Albert R. Gilgen

Questionnaire to Measure Eastern and Western Thought

A questionnaire was developed to reflect traditional Eastern and Western world views. The Eastern perspective is conceived of as the basically monistic view of existence shared by Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism, and Hinduism; the Western view, on the other hand, is seen as based on the dualistic outlook of reality underlying both Judeo-Christian and much of Greek thought. Test-retest reliability over 2 wk., based on responses of 83 college students, is .76. A study involving 4 American Buddhists, 69 Transpersonal psychologists. 29 business executives, 17 legal administrators, and 173 college students with various majors suggests that the questionnaire has considerable predictive validity.

The Psychological Level of Organization in Nature and Interdependencies among Major Psychological Concepts

The conceptual fragmentation of American psychology is a function of many factors. Attempts to develop a systematic psychology must, however, include understanding that the concept psychological, in the context of hierarchical conceptions of the natural order, refers to an informational domain with a particular dynamic structure and specific function. An examination of this realm reveals that concepts such as mind, consciousness, perception, cognition, affect, and personality, which have persistently remained the focus of psychological inquire over the centuries, refer to major and interrelated aspects of the psychological domain. A careful analysis of the meanings of, and interrelationships among, these concepts is intrinsic both to reducing conceptual disunity and to identifying concepts such as behavior, brain, and environment that, although important to psychological inquiry, are not in and of themselves psychological. A reduction of conceptual fragmentation will, in turn, help us distinguish between important and trivial questions, suggest important improvements in research design, facilitate information retrieval, increase the likelihood of constructing comprehensive theories, and generate much more knowledge relevant to human actions in real-world settings. The systematization of psychological inquiry will also generate the need for significant curricular changes.

Performance of Eastern- and Western-Oriented College Students on the Value Survey and Ways of Life Scale

The Value Survey, Ways of Life Scale, and East-West Questionnaire were administered to 210 students in introductory psychology to determine the value and life style preferences of Eastern- and Western-oriented individuals. The findings were, in general, consonant with the assumptions underlying the design of the East-West Questionnaire. Sex differences, however, indicate that Eastern and Western male and female subjects have somewhat different value and life style preferences.

Effects of stimulus characteristics and sex of subject on perceived emotion

To determine the influence of pupil size, eye size, sex of stimulus face, and sex of subject on perceived emotion, 308 college students filled in missing features on stimulus faces. Each face was independently rated by two male judges on a continuum of negative to positive emotion. Analysis indicated that sex of subject was the only variable to affect perceived emotion. Women (n = 175) tended to draw faces that were judged to be more positive than faces drawn by men (n = 133).

TYPE A BEHAVIOR AND EASTERN VERSUS WESTERN BELIEF SYSTEMS OF A U. S. A. SAMPLE

Type A behavior pattern was studied in relation to Eastern and Western belief systems. 40 subjects whose over-all belief systems were Eastern demonstrated a small negative correlation with a Type A behavior pattern. Those more Eastern in their orientations toward society and toward themselves scored significantly lower on the Type A behavior scale than 40 subjects who were more Western in their orientation.

Life-Sustaining Systems and Consciousness

American psychology is fragmented, in part because mind, consciousness, and, to some degree, affect were driven underground from about the 1920’s to the 1960’s by behavioral and operational orientations. While research on such mentalistic states or processes as sensation, perception, and cognition continued vigorously, each was usually considered in isolation rather than as a particular aspect of mind or consciousness. With the re-legitimation of mind by the late sixties and consciousness by the seventies, there is now some hope that psychology can become a more integrated discipline; there is even a slim chance that a paradigm, i.e., some sort of comprehensive unifying model, may eventually emerge.

Comparison of Performance on the East-West Questionnaire, Zen Scale, and Consciousness I, II, and III Scales

The East-West Questionnaire, Zen Scale and Consciousness I, II, and III scales were administered to 140 college students. As predicted, scores on the East-West Questionnaire correlated positively with the Zen and Consciousness III Scale. The hypothesis that East-West scores would correlate negatively with Consciousness I and II performance was not upheld. Sex differences were found for East-West performance.

Common prescriptions for psychology derived from dialectical materialism and chaos theory.

During the entire Soviet period (1917–1991), Russian psychologists labored to create a psychology which would be consonant with Marxist-Leninist assumptions derived from dialectical materialism. Some of their early prescriptions, in particular those put forward by Konstantin N. Kornilov in the 1920s and early 1930s, are identical to strategies being advanced by contemporary American psychologists who propose that chaos theory and nonlinear metamodeling techniques in general, given advances in computer and television technologies, can be designed for research capable of dealing with the complexities, nonlinearities, self-organizational processes, and abrupt transformations characteristic of human psychological functioning.

The Bem Sex-Role Inventory as an Index of Response Tendencies to Scales in Likert Format

7 women, classified as Masculine on the basis of their scores on the Bern Sex-role Inventory, tended to use the extreme values of agree strongly and disagree strongly on the Likert format associated with the East-West Questionnaire more frequently than did women classified as Feminine, Androgynous, or Undifferentiated (ns = 39, 31, and 21, respectively). The Undifferentiated women were inclined to use the moderate response alternatives. The 73 men used the no opinion response option significantly more than did the 98 women. These findings suggest that strength of beliefs as measured on scales in Likert format may be an index of sex-role preference.

RELATIONSHIPS AMONG LOCUS OF CONTROL, ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT, AND PERCEPTION OF AUTOKINETIC MOVEMENT

The relationships among scores on locus of control (Rotters I-E Scale), autokinetic movement, and the American College Test were investigated. I-E scores and ACT composite scores were obtained for 90 university students (45 males and 45 females) in introductory psychology. All subjects were tested for 5 min. in an autokinetic test situation. It was predicted that subjects with an external locus of control would be more associated to lower scores on the ACT and perceive more autokinetic movement than subjects with an internal locus of control. Partial support was obtained for this prediction. Perception of autokinetic movement was significantly more associated with externally oriented subjects than internally oriented subjects. Externality was not more associated with lower scores on the ACT than internality.