David S. Dungan

The barnum effect in luscher color test interpretation

A series of statements from the interpretation section of the Luscher Color Test were selected randomly and put into paragraph form. College students read these interpretative statements under several conditions to assess how accurately the statements described themselves. On a scale from 1 to 9, the ratings were all 5 or higher, which indicates a Barnum effect from the Luscher Color Test.

Relationship between the luscher color test and the MMPI

Administered the short form of the Luscher Color Test and the booklet form of the MMPI to 42 graduate students in a counseling program. For every S a report that described personality was written from the test results, i.e., each S had two reports, one from the Color Test and one from the MMPI. These reports were written independently by two separate examiners. Two independent raters then read the reports on each S and noted the degree of agreement between the two reports. The overall results showed very little agreement between the Color Test and the MMPI. Reasons for the poor rate of agreement are discussed.

Validity of five MMPI alcoholism scales

Assessed five alcoholism scales derived from the MMPI for their ability to classify accurately two groups of alcoholics (N = 120) and a group of nonalcoholic psychiatric patients (N = 60) in an inpatient treatment setting. The alcoholic group was divided into those who were self-committed and those who were court-committed. Depending on how the data were treated, only one, or none of the scales was accurate.

Reassessment of inferring personality traits from Bender‐Gestalt drawing styles

Fifty patients with closure difficulty on the Bender-Gestalt and 50 patients with edging tendencies on the Bender Gestalt were assessed for possible personality traits associated with those drawing styles. Patients with and without the drawing styles were compared using MMPI data. Patients who drew along the edge of the paper showed no significant difference in MMPI scores when compared to non-edgers. Patients with closure difficulty were significantly higher on Scale O of the MMPI than were the non-closure difficulty patients. The difference was not considered to be interpretatively important.

Prenatal exposure to aluminum or stress: I. Birth-related and developmental effects

Sperm-positive female rats in one of two experimental conditions either ingested aluminum hydroxide (via a Maalox-water mixture) or were stessed (via mild electric shock) during gestation. Birth-related effects, such as stillborn pups, aborted litters, and cannibalism, were found for the animals in the two experimental conditions, but not for the control animals. Significantly lower weights (through 70 days of age) were associated with aluminum-exposed offspring that had been maintained with a nursing mother that had recieved the Maalox-water mixture until weaning.

Prenatal exposure to aluminum or stress: II. Behavioral and performance effects

In this second report dealing with the effects of prenatal exposure to aluminum or stress, the results of shock-elicited aggression and learned helplessness testing are presented. When compared to controls, aluminum- and stress-exposed offspring displayed significantly more aggressive responses. However, aluminum-exposed offspring spent significantly less time per aggressive response in contact with the target rod. Moreover, aluminum-exposed animals had significantly longer latencies than did stress-exposed animals during the escape-training phase of the learned helplessness study. These results indicated that the prenatal treatments employed may eventuate in behavioral effects with one of these effects being the disruption of a response inhibition/direction mechanism in the aluminum-exposed animals.

Shock-Elicited Aggression as a Function of Early Ethanol Exposure

Upon reaching maturity the offspring (N = 88) of animals exposed during pregnancy to ethanol and plain water, respectively, served as Ss in a shock-elicited aggression test. Significantly higher levels of aggression were shown by those animals that had received prenatal ethanol exposure. Several ethanol-related birth effects were also noted.

Factors determining gender of the figure in TAT Card 3BM.

Earlier work has shown that subjects commonly view the figure on Card 3BM of the TAT as female rather than male. This study supports that finding and presents the specific qualities of the 3BM card that lead to such perception of the 3BM figure.

Reply to "Validity of five MMPI alcoholism scales: a critique and reanalysis".

Replied to Hays and Stacys critique of an article by Holmes, Dungan and McLaughlin in which the validity of MMPI alcoholism scales was questioned. Hays and Stacy asserted that the original authors misinterpreted the results of the statistical analyses. The present article presents support for the original conclusions and comments on Hays and Stacys reanalysis.