Reference to specified
practices
?
Adorno-T-Authoritarian-Personality-Harper-Bros-1950
) "Well, kind of hard to answer.
You see, my father died in.
.
.
.
I grew up in _ _ (middle-class town).
Neither extremes of poverty or wealth.
Pretty typical middle-class community.
(Did you have to work as a child?
) Didn't have to.
I did work in high school.
(How did parents get along economically?
) Well, they were lucky.
Father left enough of an estate that mother didn't have to worry.
" Always a nice home, car, etc.
"W e always had Buicks
(laughs) . . . which I think is typical of. . . . "
Another subject in this group displays even a lack of knowledge about the family's background:
M59: (How important was money to your parents? ) "Well, I don't believe it was overemphasized or too important, was a means of providing food and shelter . . . but they found their happiness in work and little pleasures on weekends, etc. " Both of subject's parents were born in this country. Mother's father was also born here. Father's father was born in Germany. "My father's father was born in Germany, I believe. . . . W e didn't know very much about his family. . . . My mother's mother was born in this country. . . . Father's mother, I don't know. "
The absence of a greedy attitude toward money also reflected in this protocoi is further exemplified in the interview of another low-scoring man:
M 12: "You know what George Bernard Shaw said? (What? ) He says we ought to shoot everybody who wants to earn more than three thousand dollars a year and also those who can't make that much (laughs). I guess that's about right. (Family? ) My mother had and accepted a very simple way of living. She had no envy or desire for more. I guess we all felt that way. W e had sort of scorn for people who wanted too much. I guess there were just two worlds; theirs (the rich world) and ours; ours was fine-it didn't need any improvement. Our whole family felt that way, I think. "
References to finding one's "happiness in work and little pleasures" or "in simple ways of living without desire or envy for more" are characteristic in this respect since the status-concern of the high scorers is often connected with an antipleasure attitude as discussed in other contexts within the inter- view material.
? THE AUTHORITARIAN PERSONALITY
Of the high-scoring women's families, 12 are status-concerned whereas only 3 seem to be relaxed on this issue. The following quotation may suf- fice as an example of a status-concerned family background in the case of a high scorer:
F79: At the present time the father is the owner of a mill and logging camp and he also has interests in . "It's a medium sized mill but I have no idea of his income. Of course, we children have always been to private schools and lived in ex- clusive residential sections. In we had tennis courts and horses. vVe had more or less to start over again when we came to this country. We lived in a nice house but really couldn't afford it. It was quite an effort to get into social circles. In we felt secure and fitted in. Back here, we have lived at the same level but with anxiety about it. Mother and daddy have climbed socially . . . and I don't care so much. Yes, we have always had servants. It was easy in but it's hard to get them here. "
As will be discussed in the next (concluding) section of this chapter, the great concern about status characteristic of the families of our prejudiced subjects may be instrumental in the establishment of many of the attitudes shown so far as predominant in high scorers.
E. SUMMARY AND CONCLUDING REMARKS ON FAMILY P A TTERNS
The quantitative data just presented give evidence that presence or absence of extreme ethnic prejudice in individuals of our culture tends to be related to a complex network of attitudes within, and relating to, the family. Lass- well, in his pioneer study (66), found that the interrelationships of his sub- jects with their parents and siblings were of paramount importance in de- termining their future political activities.
In the following summary a composite picture of the prejudiced and unprejudiced trends as based on our material is presented. 2 As stated before, most of the high-scoring and low-scoring individuals exhibit "High" as well as "Low" personality traits in varying proportions. In fact, single indi- viduals may display any kind of configuration of traits. What is attempted in the present context is no more than a schematic outline of prevalent group trends. Such a picture must of necessity do injustice to all the many existing exceptions.
It also must be reiterated that our composite picture deals with groups scoring extremely high or low on the prejudice questionnaire rather than with groups that are more average in this respect.
2 Although the results discussed in this summary are primarily based on the statements of our subjects about their families, direct evidence gathered in a separate smdy on social discrimination in children and their parents substantiate our inferences about the differ- ences in the family constellation of high scorers and low scorers (see Else Frenkel- Brunswik, 30).
? P ARENTS AND CHILDHOOD SEEN THROUGH INTERVIEWS 385
Prejudiced subjects tend'to report a relatively harsh and more threatening type of home discipline which was experienced as arbitrary by the child. Related to this is a tendency apparent in families of prejudiced subjects to base interrelationships on rather clearly defined roles of dominance and sub- mission in contradistinction to equalitarian policies. In consequence, the images of the parents seem to acquire for the child a forbidding or at least a distant quality. Family relationships are characterized by fearful sub- servience to the demands of the parents and by an early suppression of im- pulses not acceptable to them.
The goals which such parents have in mind in rearing and training their children tend to be highly conventional. The status-anxiety so often found in families of prejudiced subjects is reflected in the adoption of a rigid and externalized set of values: what is socially accepted and what is helpful in climbing the social ladder is considered "good," and what deviates, what is different, and what is socially inferior is considered "bad. " With this narrow path in mind, the parents are likely to be intolerant of any manifestation of impulses on the part of the child which seems to distract from, or to oppose, the desired goal. The more urgent the "social needs" of the parents, the more they are apt to view the child's behavior in terms of their own instead of the child's needs.
Since the values of the parents are outside the child's scope, yet are rigorously imposed upon him, conduct not in conformity with the behavior, or with the behavorial fa<;ade, required by the parents has to be rendered ego-alien and "split off" from the rest of the personality (see Chapter XII), with a resultant loss of integration. Much of the submission to parental au- thority in the prejudiced subject seems to be induced by impatience on the part of the parents and by the child's fear of displeasing them.
It is in the area of social and political attitudes that the suppressed yet unmodified impulses find one of their distorted outlets and emerge with par- ticular intensity. In particular, moral indignation first experienced in the attitude of one's parents toward oneself is being redirected against weaker outgroups.
The lack of an internalized and individualized approach to the child, on the part of the parents, as well as a tendency to transmit mainly a set of conventional rules and customs, may be considered as interfering with the development of a clear-cut personal identity in the growing child. Instead, we find surface conformity without integration, expressing itself in a stereo- typed approach devoid of genuine affect in almost all areas of life. The general, pervasive character of the tendency, on the part of prejudiced indi- viduals, toward a conventional, externalized, shallow type of relation will be demonstrated further in subsequent chapters. Even in the purely cognitive domain, ready-made cliches tend to take the place of spontaneous reactions. Whatever the topic may be, statements made by the prejudiced as contrasted
? THE AUTHORITARIAN PERSONALITY
with the unprejudiced are apt to stand out by their comparative lack of imagination, of spontaneity, and of originality and by a certain constrictive character.
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. We are led to assume that an authori- tarian home regime, which induces a relative lack of mutuality in the area of emotion and shifts emphasis onto the exchange of "goods" and of material benefits without adequate development of underlying self-reliance, forms the basis for the opportunistic type of dependence of children on their par- ents, described in the present chapter.
This kind of dependence on the parents, the wish to be taken care of by them, coupled with the fear ensuing from the same general pattern, seems firmly to establish the self-negating submission to parents just described. There are, however, certain cues which seem to indicate the presence, at the same time, of underlying resentment against, and feelings of victimiza- tion by, the parents. Occasionally such attitudes manage to break through to the overt level in the interview material. But they are seen more directly, more consistently, and in more intense form in the fantasy material gathered from the same individuals.
Resentment, be it open or disguised, may readily be understood in view of the strong parental pressures to enforce "good" behavior together with the meagerness of the rewards offered. As a reaction against the underlying hostility, there is often rigid glorification and idealization of the parents. The artificiality of this attitude may be recognized from the description of the parents in exaggerated, superlative (and at the same time stereotypical and externalized) terms.
Usually it is only this admiration which is admitted and ego-accepted. The resentment, rendered ego-alien, is the more active through the operation of mechanisms of displacement. The larger social implications of this displaced hostility are discussed in various contexts throughout the present volume.
The superficial character of the identification with the parents and the consequent underlying resentment against them recurs in the attitudes to authority and social institutions in general. As will be seen, we often find in our high-scoring subjects both overconformity and underlying destruc- tiveness toward established authority, customs, and institutions. A person pos- sessed by such ambivalence may easily be kept in check and may even behave in an exemplary fashion in following those external authorities who take over the function of the superego-and partly even those of the ego. On the other hand, if permitted to do so by outside authority, t~e same person may be induced very easily to uncontrolled release of his instinctual tendencies, especially those of destructiveness. Under certain conditions he will even
join forces with the delinquent, a fusion found in Nazism.
? P ARENTS AND CHILDHOOD SEEN THROUGH INTERVIEWS 387
The orientation toward power and the contempt for the allegedly inferior and weak, found in our typical prejudiced subjects, must likewise be con- sidered as having been taken over from the parents' attitude toward the child. The fact that his helplessness as a child was exploited by the parents and that he was forced into submission must have reinforced any existing antiweakness attitude. Prejudiced individuals thus tend to display "negative identification" with the weak along with their positive though superficial identification with the strong.
This orientation toward the strong is often expressed in conscious iden- tification with the more powerful parent. Above all, the men among our prejudiced subjects tend to report having a "stern and distant" father who seems to have been domineering within the family. It is this type of father who elicits in his son tendencies toward passive submission, as well as the ideal of aggressive and rugged masculinity and a compensatory striving for independence. Furthermore, the son's inadequate relation to his mother prevents him from adopting some of the "softer" values.
In line with the fact that the families of the prejudiced, especially those of our male subjects, tend to be father-dominated, there is a tendency in such families toward a dichotomous conception of the sex roles and a relative separation of the sexes within the family (see Chapter XI).
In view of the fact that, depending upon his sex, the personality structure of a parent will have a different effect on that of a child, the same family constellation may make either the son or the daughter more susceptible to nondemocratic ideology. Thus, under certain conditions, a boy may become tolerant when his mother is tolerant and his father not, while the daughter in the same family may become intolerant. This is, perhaps, one of the reasons why siblings sometimes tend toward different political ideologies. Unfor- tunately, no systematic investigation of siblings could be made in the frame- work of the present study.
By and large, the prejudiced man has more possibilities available to him to compensate for underlying weaknesses. He may do so by demonstrating his independence, or by implicit or explicit assertion of his superiority over women. Prejudiced women, with fewer outlets at their disposal for the expression of their underlying feelings, show, as will become evident later,
stronger underlying hostilities and more rigid defenses than their male counterparts.
In the case of the individuals extremely low on ethnic prejudice the pat- tern of family relationships differs at least in the degree of emphasis that is placed upon the various factors just listed. One of the most important differ- ences as compared with the family of the typical high scorer is that less obedience is expected of the children. Parents are less status-ridden and thus show less anxiety with respect to conformity and are less intolerant toward manifestations of socially unaccepted behavior. Instead of condemning they
? THE AUTHORITARIAN PERSONALITY
tend to provide more guidance and support, thus helping the child to work out his instinctual problems. This makes possible a better development of socialization and of the sublimation of instinctual tendencies.
Comparatively less pronounced status-concern often goes hand in hand with greater richness and liberation of emotional life. There is, on the whole, more affection, or more unconditional affection, in the families of unprej- udiced subjects. There is less surrender to conventional rules, and therefore relations within the family tend to be more internalized and individualized. To be sure, this sometimes goes to the extreme of falling short of the ac- ceptance of normal standards and customs.
Additional evidence will be offered in the next chapter for the fact that unprejudiced individuals often manifest an unrealistic search for love in an attempt to restore the type of early relations they enjoyed within their fam- ily. Exaggerated cravings in this direction are often a source of dissatisfac- tion and open ambivalence.
The unprejudiced man, especially, seems oriented toward his mother and tends to retain a love-dependent nurturance-succorance attitude toward women in general which is not easily satisfied. Such an orientation toward the mother, together with the conception of the father as "mild and relaxed," makes it possible for the unprejudiced man to absorb a measure of passivity in his ideal of masculinity. No compensation through pseudo-toughness and antiweakness attitudes is thus necessary. The humanitarian approach can then be adopted on the basis of identification both with the mother and with the father.
The unprejudiced woman, on the other hand, seems to have more often a genuine liking and admiration for the father, for, say, his intellectual- aesthetic abilities. This often leads to conscious identification with him.
Since the unprejudiced subjects on the whole received more love and feel more basically secure in relation to their parents, they more easily express disagreement with them without fear of retaliation or of a complete loss of love. As is to be expected, such expressions of disagreement will nonetheless often lead to internal conflict, guilt, and anxieties. This is the more to be understood since in this group the relations to the parents tend to be intensive and often highly gratifying. There is certainly a great deal of ambivalence in this type of love-oriented family attachment. Ambivalence is here more openly faced, however, than in the case of the prejudiced.
In spite of the conflicts just mentioned, unprejudiced subjects often suc- ceed in attaining a considerable degree of independence from their parents, and of freedom in making their own decisions. Since hostility toward the parents, when present, tends to be more open, it often takes the form of rebellion against other authorities or, more generally, against objects nearer to the original objects of aggression than are the really, or presumably, weak which serve as favorite objects of aggression in the case of the prejudiced. It
? P ARENTS AND CHILDHOOD SEEN THROUGH INTERVIEWS 389
is often in this form that th~ unprejudiced man expresses his hostility against his father.
On the whole, this type of independence recurs in the unprejudiced sub- jects' attitude toward social institutions and authorities in general. At the same time, the existing identification with the parents is often accompanied by a more basic identification with mankind and society in general.
The next chapter will present concrete evidence of the fact that the general attitude toward the parents, the greater ability to love, the richer and more libidinized object-cathexis, and the greater independence found in the un- prejudiced recur as general traits in their interpersonal relations. Further quotations of actual statements from interviews will confirm the impression gained so far that the ethnically unprejudiced in our culture tend to be more creative and imaginative than the prejudiced and that they are characterized by a fuller integration of their personalities. The concluding chapters of Part II will round out the picture. It must be stressed, however, that the un- prejudiced by nD means emerges as an unmitigated ideal. Nor must, on the other hand, the prejudiced be blamed as an individual for his or her bias. Rather, the "high" character-structure must largely be considered the out- come of our civilization. The increasing disproportion of the various psy- chological "agencies" within the total personality is undoubtedly being reinforced by such tendencies in our culture as division of labor, the in- creased importance of monopolies and institutions, and the dominance of the idea of exchange and of success and competition. This may help to ex- plain the impression the reader may have gained from a detailed perusal of the material presented in this chapter, namely, that all in all the character of the extremely unprejudiced is less clearcut and pronounced than that of the extremely prejudiced, so that one may perhaps say that the high-scorer has more "high" traits than the low-scorer has "low" traits. Of course, a full picture of our civilization will also have to account for the characteris- tics of the typical low-scorer. A more detailed discussion of all this will be given in Chapter XIII.
? CHAPTER XI
SEX, PEOPLE, AND SELF AS SEEN THROUGH THE INTERVIEWS Else Frenkel-Brunswik
In the preceding chapter, family patterns have been described with the focus on the difference between the descriptions given by prejudiced as compared with unprejudiced individuals. Discussion has centered especially upon the following: authoritarian as contrasted with equalitarian approach, conventionality and stereotypy vs. genuineness and richness of affect, degree and type of dependence, love-orientation as contrasted with opportunistic orientation, opehness and admission of hostility, differentiation in attitudes toward the parent of the same sex and of the opposite sex.
Similar themes will now be taken up in a consideration of the subjects' evaluation of, and contact with, the other sex and people in general, and, finally, their self-evaluation. It will be of special interest to investigate in these areas the recurrence or the modifications of the patterns found within the family.
A. ATTITUDE TOWARD SEX
1. DEFINITION OF RA TING CA TEGORIES AND QUANTITATIVE RESULTS
The aspects to be covered in this section can best be seen from the list of categories used in rating the interview material pertaining to the area of sex adjustment. As is the case throughout the presentation of the Interview Scor- ing Manual used by the interview raters, the categories are presented in their skeleton form only, omitting the bulk of the extensive oral commentary and discussion offered to the raters. Some of these further specifications are pre- sented together with the subsequent analysis and discussion of the results by categories.
39?
? SEX, PEOPLE, AND SELF SEEN THROUGH INTERVIEWS 391
INTERVIEW SCORING MANUAL: A TTITUDE TOW ARD SEX (to Table r(XI))
PRESUMABLY "HIGH" VARIANTS PRESUMABLY "Low" VARIANTS 22. Status via sex: E. g. , "con- 22. Open admission of inadequacy
quests," emphasis on "dates"; without rationalizing rationalization of any failure
or shortcoming
23a. Rejection of id: Anti-id 23a. Acceptance of id moralism; rejection of sex, or
continued attachment to a
frigid or impotent partner
23b. Promiscuity as a prominent 23b. Conscious inhibitions without
24.
pattern (no extended love re- lationship)
Dichotomous sex attitudes: Sex 24.
vs. affection and object-rela- tions; pure vs. low women (in men); depersonalized sex rela- tions or interests.
Reference to specified practices ?
moralism
Fusion of sex and affection:
Personalized sex orientation or relations
25. Underlying disrespect-resent- 25. Genuine respect-fondness for
ment toward opposite sex, typ- ically combined with external- ized, excessive pseudo-admira-
tion
26. Power orientation: Exploitive-
opposite sex, often with con- flict about one's sex role and open ambivalence toward the other sex
26. Love-seeking (warmth and af- fection)
2 7? Values individualized
Emphasis on:
Companionship, common interest
2 7?
manipulative (concrete bene- fits). In women: surface-sub- mission plus aggression-castra- tion
Values conventionally deter- mined
Traits desired:
Men in Women:
Giving (kind, generous)
Pure (wholesome, personality")
Submissive, "sweet" Women in Men:
Hardworking, energetic, go- getting
Moral model, clean-cut Deferent
vVarmth, sociability "good Sexual love
As can be seen from Table I(XI), five out of the seven differences studied
in comparing the attitudes toward sex of low-scoring and high-scoring men
are statistically highly significant. For women three categories are sig- 1
Understanding Liberal values
? TABLE 1 (XI)
INTERVIEW RATINGS ON ATTITUDE TOWARD SEX
FOR 80 SUBJECTS SCORING EXTREMELY "HIGH" OR "LOW" ON THE ETHNIC PREJUDICE QUESTIONNAIRE SCALE
Interview rating categories ~ (abbreviated from Manual)
22. Status via sex(H) vs. admission Men
Number o f "High"(H) and "Low"(LJ ratings rece1vea 6y
of inadequacy(L)
23a. Rejection (H) vs. of id
acceptance(L)
Women
Men women
Men Women
23b. Promiscuity(H) vs. conscious inhibitions (L)
0 1. 0
1l 17 8 1 _. Q. . . . Q. 1
24. Dichotomy(H) vs. fusion(L) of Men sex and affection women
25. Underlying disrespect(H) vs. Men
3 4
2 1
2 2
. . a . 11. 7
11 4 162
134 12 2
134 vs. love-seeking(L) Women 1. 2
27. Conventional(H) vs. Men 124
22 6 J
7 20 6 5 IT 23 3 1
. l. Q. . 23. 6 1 ! . i ~ 4 1
genuine fondness of opposite sex(L)
Women
26. Exploitive power? orientation(H) Men
individualized(L) values
Women 102
20 men and 25 women "high scorers"
L
2 1
2 4
20 men and 15 women
"low scorers?
H
H
1
1
6 4
2. ~~2
- Ji
! Q 17
2. . Q.
. ! ! .
J! . 16 3 5
Sums of instances 'Level of statistical
? positive" "negative? significance reached
(percentage)
12 22 2 1 i. . . ll 8
&.
-
}8 7 1 2IT214
3
6
? SEX, PEOPLE, AND SELF SEEN THROUGH INTERVIEWS 393
nificant; the remaining ones likewise show the expected trend though in a somewhat less pronounced fashion.
2. STATUS VIA SEX
High-scoring individuals tend to view sex as a means of obtaining status, and to rationalize failU1-es or shortcomings in this area (Category 22). Ten high-scoring and only I of the low-scoring men manifest this attitude. Similar is the proportion for women (8 to I). These results also illustrate the gen- eral tendency of high scorers to speak well of themselves.
The typical high-scoring man apparently has a particularly strong need to conceive of himself as an ideal of masculinity, and so high-scoring men tend either to boast of their sexual conquests or to justify their lack of sexual experience or success by explanations in terms of moral restraint or unfor- tunate external circumstances. Embarrassment is shown about facts which might point toward a less glorious masculine role, e. g. , about what is consid- ered a late sexual start. In women a similar attitude is revealed mainly by reports about popularity with men. There is evidence both of excessive moralism (see below) and of crude promiscuity in the records of the high scorers; sex relations tend to be isolated and depersonalized and thus to be- come peripheral rather than being integrated with the ego. All this must be seen in the context of the general cultural confusion, and the breakdown of values in general and of sex values in particular in Western civilization; low scorers, although on the whole on better terms with their sex life, are by no means entirely free from this confusion (see below).
Examples from the protocols of interviewees scoring extremely high on the overt ethnocentrism questionnaire follow.
M45, a high-scoring man, boasts a great deal about his ability to seduce girls: (Where get sex instruction? ) "In a parked automobile. (Q) I guess when I was about fourteen or fifteen. . . . Oh, wait a minute, I'll have to go back further than that. First time was when I was about eight years old. Of course, I didn't know what I
was doing. It was my cousin . . . (by mutual agreement). It made me sick though. . . . (First intercourse? ) Well, must have been fifteen. (Q) Girl I hardly knew. She must have been about twenty years old, out riding, two couples in the car, a Model A. She and I went off by ourselves. . . . A one-night relationship. I don't think I ever saw her again. (Did you have many intercourses before you married? ) Yes. (All momentary relationships? ) Yes, that's all. (What about second wife? ) I was with her twice. I was twenty. The second time didn't last long. I always get married spec- tacularly. W e got married in a taxi cab. . . . W e had intercourse before we were married, after four months' acquaintance. She was a virgin. "
M46 tells that "I have a peculiar characteristic which causes women to open up on short acquaintance and tell all about themselves. "
Mz8 states that, since the age of 14, he has been "woman crazy" and expressed many fantastic ideas of his sexual power. States that he proposed matrimony many times, but was always repulsed because he could not support the girls. This subject seems to believe in his "sexual power," and the fact that he has been rejected by all
? 394
THE AUTHORITARIAN PERSONALITY
girls to whom he proposed marriage is completly rationalized on the grounds of his economic insufficiency.
Embarrassment about what is felt as an overly late first sex experience is shown in the record of Mu: (What was your first sex experience? ) "At the age of 17, I'm sorry to admit. I mean, it was so late. "
Fp, a high-scoring woman, remarks that she had always had "scads of boy friends. " When she was in the fourth grade there was a boy who used to carry her books home and they remained friends for many years. There was no kissing or any- thing of that kind. Her father had a farm in and the family spent their sum- mers there for many years. One summer when she was about 18 something very dramatic happened. One night a farmhand who had been interested in her came around to the front door and told her parents that he would shoot himself if she would not marry him. When asked how far their relationship had gone, she denied that there had even been any kissing; "he was only a farmhand. "
Our low-scoring interviewees, on the other hand, are mostly frank in their open admission without rationalizing, of whatever is thought to be an inadequacy or undue delay with respect to sexual attractiveness, develop- ment, or adjustment. The differences on the entire Category 22 are highly significant (at the 1 per cent level) in men and satisfactory (at the 5 per cent level) in women.
Examples from the records of low-scoring men are:
M 15, a low scorer, is a good example of the men who frankly admit lack of sexual experience without feeling the necessity to rationalize on moral or other grounds: Picked up all his knowledge from older boys. Remembers some sex play with neighborhood children, but denies active participation. Felt guilty, afraid gang's activities would be discovered.
M49 is frank about the sexual difficulties ill his marriage: "W e don't-we used to have quite a bit of difficulty, but we're getting along much better now . . . after this operation, I didn't have much desire . . . for about 6 months. . . . I feel now that we're not too close to the peak . . . but it's so much better now. "
M53 describes his earliest sex experience: "Oh, I think it was about 15 or 16. (Q) With a gal that was not very satisfactory. (Q) Someone I knew fairly well. " Subject indicates later that this was intercourse, although not very successful.
Mss: "Oh, about 14, though I wasn't very successful. . . . So clumsy, I don't know whether you'd call it experience, but imagine when I was about seventeen, in the back seat of an automobile. " (Other sex experiences before marriage? ) Subject men- tions several incidental relationships, none of which led to affairs. . . . "I think that probably contributed to my feeling of not being successful and not being able to . . . afraid of being clumsy. . . . "
M56 tells that he has "always been rather inhibited about sex. "
M59 admits that his girl left him for another man: "At r6 about a year and a half. I felt pretty bad about it when we split up. I got a job and she started going out with another man. "
Likewise frank are the low-scoring women in their admission of difficulties in adjusting to a feminine role, or of a lack of attraction for men.
Thus F62, asked about her boy friends, reports: "I am avoided by the male sex perhaps because I am too heavy. I only have speaking acquaintances with boys. When I meet boys I immediately try to be witty and clever and this is a great mis-
? SEX, PEOPLE, AND SELF SEEN THROUGH INTERVIEWS 395
take. I never go on dates; sometimes I am glad of it because I have more time for reading-and sometimes I am sorry. "
F27 reports: (After you began to get acquainted with boys, were you at ease with them? ) "Not for a long time. At first I didn't even enjoy a date. I was so busy worry- ing if he would ask me for another. I can't say I ever did enjoy boys very much. It is just the idea that they are boys. I never got all thrilled like some girls do. I never cared a lot about anyone until I met my husband. "
F3o has no difficulties in admitting that she never had a date: "We became en- gaged without ever having a date. In fact, I never had dates. . . . W e often laugh now about the fact that we got engaged and knew we wanted to spend our lives together without ever having had a date. "
F63 tells about her difficulty in accepting the feminine role: "Can't make myself do anything. Never have been willing to accept my role as a woman. This is just one of a long series of depressions which have resulted from having my ambitions blocked.
(laughs) . . . which I think is typical of. . . . "
Another subject in this group displays even a lack of knowledge about the family's background:
M59: (How important was money to your parents? ) "Well, I don't believe it was overemphasized or too important, was a means of providing food and shelter . . . but they found their happiness in work and little pleasures on weekends, etc. " Both of subject's parents were born in this country. Mother's father was also born here. Father's father was born in Germany. "My father's father was born in Germany, I believe. . . . W e didn't know very much about his family. . . . My mother's mother was born in this country. . . . Father's mother, I don't know. "
The absence of a greedy attitude toward money also reflected in this protocoi is further exemplified in the interview of another low-scoring man:
M 12: "You know what George Bernard Shaw said? (What? ) He says we ought to shoot everybody who wants to earn more than three thousand dollars a year and also those who can't make that much (laughs). I guess that's about right. (Family? ) My mother had and accepted a very simple way of living. She had no envy or desire for more. I guess we all felt that way. W e had sort of scorn for people who wanted too much. I guess there were just two worlds; theirs (the rich world) and ours; ours was fine-it didn't need any improvement. Our whole family felt that way, I think. "
References to finding one's "happiness in work and little pleasures" or "in simple ways of living without desire or envy for more" are characteristic in this respect since the status-concern of the high scorers is often connected with an antipleasure attitude as discussed in other contexts within the inter- view material.
? THE AUTHORITARIAN PERSONALITY
Of the high-scoring women's families, 12 are status-concerned whereas only 3 seem to be relaxed on this issue. The following quotation may suf- fice as an example of a status-concerned family background in the case of a high scorer:
F79: At the present time the father is the owner of a mill and logging camp and he also has interests in . "It's a medium sized mill but I have no idea of his income. Of course, we children have always been to private schools and lived in ex- clusive residential sections. In we had tennis courts and horses. vVe had more or less to start over again when we came to this country. We lived in a nice house but really couldn't afford it. It was quite an effort to get into social circles. In we felt secure and fitted in. Back here, we have lived at the same level but with anxiety about it. Mother and daddy have climbed socially . . . and I don't care so much. Yes, we have always had servants. It was easy in but it's hard to get them here. "
As will be discussed in the next (concluding) section of this chapter, the great concern about status characteristic of the families of our prejudiced subjects may be instrumental in the establishment of many of the attitudes shown so far as predominant in high scorers.
E. SUMMARY AND CONCLUDING REMARKS ON FAMILY P A TTERNS
The quantitative data just presented give evidence that presence or absence of extreme ethnic prejudice in individuals of our culture tends to be related to a complex network of attitudes within, and relating to, the family. Lass- well, in his pioneer study (66), found that the interrelationships of his sub- jects with their parents and siblings were of paramount importance in de- termining their future political activities.
In the following summary a composite picture of the prejudiced and unprejudiced trends as based on our material is presented. 2 As stated before, most of the high-scoring and low-scoring individuals exhibit "High" as well as "Low" personality traits in varying proportions. In fact, single indi- viduals may display any kind of configuration of traits. What is attempted in the present context is no more than a schematic outline of prevalent group trends. Such a picture must of necessity do injustice to all the many existing exceptions.
It also must be reiterated that our composite picture deals with groups scoring extremely high or low on the prejudice questionnaire rather than with groups that are more average in this respect.
2 Although the results discussed in this summary are primarily based on the statements of our subjects about their families, direct evidence gathered in a separate smdy on social discrimination in children and their parents substantiate our inferences about the differ- ences in the family constellation of high scorers and low scorers (see Else Frenkel- Brunswik, 30).
? P ARENTS AND CHILDHOOD SEEN THROUGH INTERVIEWS 385
Prejudiced subjects tend'to report a relatively harsh and more threatening type of home discipline which was experienced as arbitrary by the child. Related to this is a tendency apparent in families of prejudiced subjects to base interrelationships on rather clearly defined roles of dominance and sub- mission in contradistinction to equalitarian policies. In consequence, the images of the parents seem to acquire for the child a forbidding or at least a distant quality. Family relationships are characterized by fearful sub- servience to the demands of the parents and by an early suppression of im- pulses not acceptable to them.
The goals which such parents have in mind in rearing and training their children tend to be highly conventional. The status-anxiety so often found in families of prejudiced subjects is reflected in the adoption of a rigid and externalized set of values: what is socially accepted and what is helpful in climbing the social ladder is considered "good," and what deviates, what is different, and what is socially inferior is considered "bad. " With this narrow path in mind, the parents are likely to be intolerant of any manifestation of impulses on the part of the child which seems to distract from, or to oppose, the desired goal. The more urgent the "social needs" of the parents, the more they are apt to view the child's behavior in terms of their own instead of the child's needs.
Since the values of the parents are outside the child's scope, yet are rigorously imposed upon him, conduct not in conformity with the behavior, or with the behavorial fa<;ade, required by the parents has to be rendered ego-alien and "split off" from the rest of the personality (see Chapter XII), with a resultant loss of integration. Much of the submission to parental au- thority in the prejudiced subject seems to be induced by impatience on the part of the parents and by the child's fear of displeasing them.
It is in the area of social and political attitudes that the suppressed yet unmodified impulses find one of their distorted outlets and emerge with par- ticular intensity. In particular, moral indignation first experienced in the attitude of one's parents toward oneself is being redirected against weaker outgroups.
The lack of an internalized and individualized approach to the child, on the part of the parents, as well as a tendency to transmit mainly a set of conventional rules and customs, may be considered as interfering with the development of a clear-cut personal identity in the growing child. Instead, we find surface conformity without integration, expressing itself in a stereo- typed approach devoid of genuine affect in almost all areas of life. The general, pervasive character of the tendency, on the part of prejudiced indi- viduals, toward a conventional, externalized, shallow type of relation will be demonstrated further in subsequent chapters. Even in the purely cognitive domain, ready-made cliches tend to take the place of spontaneous reactions. Whatever the topic may be, statements made by the prejudiced as contrasted
? THE AUTHORITARIAN PERSONALITY
with the unprejudiced are apt to stand out by their comparative lack of imagination, of spontaneity, and of originality and by a certain constrictive character.
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. We are led to assume that an authori- tarian home regime, which induces a relative lack of mutuality in the area of emotion and shifts emphasis onto the exchange of "goods" and of material benefits without adequate development of underlying self-reliance, forms the basis for the opportunistic type of dependence of children on their par- ents, described in the present chapter.
This kind of dependence on the parents, the wish to be taken care of by them, coupled with the fear ensuing from the same general pattern, seems firmly to establish the self-negating submission to parents just described. There are, however, certain cues which seem to indicate the presence, at the same time, of underlying resentment against, and feelings of victimiza- tion by, the parents. Occasionally such attitudes manage to break through to the overt level in the interview material. But they are seen more directly, more consistently, and in more intense form in the fantasy material gathered from the same individuals.
Resentment, be it open or disguised, may readily be understood in view of the strong parental pressures to enforce "good" behavior together with the meagerness of the rewards offered. As a reaction against the underlying hostility, there is often rigid glorification and idealization of the parents. The artificiality of this attitude may be recognized from the description of the parents in exaggerated, superlative (and at the same time stereotypical and externalized) terms.
Usually it is only this admiration which is admitted and ego-accepted. The resentment, rendered ego-alien, is the more active through the operation of mechanisms of displacement. The larger social implications of this displaced hostility are discussed in various contexts throughout the present volume.
The superficial character of the identification with the parents and the consequent underlying resentment against them recurs in the attitudes to authority and social institutions in general. As will be seen, we often find in our high-scoring subjects both overconformity and underlying destruc- tiveness toward established authority, customs, and institutions. A person pos- sessed by such ambivalence may easily be kept in check and may even behave in an exemplary fashion in following those external authorities who take over the function of the superego-and partly even those of the ego. On the other hand, if permitted to do so by outside authority, t~e same person may be induced very easily to uncontrolled release of his instinctual tendencies, especially those of destructiveness. Under certain conditions he will even
join forces with the delinquent, a fusion found in Nazism.
? P ARENTS AND CHILDHOOD SEEN THROUGH INTERVIEWS 387
The orientation toward power and the contempt for the allegedly inferior and weak, found in our typical prejudiced subjects, must likewise be con- sidered as having been taken over from the parents' attitude toward the child. The fact that his helplessness as a child was exploited by the parents and that he was forced into submission must have reinforced any existing antiweakness attitude. Prejudiced individuals thus tend to display "negative identification" with the weak along with their positive though superficial identification with the strong.
This orientation toward the strong is often expressed in conscious iden- tification with the more powerful parent. Above all, the men among our prejudiced subjects tend to report having a "stern and distant" father who seems to have been domineering within the family. It is this type of father who elicits in his son tendencies toward passive submission, as well as the ideal of aggressive and rugged masculinity and a compensatory striving for independence. Furthermore, the son's inadequate relation to his mother prevents him from adopting some of the "softer" values.
In line with the fact that the families of the prejudiced, especially those of our male subjects, tend to be father-dominated, there is a tendency in such families toward a dichotomous conception of the sex roles and a relative separation of the sexes within the family (see Chapter XI).
In view of the fact that, depending upon his sex, the personality structure of a parent will have a different effect on that of a child, the same family constellation may make either the son or the daughter more susceptible to nondemocratic ideology. Thus, under certain conditions, a boy may become tolerant when his mother is tolerant and his father not, while the daughter in the same family may become intolerant. This is, perhaps, one of the reasons why siblings sometimes tend toward different political ideologies. Unfor- tunately, no systematic investigation of siblings could be made in the frame- work of the present study.
By and large, the prejudiced man has more possibilities available to him to compensate for underlying weaknesses. He may do so by demonstrating his independence, or by implicit or explicit assertion of his superiority over women. Prejudiced women, with fewer outlets at their disposal for the expression of their underlying feelings, show, as will become evident later,
stronger underlying hostilities and more rigid defenses than their male counterparts.
In the case of the individuals extremely low on ethnic prejudice the pat- tern of family relationships differs at least in the degree of emphasis that is placed upon the various factors just listed. One of the most important differ- ences as compared with the family of the typical high scorer is that less obedience is expected of the children. Parents are less status-ridden and thus show less anxiety with respect to conformity and are less intolerant toward manifestations of socially unaccepted behavior. Instead of condemning they
? THE AUTHORITARIAN PERSONALITY
tend to provide more guidance and support, thus helping the child to work out his instinctual problems. This makes possible a better development of socialization and of the sublimation of instinctual tendencies.
Comparatively less pronounced status-concern often goes hand in hand with greater richness and liberation of emotional life. There is, on the whole, more affection, or more unconditional affection, in the families of unprej- udiced subjects. There is less surrender to conventional rules, and therefore relations within the family tend to be more internalized and individualized. To be sure, this sometimes goes to the extreme of falling short of the ac- ceptance of normal standards and customs.
Additional evidence will be offered in the next chapter for the fact that unprejudiced individuals often manifest an unrealistic search for love in an attempt to restore the type of early relations they enjoyed within their fam- ily. Exaggerated cravings in this direction are often a source of dissatisfac- tion and open ambivalence.
The unprejudiced man, especially, seems oriented toward his mother and tends to retain a love-dependent nurturance-succorance attitude toward women in general which is not easily satisfied. Such an orientation toward the mother, together with the conception of the father as "mild and relaxed," makes it possible for the unprejudiced man to absorb a measure of passivity in his ideal of masculinity. No compensation through pseudo-toughness and antiweakness attitudes is thus necessary. The humanitarian approach can then be adopted on the basis of identification both with the mother and with the father.
The unprejudiced woman, on the other hand, seems to have more often a genuine liking and admiration for the father, for, say, his intellectual- aesthetic abilities. This often leads to conscious identification with him.
Since the unprejudiced subjects on the whole received more love and feel more basically secure in relation to their parents, they more easily express disagreement with them without fear of retaliation or of a complete loss of love. As is to be expected, such expressions of disagreement will nonetheless often lead to internal conflict, guilt, and anxieties. This is the more to be understood since in this group the relations to the parents tend to be intensive and often highly gratifying. There is certainly a great deal of ambivalence in this type of love-oriented family attachment. Ambivalence is here more openly faced, however, than in the case of the prejudiced.
In spite of the conflicts just mentioned, unprejudiced subjects often suc- ceed in attaining a considerable degree of independence from their parents, and of freedom in making their own decisions. Since hostility toward the parents, when present, tends to be more open, it often takes the form of rebellion against other authorities or, more generally, against objects nearer to the original objects of aggression than are the really, or presumably, weak which serve as favorite objects of aggression in the case of the prejudiced. It
? P ARENTS AND CHILDHOOD SEEN THROUGH INTERVIEWS 389
is often in this form that th~ unprejudiced man expresses his hostility against his father.
On the whole, this type of independence recurs in the unprejudiced sub- jects' attitude toward social institutions and authorities in general. At the same time, the existing identification with the parents is often accompanied by a more basic identification with mankind and society in general.
The next chapter will present concrete evidence of the fact that the general attitude toward the parents, the greater ability to love, the richer and more libidinized object-cathexis, and the greater independence found in the un- prejudiced recur as general traits in their interpersonal relations. Further quotations of actual statements from interviews will confirm the impression gained so far that the ethnically unprejudiced in our culture tend to be more creative and imaginative than the prejudiced and that they are characterized by a fuller integration of their personalities. The concluding chapters of Part II will round out the picture. It must be stressed, however, that the un- prejudiced by nD means emerges as an unmitigated ideal. Nor must, on the other hand, the prejudiced be blamed as an individual for his or her bias. Rather, the "high" character-structure must largely be considered the out- come of our civilization. The increasing disproportion of the various psy- chological "agencies" within the total personality is undoubtedly being reinforced by such tendencies in our culture as division of labor, the in- creased importance of monopolies and institutions, and the dominance of the idea of exchange and of success and competition. This may help to ex- plain the impression the reader may have gained from a detailed perusal of the material presented in this chapter, namely, that all in all the character of the extremely unprejudiced is less clearcut and pronounced than that of the extremely prejudiced, so that one may perhaps say that the high-scorer has more "high" traits than the low-scorer has "low" traits. Of course, a full picture of our civilization will also have to account for the characteris- tics of the typical low-scorer. A more detailed discussion of all this will be given in Chapter XIII.
? CHAPTER XI
SEX, PEOPLE, AND SELF AS SEEN THROUGH THE INTERVIEWS Else Frenkel-Brunswik
In the preceding chapter, family patterns have been described with the focus on the difference between the descriptions given by prejudiced as compared with unprejudiced individuals. Discussion has centered especially upon the following: authoritarian as contrasted with equalitarian approach, conventionality and stereotypy vs. genuineness and richness of affect, degree and type of dependence, love-orientation as contrasted with opportunistic orientation, opehness and admission of hostility, differentiation in attitudes toward the parent of the same sex and of the opposite sex.
Similar themes will now be taken up in a consideration of the subjects' evaluation of, and contact with, the other sex and people in general, and, finally, their self-evaluation. It will be of special interest to investigate in these areas the recurrence or the modifications of the patterns found within the family.
A. ATTITUDE TOWARD SEX
1. DEFINITION OF RA TING CA TEGORIES AND QUANTITATIVE RESULTS
The aspects to be covered in this section can best be seen from the list of categories used in rating the interview material pertaining to the area of sex adjustment. As is the case throughout the presentation of the Interview Scor- ing Manual used by the interview raters, the categories are presented in their skeleton form only, omitting the bulk of the extensive oral commentary and discussion offered to the raters. Some of these further specifications are pre- sented together with the subsequent analysis and discussion of the results by categories.
39?
? SEX, PEOPLE, AND SELF SEEN THROUGH INTERVIEWS 391
INTERVIEW SCORING MANUAL: A TTITUDE TOW ARD SEX (to Table r(XI))
PRESUMABLY "HIGH" VARIANTS PRESUMABLY "Low" VARIANTS 22. Status via sex: E. g. , "con- 22. Open admission of inadequacy
quests," emphasis on "dates"; without rationalizing rationalization of any failure
or shortcoming
23a. Rejection of id: Anti-id 23a. Acceptance of id moralism; rejection of sex, or
continued attachment to a
frigid or impotent partner
23b. Promiscuity as a prominent 23b. Conscious inhibitions without
24.
pattern (no extended love re- lationship)
Dichotomous sex attitudes: Sex 24.
vs. affection and object-rela- tions; pure vs. low women (in men); depersonalized sex rela- tions or interests.
Reference to specified practices ?
moralism
Fusion of sex and affection:
Personalized sex orientation or relations
25. Underlying disrespect-resent- 25. Genuine respect-fondness for
ment toward opposite sex, typ- ically combined with external- ized, excessive pseudo-admira-
tion
26. Power orientation: Exploitive-
opposite sex, often with con- flict about one's sex role and open ambivalence toward the other sex
26. Love-seeking (warmth and af- fection)
2 7? Values individualized
Emphasis on:
Companionship, common interest
2 7?
manipulative (concrete bene- fits). In women: surface-sub- mission plus aggression-castra- tion
Values conventionally deter- mined
Traits desired:
Men in Women:
Giving (kind, generous)
Pure (wholesome, personality")
Submissive, "sweet" Women in Men:
Hardworking, energetic, go- getting
Moral model, clean-cut Deferent
vVarmth, sociability "good Sexual love
As can be seen from Table I(XI), five out of the seven differences studied
in comparing the attitudes toward sex of low-scoring and high-scoring men
are statistically highly significant. For women three categories are sig- 1
Understanding Liberal values
? TABLE 1 (XI)
INTERVIEW RATINGS ON ATTITUDE TOWARD SEX
FOR 80 SUBJECTS SCORING EXTREMELY "HIGH" OR "LOW" ON THE ETHNIC PREJUDICE QUESTIONNAIRE SCALE
Interview rating categories ~ (abbreviated from Manual)
22. Status via sex(H) vs. admission Men
Number o f "High"(H) and "Low"(LJ ratings rece1vea 6y
of inadequacy(L)
23a. Rejection (H) vs. of id
acceptance(L)
Women
Men women
Men Women
23b. Promiscuity(H) vs. conscious inhibitions (L)
0 1. 0
1l 17 8 1 _. Q. . . . Q. 1
24. Dichotomy(H) vs. fusion(L) of Men sex and affection women
25. Underlying disrespect(H) vs. Men
3 4
2 1
2 2
. . a . 11. 7
11 4 162
134 12 2
134 vs. love-seeking(L) Women 1. 2
27. Conventional(H) vs. Men 124
22 6 J
7 20 6 5 IT 23 3 1
. l. Q. . 23. 6 1 ! . i ~ 4 1
genuine fondness of opposite sex(L)
Women
26. Exploitive power? orientation(H) Men
individualized(L) values
Women 102
20 men and 25 women "high scorers"
L
2 1
2 4
20 men and 15 women
"low scorers?
H
H
1
1
6 4
2. ~~2
- Ji
! Q 17
2. . Q.
. ! ! .
J! . 16 3 5
Sums of instances 'Level of statistical
? positive" "negative? significance reached
(percentage)
12 22 2 1 i. . . ll 8
&.
-
}8 7 1 2IT214
3
6
? SEX, PEOPLE, AND SELF SEEN THROUGH INTERVIEWS 393
nificant; the remaining ones likewise show the expected trend though in a somewhat less pronounced fashion.
2. STATUS VIA SEX
High-scoring individuals tend to view sex as a means of obtaining status, and to rationalize failU1-es or shortcomings in this area (Category 22). Ten high-scoring and only I of the low-scoring men manifest this attitude. Similar is the proportion for women (8 to I). These results also illustrate the gen- eral tendency of high scorers to speak well of themselves.
The typical high-scoring man apparently has a particularly strong need to conceive of himself as an ideal of masculinity, and so high-scoring men tend either to boast of their sexual conquests or to justify their lack of sexual experience or success by explanations in terms of moral restraint or unfor- tunate external circumstances. Embarrassment is shown about facts which might point toward a less glorious masculine role, e. g. , about what is consid- ered a late sexual start. In women a similar attitude is revealed mainly by reports about popularity with men. There is evidence both of excessive moralism (see below) and of crude promiscuity in the records of the high scorers; sex relations tend to be isolated and depersonalized and thus to be- come peripheral rather than being integrated with the ego. All this must be seen in the context of the general cultural confusion, and the breakdown of values in general and of sex values in particular in Western civilization; low scorers, although on the whole on better terms with their sex life, are by no means entirely free from this confusion (see below).
Examples from the protocols of interviewees scoring extremely high on the overt ethnocentrism questionnaire follow.
M45, a high-scoring man, boasts a great deal about his ability to seduce girls: (Where get sex instruction? ) "In a parked automobile. (Q) I guess when I was about fourteen or fifteen. . . . Oh, wait a minute, I'll have to go back further than that. First time was when I was about eight years old. Of course, I didn't know what I
was doing. It was my cousin . . . (by mutual agreement). It made me sick though. . . . (First intercourse? ) Well, must have been fifteen. (Q) Girl I hardly knew. She must have been about twenty years old, out riding, two couples in the car, a Model A. She and I went off by ourselves. . . . A one-night relationship. I don't think I ever saw her again. (Did you have many intercourses before you married? ) Yes. (All momentary relationships? ) Yes, that's all. (What about second wife? ) I was with her twice. I was twenty. The second time didn't last long. I always get married spec- tacularly. W e got married in a taxi cab. . . . W e had intercourse before we were married, after four months' acquaintance. She was a virgin. "
M46 tells that "I have a peculiar characteristic which causes women to open up on short acquaintance and tell all about themselves. "
Mz8 states that, since the age of 14, he has been "woman crazy" and expressed many fantastic ideas of his sexual power. States that he proposed matrimony many times, but was always repulsed because he could not support the girls. This subject seems to believe in his "sexual power," and the fact that he has been rejected by all
? 394
THE AUTHORITARIAN PERSONALITY
girls to whom he proposed marriage is completly rationalized on the grounds of his economic insufficiency.
Embarrassment about what is felt as an overly late first sex experience is shown in the record of Mu: (What was your first sex experience? ) "At the age of 17, I'm sorry to admit. I mean, it was so late. "
Fp, a high-scoring woman, remarks that she had always had "scads of boy friends. " When she was in the fourth grade there was a boy who used to carry her books home and they remained friends for many years. There was no kissing or any- thing of that kind. Her father had a farm in and the family spent their sum- mers there for many years. One summer when she was about 18 something very dramatic happened. One night a farmhand who had been interested in her came around to the front door and told her parents that he would shoot himself if she would not marry him. When asked how far their relationship had gone, she denied that there had even been any kissing; "he was only a farmhand. "
Our low-scoring interviewees, on the other hand, are mostly frank in their open admission without rationalizing, of whatever is thought to be an inadequacy or undue delay with respect to sexual attractiveness, develop- ment, or adjustment. The differences on the entire Category 22 are highly significant (at the 1 per cent level) in men and satisfactory (at the 5 per cent level) in women.
Examples from the records of low-scoring men are:
M 15, a low scorer, is a good example of the men who frankly admit lack of sexual experience without feeling the necessity to rationalize on moral or other grounds: Picked up all his knowledge from older boys. Remembers some sex play with neighborhood children, but denies active participation. Felt guilty, afraid gang's activities would be discovered.
M49 is frank about the sexual difficulties ill his marriage: "W e don't-we used to have quite a bit of difficulty, but we're getting along much better now . . . after this operation, I didn't have much desire . . . for about 6 months. . . . I feel now that we're not too close to the peak . . . but it's so much better now. "
M53 describes his earliest sex experience: "Oh, I think it was about 15 or 16. (Q) With a gal that was not very satisfactory. (Q) Someone I knew fairly well. " Subject indicates later that this was intercourse, although not very successful.
Mss: "Oh, about 14, though I wasn't very successful. . . . So clumsy, I don't know whether you'd call it experience, but imagine when I was about seventeen, in the back seat of an automobile. " (Other sex experiences before marriage? ) Subject men- tions several incidental relationships, none of which led to affairs. . . . "I think that probably contributed to my feeling of not being successful and not being able to . . . afraid of being clumsy. . . . "
M56 tells that he has "always been rather inhibited about sex. "
M59 admits that his girl left him for another man: "At r6 about a year and a half. I felt pretty bad about it when we split up. I got a job and she started going out with another man. "
Likewise frank are the low-scoring women in their admission of difficulties in adjusting to a feminine role, or of a lack of attraction for men.
Thus F62, asked about her boy friends, reports: "I am avoided by the male sex perhaps because I am too heavy. I only have speaking acquaintances with boys. When I meet boys I immediately try to be witty and clever and this is a great mis-
? SEX, PEOPLE, AND SELF SEEN THROUGH INTERVIEWS 395
take. I never go on dates; sometimes I am glad of it because I have more time for reading-and sometimes I am sorry. "
F27 reports: (After you began to get acquainted with boys, were you at ease with them? ) "Not for a long time. At first I didn't even enjoy a date. I was so busy worry- ing if he would ask me for another. I can't say I ever did enjoy boys very much. It is just the idea that they are boys. I never got all thrilled like some girls do. I never cared a lot about anyone until I met my husband. "
F3o has no difficulties in admitting that she never had a date: "We became en- gaged without ever having a date. In fact, I never had dates. . . . W e often laugh now about the fact that we got engaged and knew we wanted to spend our lives together without ever having had a date. "
F63 tells about her difficulty in accepting the feminine role: "Can't make myself do anything. Never have been willing to accept my role as a woman. This is just one of a long series of depressions which have resulted from having my ambitions blocked.
