No More Learning

Low Categories
I. Achievement values: creativity and social contribution.
Examples: "Conveying accumulated ideas to my fellow man. " "I would like to spend such a time solely in creative endeavor. " "Reading poetry, philosophy, study- ing psychiatry. " "Fight intolerance and social wrongs. " "Try to do something, any- thing, for mankind or at least help someone; will my eyes and nerves to medicine, find someone who could use them. " (W ords like mankind and fellow man are used frequently by lows, seldom by highs. ) "Make people happy" (in contrast to H responses "try to be good" or "doing good deeds"). "If I were altruistic I would try to do as much as I could for the other person, but actually I would do everything possible to make my stay enjoyable" (scored L because of the surface conflict between social contribution and personal pleasure).
The general idea of "doing things for others" is expressed by both lows and highs, but in characteristically different forms. In the lows we find refer- ences to nurturance and love-giving which are either personalized towards a few love objects or else generalized to include all humanity.
Examples: "Try to make the world a better place for all to live in. " "In doing the most I would be capable of for those of whom I am fond. " In the highs, on the other hand, we find more moralized references to "doing good" rather than "making happy," and the generosity is usually directed toward individuals who are charac- terized as ingroup members rather than as love objects. For example: "Seeing if I could do the people I tpought most of any good; my family, such as mother, father, sister and brother. " In short, nurturance is scored L when it is found in a context of love, close relationship, and achievement values; it is scored H in a context of super- ficial conventionality and ingroup orientation. (It should be noted that there are many conventional lows, but their conventionality is expressed in a context of love- giving rather than conformity per se. )
2. Open sensuality and active pleasure. There were few references to sex, but most of these were by lows.
Examples: "Drinking and carousing around with women. " "l\1aking love. " "Have a romantic love affair while touring South America. " Sometimes a sexual-intellec- tual balance is sought: "Spend part of the time whoring around, most of the time trying to write 'the Great American Novel'-though I'm probably not good enough" (written by a low-scoring man).
The enjoyment of active sociability is characteristically low. It may occur in a sensual and/or intellectual context, or simply in the form of warmth and friendly interaction.
Examples: "Travel, enjoy life, take it easy with friends. " "Spend the time with friends in a constant rush of vacation and work if they didn't know I had only 6 months; if they knew, I'd take off to spend the time with strangers-reading, playing, working. " "I'd spend all that time with my friends, the people I know and like. " "In the company of my wife and child, enjoying good shows, car rides, and
? PROJECTIVE QUESTIONS
573
doing things I now do in my leisure" (compare to the highs' references to their families, below; note also the reference to leisure, a strong indication for scoring L). The high's references to pleasure are characteristically more dilute and empty, e. g. , "Have a good time" or "Do as I please" (see below).
Reference to seclusion in the sense of "rejecting the world" may be in- cluded because, though apparently the opposite of sociability, it seems to spring from similar deep sources.
Example: "I would go to some wild country region where I could just live and not be disturbed by anyone or anything. " (In this man's interview, the desire for soli- tude seemed associated with depressive feelings of rejection by the mother. ) This is in marked contrast to the objection to solitude in highs (see also Items I and 4); some high men, however, give "seclusion" responses in which the primary source seems to be passivity rather than ego-recognized rejection of others.
High Categories (Question 7)
An important aspect of many high responses is constnctwn of fantasy. Although the question allows complete freedom of choice-"if you could do just as you pleased, how would you spend your time? "-some highs
(and no lows in the present groups) make their actions explicitly con- ditional on the presence of certain external conditions. It is as if they can- not allow themselves a completely uninhibited fantasy, as if they cannot get away from concrete "reality" even for a moment. This unimaginativeness, or rather circumscription of ego bounds, seems related to the barren inner life, the shallow emotions, and the "escape into reality" which are also revealed in the F scale and in the interview material.
Examples: "Probably quit my job-if I had a job. " "Perhaps go fishing in the Sierras if the season was right. " "That is a question that is impossible to answer, as I do not know how I would act under those circumstances. "
1. Conventional morality and inhibition. The main theme in these responses is making peace with God and man (particularly ingroups), in the sense of being "good," of conforming, of denying oneself active pleasure. Many of the responses are in a religious context, but it must be stressed that there are also low religious responses. (To repeat a scoring slogan: It is not the event as such, but the meaning of the event to the individual, that determines whether the score isH or L. ) Compare for example the high response, "Mak- ing peace with God," with the low equivalent, "Working toward spiritual realization in a monastery. " The highs' emphasis is on inner peace and harmony, on the absence of conflict rather than on positive achievement. Religious responses having such qualities as self-expression, intraception, and self-blame should be scored L. (See also low category 1. )
Examples: "I would try and do as much good as I could. " "Be nice to everyone. " "I would live with God and prepare myself to meet Him. " "I'd meet as many people as I could, go all over the world and above all, go to church. " "With my wife" (de- void of content, no sign of pleasure or relationship). "Being normal. " (The
? 574
THE AUTHORITARIAN PERSONALITY
emphasis on normality, which is commonly expressed, suggests that the person is worried about "letting loose. ") A recurrent high theme is that of "Getting my affairs in order," a sort of last-minute concern with compulsive detail. The response "Commit suicide" occurred in a few highs and no lows, and it was scored H. This response may reflect an authoritarian contempt for "cowards"; the individuals giving it would seem to regard death as more attractive than life-suicide being a temptation that "strong" men resist-something that the low scorers are not so likely to feel.
2. Incidental, dilute pleasures. These responses refer to pleasure-fun activi- ties of a highly conventionalized, desensualized, and emotionally shallow nature. Interpretively, the individual is seeking satisfaction but his moral fa<;ade prevents the free, intense, ego-accepted expression of underlying im- pulses. Travel is probably the most common activity; whatever its other mean- ings (e. g. , voyeuristic), it may also express the vague, undifferentiated desire for change (ego-alien rebellion? ) which is also expressed in some of the inter- views. These responses are distinguished from those in low category 2 by the lack of open sensuality and achievement values, and by the convention- alized quality.
Examples: "I would travel as far as possible, with a companion of the fair sex. " "I think I would go the forest and wild life and enjoy some companionship, but be more or less reserved in my actions. " "See interesting things, read books" (super- ficial, concrete, dilute). "I would spend the time at home and with my friends with a normal amount of recreation. " "Marry-traveling around the world. "
A "travel" response is scored L even when there is no explicit sensual quality, as long as there is some differentiation or detailed description. For example: "Travel- , ing the world and visiting the countries to see their natural and man-made wonders :j
and to see the natural habitats of the peoples of the world. " "Travel to South . ~. ,. America, Mexico and New York. '' There are, of course, transitional responses be-
tween the clearly high and the clearly low, but these are not numerous. . .
Included here also are responses in which there is no specific reference to what one would do but only to empty pleasures, e. g. , "Have fun," "Spend money doing exactly what I please" (release of conventional inhibition), l
"Try to be happy. " ? ~ ;j
All the references to athletics in the present groups were by highs, and . ~
~ ~
'~
Examples: "Probably quit my job-if I had a job; see as many sports events as I 1
~ ~
were scored H. (Had athletics been mentioned in a clearly low context, it would have been scored L. ) ~
could; play golf and, I imagine, get drunk fairly often also" (by a "middle-class" man). "Traveling, playing golf, bowling; a great variety of activities and as little ~ sleep as possible" (this is escape into reality rather than pleasure-sensuality). "Travel, adventure, general mischief, hazardous play. " "Hunting and fishing. "
When there is reference only to a single, specific behavior without a de- fining context, e. g. , "go to camp," the response is scored Neutral. Also Na is the response, "Same as ever" when no qualifications are given.
? PROJECTIVE QUESTIONS
575
3? Passivity. That many "high" men have considerable conflict between a surface emphasis on work-ambition-activity and an underlying, ego-alien passive-dependent trend, is suggested by several projective questions (1, 3, 4 especially), and it has been demonstrated by the material in other chapters. The passivity is occasionally expressed in the responses to this question. It is interesting that whereas the guiding (achievement) values of the lows come out more strongly than ever on this item, the guiding (work-success) values of the highs are less important, in the last six months-when one's individuality is at stake, so to speak-than are religious values,5 passivity, or other pleasures. The main forms of passivity are sleep, fishing, and relax- ing (in the sense of not working rather than of active leisure).
Examples: "Doing the things I like to do and getting ten hours' sleep" (underlin- ing by subject). "I would go to a nice quiet place and just sit down by a stream and fish and think" (mainly passivity; insufficient evidence of intellectuality or inten- sity to merit a score of L). "Relaxing, but trying not to worry or I would die before my six months came up. " "Not thinking about it" may be included here; it repre- sents not only anti-intraception but also a high trend toward negative rather than positive solutions of inner problems.
4? Omissions are recorded as Nb, converted to H.
QuESTION 8. WHA T ExPERIENCEs W ouLD BE MosT AwE-INSPIRING?
Low Categories
r. Realization of achievement values. As discussed previously, these values may be expressed in terms of interpersonal relations, where they refer to personal achievement (intellectual, aesthetic, scientific), warm relationships and social contribution; or they may be expressed on an ideological level in the form of progressive social change, elimination of prejudice, and the realization of broad democratic values.
Examples: "To see the day when the people (collectively) really controlled their own destiny and would no longer be dictated to by special interests. " "Mass emo- tion usually; awe that an emotion can be so uniform in so many people at the same time" (empathy, sense of unity with others). "The composition or fine perform- ance of good music. " "Impersonal and unselfish love for mankind. " "The responsi- bility that a Negro friend of mine feels for 13 million people. " "Birth of anything new-children, animals, seasons, scientific ideas" (references to birth and creativity are fairly common in lows). "A great work of art, poem, piece of sculpture, or sym- phony. " "Certain manifestations of human personality where people are unex- pectedly good, strong and beautiful, especially ordinary people who haven't had much chance; in people the two qualities which arouse my wonder are the power of courage and the power to accept defeat humbly and without bitterness and re- sentment. " References to being loved are low, to being praised or popular are high.
5 The sudden increase in the importance of religion to highs when they are faced with death reminds us of the acquiring of "fox-hole religion" during the war. These results, as well as the interview material on religion, suggest that such last-minute conversions occur more often in highs than in lows.
? THE AUTHORITARIAN PERSONALITY
2. Power as exemplified in man's achievements and in nature. The idea of power is expressed by both low and high scorers, but again the same event seems to have systematically different meanings for the two groups. The highs' conception of power is extremely personalized (see below); they admire and are awe-inspired by powerful people, toward whom they show deference and submission. The lows, on the other hand, conceive of power in more impersonal terms; they see it mainly as a means toward socially bene- ficial ends (rather than an end in itself), as more universal in the sense of existing everywhere and for the over-all social good. The main kinds of admired power are material-technological achievements by man and exam- ples of grandeur in nature.
Examples: "W atch a two-thousand-ton aircraft take off; the Golden Gate Bridge; the view of the Bay Area from Mt. T amalpais on a clear night. " "The great struc- tures which man has built in this world. " "Seeing a star explode or earthquakes- any extreme natural manifestation. " "Great material achievements-building proj- ects, etc. " "The atomic bomb, Grand Canyon, Boulder Dam, etc. " References to the atomic bomb in itself are neutral; it is scored Lin a context of man-made power or material achievement, H in a context of destructiveness or other high trends.
3? Intense nature experiences. References to nature are scored L if there are explicit indications of a strong aesthetic, sensual-emotional experience, or if there is fairly specific description of what one would be looking at. Vague, empty references to nature in general or to "just looking" are scored H
(see below).
Examples: "Natural phenomena such as Crater Lake, Grand Canyon. " "Thoughts of God's infinite intelligence, power, etc. , as shown in nature-the structure and physiology of living creatures, behavior of the universe, etc. " (This is a good example of a low religious response; understanding, imaginative, universalistic, idea of Gad-in-universe rather than God-over-universe. ) "W atching a beautiful sunset; seeing Frisco at night from a ferry boat in the middle of the Bay. " "A descent into the center of the earth; a walk on the bottom of the ocean. "
High Categories (Question 8)
I. Realization of conventional values. These are highly conventionalized responses referring to acquisition or possession of things, to peace of mind (in the sense of freedom from worry), to a vague, undefined sense of virtue, and to incidental, desensualized pleasures.
Examples: "Feelings of good, examples of good. " "Marriage and happy family life; ownership of something important such as a home, new auto, business concern, etc. " "Love, I guess; from what I understand, when it dawns a fellow he has met the right girl; this is something I imagine and I really believe will be true" (love as a completely strange emotion, more imposed from without than motivated from within). "To know that when I get married I would be able to live very comfort- ably in a home with my wife and child. " "If my husband were home evenings" (no reference to relationship). "To get married. " "Get rid of my stomach trouble. " "Be
? PROJECTIVE QUESTIONS
577
in a good frame of mind all the time. " "Possession of great wealth; outstanding accomplishment of any kind" (note the equating of wealth and accomplishment). "Knowing my husband loved me without a doubt; peace on earth" (this seems to refer more to freedom from anxiety than to emotional warmth and exchange). The responses in this category suggest a lack of inner emotional vitality.
2. Power: deference and submission toward power figures. The highs' references to power are in an authoritarian context: the power is personalized in a strong man toward whom the subject has, implicitly or explicitly, a defer- ent, submissive relation. The authority figure may come from various areas of social life: military, political, industrial, religious. There is often an em- phasis on ritual and a concern with what is external rather than with in- trinsic meanings and values.
Examples: "During the war: to sit in on a meeting of the German General Staff; to witness a V-2 bomb launching. For peacetime: a presidential conference with his aides and Cabinet; a meeting of the country's leading personnel men. " "Watch- ing politicians in action in Washington; talking with professional athletes. " "A coronation, a college graduation, awarding of Nobel prizes" (emphasis on ritual and success, not an achievement in an inner sense). "Meeting a truly great man such as Admiral Halsey or General Patton, or President Truman. "
The religious references by highs express the same underlying variables.
Examples: "Certain church services I have seen; religion in the midst of war, on battlefields I have seen. " "A conversation or sight of God. " "A picture of President Roosevelt, whom I admire; being in church during the service. " Note the primary concern with religion as ritual rather than as ethics, and the conception of God in terms similar to those expressed above with regard to personnel men, athletes, mili- tary authorities, politicians. Again we find an indication of religion as a fox-hole phenomenon-something that one turns to only as a support against external threat and inner anxiety. A mystical, superstitious trend is illustrated by the following response: "The feeling relating to something that is supernatural, something that happens in a weird way and has no factual reasons about it. "
In some cases the subject wants to play the power role himself, often with specific reference to someone else playing the deferent role.
Examples: "To be able to fly in the Army Air Corps" (gaining power through the plane; desire for military experience). "I have the mad desire to hear an audience screaming 'Author' for me when my play has been the greatest ever to see Broad- way" (more emphasis on personal prestige, audience deference, than on achieve- ment). "To know the basic actualities of electricity; to create something or see something created, heretofore considered impossible or unbelieveable" (not achievement values, but wanting to do what no one else is powerful enough to do).
3? Destruction-harm of other persons. Many of the military experiences in Category 2 have this aspect, but it is the focal one here.
Examples: "Death of a close relative; torture to reveal an important plan. " "To see death" (this presumably means death in someone else; references to one's personal experience of death would be scored L). "To see San Francisco destroyed by an
?
THE AUTHORITARIAN PERSONALITY
earthquake. " "To see the results of the atomic bomb. " "To watch a delicate stomach operation" (references to surgery are usually high; they seem related to the body- anxiety found in previous items). "To see an alcoholic who cannot help himself stay away from the cravings of liquor, a person who has been severely crippled by a dis- ease, and to go to a funeral. " (Note the associative sequence from dependency to disease to death. )
4? Dilute experiences of nature and beauty. These responses are matter- of-fact, general, superficial descriptions of aesthetic or "nature" experiences, with no detail and no indication of sensual-emotional involvement. The person is for the most part "just looking. "
Examples: "Experiences in nature. " "The sight of rare jewels and metals; the view- ing of great natural wonders of the world. " "Traveling to another planet-galaxy, though I doubt the probability of it" (note the "constriction of fantasy" observed also in Item 7). "The great natural beauties of nature have thrilled me and probably always will. " "Trips through all the important nations of the world and not have to worry about the expenses involved" (note the limitation to "important" nations and the desire for gratuities). "Music. " "Warching some unusual scientific event such as atomic energy" (merely watching, not participation or achievement). "Scenic grandeur. " "Seeing something of real importance. " ?
5? Omissions are recorded as Nb, scored as H. Of the 6 omissions (9 per cent), 5 were by highs.
Note: Due to various circumstances (seep. 58o), only 65 of the total of 312 subjects received this question. It is likely, therefore, that further experi- ence will suggest modifications and particularly additions to the present scor- ing scheme.
SUMMARY OF PROJECTIVE QUESTION CA TEGORIES
High Categories Low Categories
Question I: What moodsare unpleasant or disturbing?
1. Violations of conventional val- ues
2. Threatening or nonsupporting environment
3? "Rumblings from below"
1. Conscious conflict and guilt
2. Focal dependency and love-seek- ing
3? Open hostility, by self or others, toward love objects
4? Omissions
Question 2: What desires are most difficult to control?
I. N onfocal and/or motor aggression 1. Focal (usually verbal) hostility directed against violators of
2. Ego-alien passivity
3? Impersonal sex
4? Incidental pleasures and viola-
tions of conventional values
5. Omissions
achievement values
2. The tendency to violate achieve-
ment values oneself 3? Miscellaneous
? 1. 2. 3?
4?
1. 2.
3?
1. 2. 3?
1.
2.
1.
2.
Power and control Conservative Americans Parents and relatives
1. The arts and philosophy
2. Physical and biological scientists 3? Social scientists, liberal-radical
political figures
4? Active denial of admiration
3? Passivity 4? Omissions
PROJECTIVE QUESTIONS
Question 3: What great people do you admire most?
579
Miscellaneous
Question 4: What might drive a person nuts?
"Rumblings from below" 1. Inner psychological states Threatening, irritating, or non- 2. Dominating, blocking, rejecting supporting environment. environment
Omissions
Question 5: Worst crimes a person could commit?
Crude aggression and sex 1. Violation of achievement values Other immoral acts
Various legal offenses
Question 6: Most embarrassing moments?
Violations of convention and 1. Hurting another's feelings. etiquette
Blows at exhibitionism and nar- 2. Feelings of inadequacy, failure, cissism being rejected
Question 7: How would you spend your last six months?
Conventional morality and in- 1. Achievement values: creativity hibitions and social contribution Incidental, dilute pleasures 2, Open sensuality and active pleas-
ure
Question 8: What experiences would be most awe-inspiring? .
1. Realization of conventional values 1. Realization of achievement val- ues
2. Power: deference and submis- 2. Power as exemplified in man's
sion toward power figures
3? Destruction-harm of other per-
sons
4 Dilute experiences of nature and
beauty
5. Omissions
achievements and in nature 3? Intense nature experiences
D. RESULTS
Practical considerations prevented quantification of the Projective Ques- tion material from every group to which the questionnaire was administered. (For a complete list and description of these groups, see Chapter IV. ) The responses of the entire high and low quartiles of the following groups were analyzed. (The N's in the parentheses refer to the number of cases in the
? THE AUTHORITARIAN PERSONALITY
extreme high and low quartiles combined, on which the Projection Ques- tion analysis was made. )
I. Psychology Women (N=63): the members of a Psychology class at the University of California. Initial forms of questionnaire, prior to Form 78.
2. Employment Service Veteran Men (N =5I): an unselected sample of the Vet-
eran population going through an office of the United States Employment
Service. Forms 45 and 40.
3? Psychiatric Clinic Men (N =29); and 4? Psychiatric Clinic Women (N =34):
in- and out-patients at a local Community Clinic. Most of these subjects re- ceived Form 45, but some were given a shorter form which included only four projective questions.
5. Middle-Class W omen (N = 70): A highly diversified sample from various middle-class groups: religious, political, business, and the like. Form 40.
6. Middle-Class Men and Service Club Men (combined) (N =65): While the scale responses of these two groups were statisticized separately, it seemed feasible to combine them into a single group for the present purposes. The Middle-Class Men were obtained from largely the same groups as the Middle- Class Women. Form 40.
These groups constitute a fairly representative sample of all those studied. On the basis of the present results, it appears likely that similar quantitative differences between the highs and lows would have been obtained had we analyzed the Projective Question material of the remaining groups. The de- termination of qualitative differences among the highs from various group- ings, and among the lows from various groupings, remains an interesting problem for future research.
Questionnaire Form 45 contained the eight Projective Questions in the order listed above (Section A). As part of the process of cutting Form 40 down to an absolute minimum (see Chapter IV), only the first five of these questions were used. Further complications occurred in the case of the initial form (taken by the Psychology vVomen), which contained only the first seven questions, and in the case of the Psychiatric Clinic Men and Women, some of whom received a shorter form which contained only Questions 3, 4, 5, and 6. The inconsistency is part of the general prob- lem of working out a standard set of questions. However, the incon- sistencies in Form 40 and in the form given to the clinic patients must be regarded as methodological errors, since complete data on all eight questions would have compensated for any possible increase in administrative dif- ficulties. As a result of differences in the number of questions in each form of the questionnaire, there are also differences in the number of subjects receiving a given question. The number of subjects receiving each of the eight questions is indicated and explained in Table I (XV), below. All 3I 2 of the subjects received forms containing Questions 3, 4 and 5? The N varies for the other questions, reaching a low of 65 on Question 8, which was con- tained in Form 45 given to the Employment Service and Clinic groups.
? PROJECTIVE QUESTIONS sSr
The Scoring Manual presented above is a slight modification of the one used by the scorers. The original Manual contained the same categories with substantially the same definitions. It was based on an analysis of the responses of two large groups: University of California Students (male and female) and the University of California Summer Session Adults, Form 6o (adult men and women from various sections of the middle class). As the scoring pro- ceeded, certain additional implications and theoretical points were brought out and incorporated as notes in the original Manual. Also, an attempt was made to clarify certain ambiguities pointed out by the scorers. These notes are in the text of the present Manual. The only further change is the addi- tion of a number of examples from the groups on which the data below are based. While the present Scoring Manual is more articulate than the original, no essentially new theoretical points have been added.
1. RELIABILITY OF SCORING
The critical reader may, after going through the Scoring Manual above,
legitimately ask whether the proposed differences between highs and lows are "really" there, or whether they are not imposed by the writer's bias. A partial answer to this question is offered by means of the controlled scoring procedure. In the last four groups (all but the Psychology Women and the Veteran Men), the following scoring procedure was followed.
The high and low quartiles from a given group were combined and their responses to each item typed in a single, randomly ordered series. Each re- sponse was identified by a code number, so that the scorer did not know whether it was given by an individual scoring high or by an individual scoring low on ethnocentrism. Moreover, the code numbers for each individual varied from item to item in order to prevent halo effect (e. g. , the tendency to give an individual a score of H on Item 2 because he was scored H on Item r). Each rater went through all responses of the combined-high-plus- low grouping for each item, recording her scores of H, L, Na, Nhl, or Nb (see Section A for key to symbols) for each code number. Only after all items had been scored were the code numbers taken away and the identity (with respect to standing on E) of each subject restored. The scorer was, therefore, entirely on her own in deciding whether each response fell into a high, low, or neutral category. This is what is meant by "blind" scoring.
In the case of the Psychology Women and the Employment Service Vet- erans the scoring was not done blindly. This was recognized as a methodo- logical error and corrected on all subsequent groups. However, the advantage in knowing the subjects' standing on E may have been partially counter- balanced by the newness of the task for the scorers, and by the emphasis placed on caution.
As a further check on the dependability of scoring, it was always done independently by two raters. Their degree of agreement in assigning scores
? s8z THE AUTHORIT ARIAN PERSONALITY
gives a measure of reliability, i. e. , of the probability that these results can be duplicated by other raters with similar training. While high reliability does not in itself prove the correctness of the interpretations regarding the deeper meaning of the scoring categories, it does indicate that the scoring categories, as specifically defined, have been objectively measured and are not merely figments of the imagination. Scoring reliability is, then, one index of objec- tivity.
A word ought perhaps to be said about the training of the raters. 6 Both were, when the scoring started, at approximately the level of first-year grad- uate students in psychology. Their learning of the Scoring Manual was part of the process of becoming familiar with the general theoretical orientation of the present research. Neither had had any clinical experience or intensive training in dynamic personality theory, beyond a few undergraduate courses. In addition to studying the Scoring Manual, they had the benefit of several preliminary practice sessions on groups not included in the final statistical treatment. The nature of the scorers' background and training is stressed because it reveals that detailed familiarity with a particular psychological theory is not essential for scoring; theory is, of course, essential for an inte- grated understanding of the total pattern of data.
When the two raters had independently made and recorded their scores for a given group, a conference was held for the purpose of assigning a final score for each response. As has been noted above, each response was scored High, Low, or Neutral; the H or L scores did not specify which particular category (e. g. , high category 3 or low category I) the response repre- sented. The reason for this is that a response might represent variables in more than one category; or it might express in abstract form an underlying high or low trend without falling into a specific category as described. A scoring disagreement was registered whenever the two original scores were not identical. Discussion of the disagreements usually convinced one rater or the other to change in the other's direction. Occasionally a response scored H by one rater and L by the other received a final score of Na or Nhl.
The scoring reliability, that is, the percentage of agreement between raters, was computed as follows. A full error was counted when one rater scored H, the other L. A half error was counted when one rater scored Na or Nhl and the other scored H or L. Thus, if in a group of so there are 8 full errors and 4 half errors, the percentage disagreement is 10/so or zo per cent, or in positive terms there is So per cent agreement.
The. reliability data are presented in Table I (XV). The mean percentage agreement of 90 meets current standards for materials of this sort, and indi- cates that the two sets of scores, independently and blindly derived, agreed very well. In the case of Groups I and z, ? which were scored independently but not blindly (the raters knowing which was the high-on-E subject, which
6 We wish to express our thanks to Anne Morrow and Ellan Ulery for their work "beyond the call of duty" in learning and applying the scoring scheme.
? Group
1. Psychology Womenc
2. Employment Service
N Percentage Agreement
. . 1 . 1. _1. . . i 5 ~ ~ . . ! ! .
Meanb
88
) 95 )
)80 )
)87 )
92
89
90
1859
PROJECTIVE QUESTIONS TABLE 1 (XV)
SCORING RELIABILITY (PERCENTAGE INTERRATER AGREEMENT) FOR THE EIGHT PROJECTIVE QUESTIONS
Veteran Men
3. Psychiatric 29
917190
948887
Clinic Men
4. Psychiatric Clinic Women
5. Middle-Class Womend
6. Middle-Class and Business Club Mend
(17)a
34 (24)a
70
65
76 82
Mean
Percentage 93 Agreementb
T o t a l N 312 290
63 94 75 87 84 95
51 100 96 95 95 94 (24) a
94
90
90
84
85 -
100 87
59 71
96 79
91 82 96 92 97
--- 8594889590 83 83
290 312 312 312 150 128 65
86 83958098
aThe N for Groups 2, 3, and 4 is complicated by the fact that two ques- tionnaire forms were given. Only 24 of the 51 highs and lows in Group 2 feceived Form 45, which contained all 8 questions; the remaining 27 received Form 40, containing only questions 1-5. Similarly, some of the subjects in Groups 3 and 4 filled out Form 45, while o. thers received a modified form containing items 3, 4, 5, and 6 only, The differences between subgrodps within each sample are random.
brhe over-all group and item means are based on single item means weighted by N.
CGroup 1 received Form 78, which did not contain question 8.
dGroups 5 and 6 received Form 40, which did not contain questions 6, 7, and 8.