often found in the low scorer. It may be considered that such interests contribute substantially to the greater resourcefulness, and to the comparative diversion from power and status, that is characteristic of the low scorer.
6. RIGIDITY VS. FLEXIBILITY. PROBLEMS OF ADJUSTMENT
One of the most pervasive formal aspects of the personality organization of the extremely prejudiced individual is his rigidity. This must be seen as a
? THE AUTHORITARIAN PERSONALITY
consequence of the features discussed so far. In order to keep unacceptable tendencies and impulses out of consciousness, rigid defenses have to be main- tained. Any loosening of the absoluteness of these defenses involves the danger of a breaking through of the repressed tendencies. Impulses and in- clinations repressed too severely, too suddenly, or too early in life do not lose their dynamic strength, however. On the contrary, abrupt or unsuccess- ful repression prevents rather than helps in their control and mastery. An ego thus weakened is more in danger of becoming completely overwhelmed by the repressed forces. Greater rigidity of defenses is necessary to cope with such increased threat. In this vicious circle, impulses are not prevented from breaking out in uncontrolled ways. Basically unmodified iqstinctual impulses lurk everywhere beneath the surface, narrowing considerably the content of the ego so that it must be kept constantly on the lookout. Rational control extends to a small sector of the personality only. As long as situational conditions of life draw on this sector only, and as long as our culture provides socially acceptable outlets for suppressed impulses, smooth functioning and fair adjustment can be achieved within the given framework.
But it must be kept in mind that the adjustment of the typical high scorer depends on conditions that are comparatively narrowly circumscribed. The idea of a sharp ingroup-outgroup dichotomy provided by our culture makes it possible for the high scorer to suppress the feared awareness of his hostility against the prestige figures, on which he is dependent, by displacing it onto weak outgroups from whom no retaliation need be feared. This mechanism enables him, furthermore, to remain relatively unaware of his own psycho- logical weaknesses, since he now may feel superior to the socially weaker groups. Among other things, fear of one's own immoral tendencies can be alleviated by exaggerating and condemning the immorality of others, par- ticularly outgroups.
As far as positive goals are concerned, the relative lack of individuation is compensated for by taking over conventional cliches and values. Rigid adherence to substitutes and crutches of this kind is found in various spheres of life. However, the tendency toward externalization, if kept within bounds, may often be in harmony with a healthy concern for external goals. With- out such a tendency toward externalization, the individual might frequently go down in a competitive society.
In order to keep the balance under these conditions, a simple, firm, often stereotypical, cognitive structure is required. There is no place for ambiv- alence or ambiguities. Every attempt is made to eliminate them, but they remain as potentials which might interfere at any time. In the course of these attempts a subtle but profound distortion of reality has to take place, precipi- tated by the fact that stereotypical categorizations can never do justice to all the aspects of reality. As long as such distortions remain part and parcel of the cultural inventory, the removal of prejudice from the potentially
? SUMMARY OF INTERVIEW RESULTS
fascist person may well endanger his psychological balance. The social im- plications of such a step have therefore to be carefully anticipated and pre- ventive measures to be devised in advance.
The avoidance of ambiguities and the rigidity of mental sets in the eth- nically prejudiced also becomes evident in the handling of perceptual and other cognitive materials free of immediate social and emotional implica- tions (37; 98). The tendency to impose preconceived and often stereotypical categories upon experience may thus be envisaged as a more general trait in subjects scoring extremely high on Ethnocentrism. It must be reiterated, however, that there is a distinct sub-type among extreme low scorers in whom liberal ideology becomes a cliche that may include an undue glorifi- cation of the underdog, and who at the same time shows signs of rigidity in his personality makeup. On the other hand, it is primarily the conserva- tive type of high scorer who displays rigidity, while the skillful manipula- tor among the high scorers is often characterized by a great deal of flexibility
(see Chapter XIX). On the whole, however, it is in the low scorer that we find the more flexible emotional and cognitive adjustment; this is also re- flected in his greater reluctance to "reify" concepts, in his more pronounced appreciation of the complexity of social and personal relations, as well as in his more profound sympathy with the psychological and social sciences studying these relations.
Whereas the extremely prejudiced person often exhibits a rigid form of superficial adjustment, interspersed with some measure of psychotic mech- anisms stemming from the necessity of distorting reality, the extremely unprejudiced individual gives evidence of a more flexible kind of adjustment, although this goes with neurotic trends in a number of cases. An extreme tendency toward internalization can often be seen in the low scorer's preoc- cupation with his feelings and impulses, however unpleasant they may turn out to be. Far from escaping his emotional ambivalences and his feelings of inferiority, of guilt, and of anxiety, he even tends to dwell on them. This is not to say that he is free from self-deception. Dwelling on his feelings is often morbid and far removed from real insight. But the conscious consideration and comparative acceptance of instinctual impulses-especially in childhood -may well prevent the development of overly rigid defenses and disguises. Mechanisms of projection and displacement would thus be reduced to man- ageable proportions as far as cognitive mastery of reality is concerned.
Although the average unprejudiced individual in our culture is perhaps not free of some neurotic tendencies, it is in this same group that the rela- tively rare case of an individual, very well adjusted and mature, may also be found. It is only when conflicts, shortcomings, and unacceptable impulses are frankly faced that their mastery may be furthered to the point of perfec- tion and the maximum potential for dealing adequately with varying con- ditions may be achieved. Temporarily, however, such frankness may well
? THE AUTHORITARIAN PERSONALITY
lead to increased anxieties and depressions, and some contestants may, for better or for worse, be left by the way.
7. SOME GENETIC ASPECTS
When we consider the childhood situation of the most prejudiced sub- jects, we find reports of a tendency toward rigid discipline on the part of the parents, with affection which is conditional rather than unconditional, i. e. , dependent upon approved behavior on the part of the child. Related to this is a tendency apparent in families of prejudiced subjects to base interrelation- ships on rather dearly defined roles of dominance and submission, in contra- distinction to equalitarian policies. Faithful execution of prescribed roles and the exchange of duties and obligations is, in the families of the prejudiced, often given preference over the exchange of free-flowing affection. The hypothesis may be offered that some of the traits of the prejudiced person- ality are an outcome of this family situation.
These as well as the other results concerning the family situations have been directly substantiated by a study of social discrimination in children which included an investigation of their parents. The remainder of this sub- section is a summary taken, with minor modifications, from an advance report on that project (Frenkel-Brunswik, 30):
Forced into a surface submission to parental authority, the child develops hostility and aggression which are poorly channelized. The displacement of a repressed antagonism toward authority may be one of the sources, and perhaps the principal source, of his antagonism toward outgroups. That is to say, the prejudiced subject's ambivalence toward his parents, with a re- pression and externalization of the negative side of this ambivalence, may be a factor in determining his strongly polarized attitudes, such as his uncritical acceptance of the ingroup and violent rejection of the outgroup.
Fear and dependency seem to discourage the ethnocentric child from conscious criticism of the parents. It is especially the prejudiced man who seems intimidated by a threatening father figure. Display of a rough masculine fac;ade seems to be a compensation for such an intimidation and the ensuing passivity and dependency. Rigid repression of hostility against parents may be accompanied by an occasional breaking through of drives in a crude and unsocialized form; under certain circumstances this may become dangerous to the very society to which there seems to be conformity.
The fact that the negative feelings against the parents have to be excluded from consciousness may be considered as contributing to the general lack of insight, rigidity of defense, and narrowness of the ego so characteristic of high scorers. Since the unprejudiced child as a rule does not seem to have to submit to stern authority-a fact supported by interviews with the parents- he can afford in his later life to do without strong authority, and he does not need to assert his strength against those who are weaker. The "anti-
? SUMMARY OF INTERVIEW RESULTS
weakness" attitude referred to above as characteristic of the prejudiced child seems thus to be directly related to the fearful submission to authority.
It may be noted that the parents of prejudiced subjects not only seem to have been rigid disciplinarians; they also tended toward preoccupation with problems of status, communicating to their children a set of rigid and exter- nalized rules. Status-concern may well be assumed to be the basis of such a rigid and externalized set of values. What is socially accepted and what is helpful in the climbing of the social ladder is considered good, and what deviates, what is different, and what is socially inferior is considered bad. Quite often, the parents of the ethnocentric subject seem to be socially marginal. The less they were able to accept their marginality, the more
urgent must have been the wish to belong to the privileged groups. The feelings of marginality involved do not s. eem to be related to the gross eco- nomic conditions of the families in question but rather to those more subtle factors which determine the relationship between social aspiration and effec- tive social status. ?
The influence of the parents must be considered at least a contributing factor to the tendency, observed in the ethnocentric child, to be more con- cerned with status values than are low-scoring subjects. He expects-and gives-social approval on the basis of external moral values including cleanli- ness, politeness, and the like. He condemns others for their nonconformity to such values, conformity being an all-or-none affair. The functioning of his superego is mainly directed toward punishment, condemnation, and exclusion of others, thus mirroring the type of discipline to which he him- self was apparently exposed. There is more moralistic condemnation on the part of the prejudiced and greater permissiveness toward people in gen- eral on the part of the unprejudiced. The difficulty which children growing up in such an environment as that pictured by our prejudiced subjects, seem to have in developing close personal relationships may be interpreted as one of the outcomes of the repression of hostile tendencies, which are not inte- grated or sublimated, but which become diffuse and free-flowing.
As was pointed out above, the low scorer seems more oriented toward love and less toward power than is the high scorer, The former is more capable of giving affection since he has received more real affection. He tends to judge people more on the basis of their intrinsic worth than on the basis of conformity to social mores. He takes internal values and principles more seriously. Since he fears punishment and retaliation less than does the ethnocentric person, he is more able really to incorporate the values of society imposed upon him.
As a child, he seems to have enjoyed the benefit of the help of adults in working out his problems of sex and aggression. He thus can more easily withstand propaganda which defames minorities or glorifies war. By virtue of the greater integration of his instinctual life, he becomes a more creative
? THE AUTHORITARIAN PERSONALITY
and sublimated individual. He is thus more flexible and less likely to form stereotyped opinions about others. He possesses a better developed, more integrated, and more internalized superego. He is able to express disagree- ment with, and resentment against, the parents more openly, thus achieving a much greater degree of independence from the parent and from authorities in general. At the same time, there is love-oriented dependence on parents and people in general which constitutes an important source of gratification. Possible'frustration, however, may result from the exaggerated demand for affection sometimes found in individuals in this group.
8. CUL TURAL OUTLOOK
Ethnic prejudice and its opposite have emerged, on the basis of the inter- views, as two distinct patterns of life. Other kinds of approach have revealed these same patterns. In asking oneself how these two patterns may be related to general cultural trends, one may point toward the fact that by virtue of our evidence the outlook of the prejudiced individual, with his emphasis on status, power, and conventionality, seems to be the more salient of the two patterns. The outlook of the unprejudiced person, on the other hand, is characterized by relative absence of the undesirable features just listed. There is, furthermore, more basic uniformity in the prejudiced group, dif- ferences among them having more aspects of variations on the same theme. The unprejudiced group, on the other hand, shows greater diversity among its members.
It may be ventured that the greater uniformity of the prejudiced sample derives from their greater closeness to the broader cultural pattern of our society. There can be no doubt that our prejudiced group shows a more rigid adherence to existing cultural norms and that its emphasis on status is in line with what has been designated by several authors, such as especially Horney (54), Kardiner (59, 6o), R. and H. Lynd (77), and Mead (82), as the general trend of Western civilization. More specifically, a feature espe- cially emphasized by Mead as a characteristic of American culture, namely the "fear of being a sucker," is also typical of our high-scoring men.
On the other hand,. the same author describes "identification with the underdog" as another outstanding characteristic of American culture; it represents one of the many influences of Christian ethics in general. Obvi- ously, howeyer, this is more common among the low scorers. It appears that both trends, as well as the conflict between them, are major characteristics of our civilization, with only relatively few individuals exhibiting the one or the other extreme in pure form.
The political and social ideology of the two personality structures differ- entiated throughout has been discussed in detail elsewhere in the volume. Here we shall confine ourselves to a summary of some of the consistencies that exist between personality structure and the social and political outlooks as assimilated from the possibilities available in our culture.
? SUMMARY OF INTERVIEW RESULTS
Admiration of power and a longing for strong leadership on the social scene as predominant in the high scorer may readily be interpreted as a carry-over from the hierarchical evaluation of interpersonal relations. Ex- treme personal opportunism is often, though not always, connected with ideological opportunism and indifference toward ideological content. Status anxiety, adherence to external criteria in value judgments, thinking in stereo- types, and the lack of a concept of equality is closely related to a contempt of what is allegedly socially inferior. Fear of one's own weakness and emascu- lation prevents the development of pity for the weak.
Rigid adherence to conventional values will render one inaccessible to groups and nations who deviate in some respect from one's own cultural norms. The striving toward being like the others and the shying away from being "different" lie in the same general direction.
Outside groups, on the other hand, also lend themselves as a projection- screen for wishes and fears, often so strongly repressed in the high scorer. Immoral tendencies are easier perceived in, or ascribed to, groups which seem not fully assimilated or are altogether foreign. Hostility and the fear of being victimized can be expressed against these groups without restraint or expectation of retaliation. Even if such outgroups as the Jews are described as powerful, it is the knowledge of their ultimate weakness which makes them suited for scapegoats. Toward the really powerful groups the ethnically prejudiced will more likely exhibit submission and suppress rather than manifest his hostility.
The high scorer's feeling of really belonging to the privileged group is highly tenuous. Due to his real or imagined social and psychological mar- ginality he feels persistently threatened of being degraded in one way or another. It is as a defense against the possibility of being grouped with the outcast and underdog that he rigidly has to assert his identification with the privileged groups. This loud and explicit assertion of being on top seems to ensue from his silent and implicit conviction that he really is, or belongs, at the bottom (see the discussion concerning self-contempt, Chapters XI and XII). The obvious function of the mechanism described is in helping to keep existing anxieties and guilt-feelings in a repressed state.
All these repressed but no less turbulent inconsistencies and the conflicts resulting from them contribute to what may be called personalization of social issues which is so typical of the high scorer. Low scorers; on the other hand, tend to take their conflicts up where they originate: with their parents and with themselves. Thus there is less need for carrying them into the social sphere. There is greater accessibility to fact and to rational argument. Although confusion and biases are by no means excluded. they stem from a greater variety of sources and are less rigid than those typical of the high scorer. The greater readiness of the low scorers to face themselves goes with a great')r readiness to look more objectively at man and society in general.
It is perhaps mainly the readiness to include, accept, and even love differ-
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ences and diversities, as contrasted with the need to set off clear demarcation lines and to ascertain superiorities and inferiorities, which remains as the most basic distinguishing criterion of the two opposite patterns. Members of an outgroup representing deviations from the cultural norms of the in- group are most threatening to one who must conceive of the cultural norms as absolute in order to be able to feel secure.
It would go beyond the scope of this volume to ascertain fully the deter- minants of this need for homogeneity and simplicity in all the various spheres of life. In some cases concern with the status quo and resistance to change might be a more primary need as determined by various social and psycho- logical factors. In other cases it might be a secondary reaction to a situation that grew too complex for mastery by routine means of adjustment. As was pointed out by Fromm (42), this was probably the case with Nazism in Germany. Thus under certain socioeconomic conditions an entire nation may become inclined to "escape from freedom. "
In our present-day struggle to achieve a strengthening of the tolerant, liberal point of view we may have to avoid presenting the prejudiced indi- vidual with more ambiguities than he is able to absorb and offer instead, in some spheres at least, solutions which are constructive and at the same time serve the general need for avoidance of uncertainties. Efforts to modify the "prejudiced" pattern may have to make use of authorities-though by no means necessarily of authoritarian authorities-in order to reach the indi- vidual in question. This follows from the fact that it is authority more than anything else that structures or prestructures the world of the prejudiced individual. Where public opinion takes over the function of authority and provides the necessary limitations-and thus certainties-in many walks of daily life, as is the case in this country, there will be some room for the tolerance of national or racial ambiguities.
It must be emphasized, however, that the potentially beneficial aspects of conformity are more than counterbalanced by the inherent seeds of stereo- typy and pre-judgment. These latter trends are apt to increase in a culture which has become 'too complex to be fully mastered by the individuaL The inevitability of certain developments toward stereotypy are being pointed out elsewhere in this volume. On the other hand, forces endeavoring to pene- trate to the underlying causes of social trends in spite of their confusing manifestations are likewise as strong as never before, and they are rapidly spreading from the ivory tower of science to public opinion at large. The struggle between these opposing forces characterizes not only our culture as a whole, but every single individual as well. How this struggle will end does not hinge on psychological factors alone. As such factors are in the end manifestations of broader cultural influences, it is only by an under- standing of the interplay of sociological and psychological phenomena in their entirety that a full appraisal of the relative potentials of the opposing trends can be achieved.
? CHAPTER XIV
THE THEMATIC APPERCEPTION TEST IN THE STUDY OF PREJUDICED AND UNPREJUDICED INDIVIDUALS Betty Aron
The Thematic Apperception Test (T. A. T. ) offers another avenue of approach to the study of the personality patterns of our high and low scorers, further substantiating some of the aspects that have been discussed in previous chapters and touching upon still others. This test was developed by Morgan and Murray (83) in 1934 and it has been the object of much study since that time (14, 81, 94, 99). It consists of a series of ambiguous pictures, about each of which the subject is asked to tell a story. It is assumed that in describing the characters depicted, in setting forth their actions and the stimuli which affect them, the subject indirectly tells something about himself.
By means of this indirect approach, areas of the personality that cannot be tapped by verbal questioning are sometimes revealed. Here the subject often allows himself a greater degree of freedom of expression because he is not openly telling about himself and giving his own ideas about real people and how they act. Although he is likely to identify himself with the content of the story, this is not usually apparent to him. Unlike the interview situation, in which the subject attempts consciously to defend himself against express- ing feelings or desires which he would rather not recognize as belonging to himself, in the T. A. T. , where the subject usually is motivated by the desire to succeed at a creative enterprise, he tends to be unaware of the significance of the content of his creation. Consequently, although much of the content produced in the T. A. T. is similar to that expressed in the interviews, other productions appear to differ, even to contradict, the interview data. These discrepancies can be understood only when the differences in defenses oper- ating in each case are recognized. This relationship between expressions elicited through the interview and through the T. A. T. will become clearer with the comparisons in this chapter between the two types of data.
The theory behind the present technique assumes that the particular stories that the subject tells represent his fantasied environment and fantasied
489
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way of dealing with that environment. Various investigators of T. A. T. have pointed out the psychic determination of the individuality of these fantasies ( 14, 81, 106, 120). They have found that the content of these stories reveals desires or needs of the personality. Any person in the story with whose actions the subject concerns himself (we will speak of such persons as "heroes") represents a medium through whom the subject expresses his own inner tendencies, and the actions theinselves are indicative of the nature of these tendencies.
When we speak of underlying desires or "needs," we do not refer to instinctual impulses nor do we wish to imply that these desires are innate. Rather, we refer to tendencies within the personality that result from the developmental pattern-from influences of the environment upon the basic psychic structure. W e use the term "underlying" to refer especially to those tendencies which are not ordinarily allowed expression.
These underlying desires are, of course, not always revealed directly even in the T. A. T. They are transformed by unconscious ego defense mecha- nisms into acceptable expression. It is thus necessary to be familiar with the techniques of language that the individual learns to employ, in the service of ego defense mechanisms, in order to be able to understand the relationship between the verbalized expression of a particular desire and an underlying motivation. To give a simple example: Certain needs may be obscured by mechanisms of denial-the individual describes these needs in the story but condemns the hero for the actions representati~e of these needs or blames external forces for precipitating such action on the part of the hero. In fact, if certain desires are too anxiety-producing to be allowed expression, they may be inhibited altogether. In order, therefore, to get a clear picture of the motivations of our various subjects, we shall be concerned in the follow- ing pages not only with the expressed needs but also with cues indicative of motivation that is protected from open expression by defense mechanisms.
A. TESTING PROCEDURE
1. THE SAMPLE TESTED
The test was administered to a group of So subjects, consisting of 20 high- scoring (prejudiced) and 2 0 low-scoring (unprejudiced) men, and 2 0 high- and 20 low-scoring women. In the main, these were the same subjects who were called for interviews (see Chapter IX). The groups from which the sample was drawn and the number in each group are given in Table r (XIV).
It will be noted that all of the women in this sample either had a college education or were then taking classes, day or night, at the University. How- ever, only a little more than half of our men were college educated. (The 16 men who were veterans or Maritime School officer candidates were not
? THE THEMATIC APPERCEPTION TEST 491 TABLE 1 (XIV)
DISTRIBUI'ION OF THEMATIC APPERCEPTION TEST SAMPLE AMONG THE SEVERAL GROUPS PARTICIPATING IN THE STUDY
Group
University of California Extension Psychology and Testing Classes
Employment Service Veterans and Maritime School Officer Candidates
University of California Students
Professional Women Totals
Men
obtained from a college population, and most of them had not had any college training. ) The lack of male students during wartime forced us to go outside of the University to find subjects. Although we were somewhat hesitant at first to consider in one group stories of people of different educational levels, we were interested to find that the veterans and officer candidates usually told stories that were similar in content to those of our other subjects and quite as representative of the high- or low-scoring group to which they belonged. Often their stories were less articulate, less literary, and less com- plete, but the main themes were not different from those found in our college group.
The ages of our female subjects ranged from 17 to 49, the bulk of the range falling between 17 and 27. Three low-scoring women, and 4 high-scoring women were over 2 7 years of age. The age range of the men was from r7 to 47, 5 low- and 5 high-scoring men being over 27. It will be observed from Table 2 (XIV) that the women in our sample are slightly younger than the men.
The test was administered to most subjects by four examiners, two men and two women. Each of these examiners tested both men and women. It has not yet been established to what extent the sex of the experimenter affects the subject's responses. Whatever effect it might have had in this case, how- ever, should have been canceled out by the fact that equal numbers of low- scoring and high-scoring men were tested by a male experimenter, and that approximately equal numbers from each group were tested by a female
Women Scorers Scorers Scorers Scorers
LOW
7 4
8 8
5 8
20 20
2 4
16 15 21 20 20
H1gh Low
H1gh
? 492 THE AUTHORITARIAN PERSONALITY TABLE 2 (XIV)
AGE DISTRIBUTION OF SUBJECTS RECEIVING THE THEMATIC APPERCEPTION TEST
Age Men Women
Low Scorers High Scorers Low Scorers High Scorers
Under20 3 3 9 7 20-27 12 12 8 9 over27 5 5 3 4
Total 20 20 20 20
experimenter. As will be noted in Table 3(XIV) below, there is a slightly greater discrepancy between the amount of testing done by male and female
TABLE 3 (XIV)
DISTRIBUTION OF THEMATIC APPERCEPTION TEST SUBJECTS WITH RESPECT TO THE SEX OF THE EXAMINERS
Examiner
Men:
Dr. W. M. Wickham
Dr. W. R. Morrow
Dr. Alex Sherriffs
Dr. Boyd R. McCandless D r . D. J . L e v i n s o n
Total subjects tested by men
Wo? en:
Dr. Suzanne Reichard Betty Aron
Maria Levinson
Total subjects tested by women
Over-all total
Men High
Scorers
Women Low High
Scorers Scorers
Low Scorers
3 6 1 3 1
14
4 1 1
6
20
8
7 1
experimenters on each of the groups of women, but the discrepancy is still not great.
15
2 3
5
20
5 11 2
8 11
1 7 5 2
12 9
20 20
? THE THEMA TIC APPERCEPTION TEST
493
Further, it should be noted that on the whole the examiners who tested low-scoring men tested an almost equal number of high-scoring men and that those experimenters who tested women, tested an almost equal number of low- and high-scoring women. Thus, small differences in administration between individual testers should ~ave affected high- and low-scoring groups of the same sex equally. Since our comparisons are always between high and low scorers in each sex group, such differences in administration will always be approximately equally distributed between compared groups.
2. TECHNIQUE OF ADMINISTRA TION
Before the pictures are presented to the subject, he is given the following instructions:
You are going to be shown a series of pictures. I want you to tell a story about each picture, telling what's happening in the picture; what events led up to it; and how it will turn out; in other words, a complete story-the picture being an illus- tration to the story.
Each picture is presented in turn, and the subject has an opportunity to express his fantasies in story form, as a piece of fiction. The story is recorded verbatim by the examiner.
The examiner encourages the subject to explain more fully whenever it seems that valuable information can be elicited by elaboration of a particular idea that the subject has expressed. Under no circumstances is the examiner allowed to offer a remark or question that would be suggestive of a particular answer. The subject is always left free to invent his own story.
There was some variability in the amount of questioning that was done by different examiners. However, we have considered the variability in administration to be a small factor, since each experimenter tested both low- and high-scoring subjects, and since the responses resulting from questioning were given very little weight in scoring.
3. THE PICTURES USED
A set of ten pictures was used in the present study. Seven of these pictures were the same for men and women. In the cases of the first, the fifth, and the seventh pictures presented we used alternative pictures for the two sex groups, pictures that would call for a story with masculine identification being given to the men, and pictures that would call for a story with feminine identification being given to the women. We chose all our pictures, except two, four, six, and nine (numbered according to the order in which they were administered), from a group of Thematic Apperception Test pictures intrQduced by H. A. Murray. Analysis of stories given in response to these published pictures had already been made at the Harvard Psychological Clinic and by others using the T. A. T. technique (94, 99, w6), and it
? Active humans in Picture usually re11resent:
Pictures from the Murray Set
Ml Father and son "Younger man and older man"
Fl Father figure 3A
M5 Young man
F5 Young girl
M7 Mother and son
F7 Old woman, young woman, mother and daughter
Identification usually closest to:
Son
? b
Either person
Aman - for males
A woman - for females
Man
Girl
Son
Young woman (sometimes old woman
with older subjects)
Reveals relation to:
Father
Father
Love object
Female sex object
?
Rejective mother
Environmental stimulus:
Aa
Mood of main character:
TABLE 4 (XIV)
STIMULUS VALUES OF THE TEN THEMATIC APPERCEPI'ION TEST PICTURES
Older woman (mother) Pressing old age Young woman with
older subjects
A AA
. . . . . .
>~ . . . . . .
Common reaction to dark background and passivity of female figure as foreboding
A
Mother with back turned to son (rejective)
Guilt, fear, shame, expressed
'tl
M
~
Cll
Somber,sad, thoughtful, >-l
II:
determined
Sad or thoughtful >-l
Guilt, fear, shame, expressed
Somber, sad, thoughtful, determined
A
>
t-' . . . . . .
>-l ><
>-l
II: M
>
L1
~
>
z
0
z
? 1. to passive submissive
figure
2. to dominant
aggressive figure
Environmental stimuli
A (sometimes oppo- site sex when identified)
A
'A
Mother figure
A
1. Dominant sometimes
aggressive 2. Passive
Religious, ethereal A background
Peculiar clothing Gay
. . . ,
:I: M . . . ,
:I: M
~
A background > . . . ,
Slum area. Dark, somber. Heavy clothing-
Bars of prison
. . . . (')
>
"d A "d M ::0 (') M "d
Horne surroundings A
(Jj
Suspect: fear Police: A
. . . ,
0z . . . ,
M
. . . ,
? THE AUTHORITARIAN PERSONALITY
had been established that they were sufficiently ambiguous so that the subject could project his own personality into the story. Pictures two, four, six, and nine were selected by the study staff from current magazines. The people in these pictures were intended to suggest minority group members. We expected to obtain an expression of attitudes toward minority groups that was more spontaneous than that obtained through direct questioning.
We selected this particular set of ten pictures because we thought they would give us the maximum amount of pertinent material in approximately one hour's testing time, the amount of time that was allotted for this part of the clinical investigation of a subject.
We sought pictures that were dissimilar from one another, offering the subject a variety of possible story heroes and a diversity of suggested situa- tions. We also wanted to make sure that each picture would allow for a variety of different themes, and hence provide a basis for comparing our different subjects. In short, we tried to find a series of pictures that would elicit as much information as possible about the individual's conceptualized environment, and his personality needs striving for expression.
Each picture has certain stimulus values that are fairly stable for all of our subjects (see Table 4(XIV)). Beyond these consistent similarities we found certain striking differences. The remainder of this chapter will be concerned with the methods by which the responses of high- and low-scoring subjects were compared, and the results obtained thereby.
B. METHOD OF ANALYSIS OF THE STORY PROTOCOLS
The T. A. T. stories were subjected to analysis by two separate techniques. First, they were scored according to Sanford's revised Murray need-press system (105). The second technique, based on Murray's concept of thema and adapted to the present study by the writer, was used to examine differ-
ences in the patterns of combinations of need-press variables.
A device for analysis of story outcomes was also applied. However, at the time this project was under way the outcome analysis technique was still in its undeveloped stages ( r 2). Consequently, the results obtained added little to this investigation, and we shall, therefore, refer to them only
briefly.
1. THE MURRAY-SANFORD SCHEME
a. ExPLANATION OF THE METHOD. The Murray-Sanford scheme for scor- ing Thematic Apperception Tests is a device by which the subject's stories are measured in terms of certain variables. 1 These variables are conceived as a kind of shorthand representation of psychologically meaningful content of the fantasy of an individual as expressed in response to the T. A. T. pic- tures. The variables fall into two groups, those that represent the direction
1 The method and variables used in this study differ somewhat from those presented in the book referred to above.
? THE THEMA TIC APPERCEPTION TEST
497
of activity of the characters within the story and those that denote environ- mental (personal or physical) influences that act upon these characters. The former variables are termed need variables, the latter press variables. In a particular story, the hero's (or heroes') behavior (i. e. , the actions of the central figure or figures) is noted by use of the proper need variable pre- ceded by an "n. " Reference to activity from external sources imposed upon the hero (or heroes) is noted by use of a press "p" variable. Secondary char- acters or central figures in the story who are openly rejected by the story- teller, and whose actions are not directed toward the hero, are termed objects and their behavior is recorded by use of need variables, preceded by the notation "on. " Similarly, environmental impositions upon these characters are referred to by use of object press "op" variables. A list of these variables and an explanation of each follows:
NEED VARIABLES
(*These need variables are also used as press variables. )
n Abasement:
n Achievement: *n Acquisition:
*n Affiliation: *n Aggression:
n Autonomy:
n Blamavoidance:
n Blamescape: *n Cognizance:
n Construction: n Counteraction:
n Defendence:
*n Dominance: *n Deference:
n Excitement:
*n Exposition:
n Harmavoidance:
To comply, surrender, accept punishment. To apologize, condone, atone. To depreciate one- self. Masochism.
To work intensely and persistently towards a goal.
To take, snatch, or steal objects. Greedily to work for money or "goods. " To bargain or gamble. To want possessions.
To be sociable. To make friends. To love.
To fight. To criticize, blame, accuse, or ridicule
maliciously. To injure or kill. Sadism.
To resist coercion. To be free and independent. To avoid blame by inhibiting asocial impulses.
T o fear censure, ostracism, or punishment. T o
be well-behaved.
To escape blame by flight or by concealment
of guilt.
To observe, inquire, explore, and investigate. To
acquire facts.
To organize and build things. To produce.
To restrive after failure and to overcome weak-
ness.
To defend the self verbally against blame or
criticism.
To influence or control others. Leadership. To admire and follow a superior allied object.