Graham E. Powell

Psychoticism and social deviancy in children

Abstract Most of the studies relating the personality dimension of Psychoticism ( P ) to behaviour in childhood are reviewed. In addition, the results of a study of 808 white, predominantly middle-class, normal children between the ages of 8 and 16 years are presented. It is seen that high P children exhibit deviant social behaviour, expressly of a delinquent nature, and hold deviant, non-conforming, or idiosyncratic social attitudes that reflect a tough-minded, hostile and sexually liberal disposition. This pattern of results is essentially identical for the two sexes and for the six age levels considered. When the scores of high and low P subjects are compared, it is apparent that high P individuals are responding in a masculine direction of all of the tests used, suggesting that the nature of P overlaps considerably with “masculinity”. This impression is reinforced by a cluster analysis which indicates that high P is more misplaced in girls than boys, since high P girls are picked out as a special “type” whereas high P boys are not. It is concluded that although the P scale is already shown to be important by its displacing of E and N as the personality terms most predicting childhood delinquent behaviour, various modifications to the scale are needed. In particular the scale is somewhat uni-polar with only two or three scale points discriminating between the majority of children, which makes the scale less suitable than it might be for use in an individual clinical setting. Some suggestions for the type of item which might measure low P are made.

The relationship between intelligence and verbal and spatial memory

Administered the Logical Memory Test (LM) and the Rey-Osterreith Test (RO), which have been assumed to pertain to verbal and spatial cognitive functioning, to 150 Ss referred for neuropsychological screening. Ss also were administered the short version of the WAIS, plus Digit Span. It was found that LM did relate more to verbal IQ than to spatial IQ and vice-versa for RO. It was not clear exactly what aspect of cognitive functioning Digit Span was tapping. The clinical implications of the study are that LM scores must be viewed in the light of verbal IQ level, and RO scores interpreted in relation to both spatial IQ and age. Data are presented that can be used for the statistical interpretation of an individual case test scores.

A Note on Intelligence and Recovery from Aphasia: the Relationship between Raven's Matrices Scores and Change on the Schuell Aphasia Test

A total of 134 aphasia cases were examined on average five months after the trauma (mainly CVA). Most of the cases were administered the Schuell test of aphasia, some were given the Coloured Matrices test (CM), and some the Standard Matrices test (SM). In addition, 53 of these cases were retested on average nine months after the trauma, to look for recovery phenomena. It was found that total score on the Schuell test did improve dramatically (error scores reducing by 37%) but that there was no change in either CM or SM (in fact there was a slight decline of about 10%). It was further found that non-verbal intelligence as measured by CM correlated in a negative direction with severity of aphasia and positively with recovery from aphasia (once certain key variables were partialled out statistically, such as initial level of severity). In contrast, SM failed to correlate with either severity or recovery, a finding that could be attributable to the small number of cases tested on SM. Various explanations of t...

Categories of Aphasia: a cluster-analysis of Schuell test profiles

SummarySchuell test scores obtained from 86 aphasic cases were submitted to cluster-analysis, which is a mathematical and statistical way of picking out groups of subjects with similar profiles. The number of groups thus obtained was four, these groups being aligned along a dimension of severity. This finding therefore contradicts Schuels claim that her test yields seven groups defined by symptomological pattern. However, it was found that the seven Schuell types bore a loose but systematic relationship to our four types (that we have labelled Severe, High-moderate, Low-moderate, and Mild) and it was also noted that Schuell herself had considered collapsing her types onto a severity-based system. Having described a typology far more mathematically sound than Schuels, the theoretical implications of the results were discussed.

Fine Grained Stereotyping and the Structure of Social Cognition

Summary One hundred Ss (50 of each sex) were used to re-examine the hypothesis that persons of similar body build can create markedly different social impressions. While this phenomenon had been demonstrated earlier, the present investigation employed bipolar grading scales, rather than ranking, to ensure that the Ss were not being forced to make discriminations which would be otherwise ignored. Clear evidence was obtained which showed that relatively small differences in body build resulted in notably different attributions, supporting the notion that stereotyping is “fine grained”: i.e. based on continua rather than categories. Extremity of body build, irrespective of type, was also found to be an important variable, resulting in a downgrading of judgment in 23 out of 24 comparisons. Previously observed sex differences were also confirmed.

Application of the guilty-knowledge technique in a case of pseudologia fantastica

Abstract The condition of pseudologia fantastica is described. The case history is presented of a 36-year-old man who, for more than 20 years, has systematically practised deceipt to obtain both a more desirable persona and pecuniary advantage. On the EPQ he tests as extremely high on Toughmindedness (P), Neuroticism (N) and Criminality (C), thereby supporting the psychiatric view that pseudologes have much in common with psychopathic and personality-disordered groups. A study using the guilty- knowledge technique is described, testing the hypothesis that Mr S can lie and deceive with complete ease, undetectable by physiological (GSR) responses. This hypothesis is firmly rejected, the results suggesting on the contrary that pseudologes experience far more unease or guilt than has been previously assumed. A model of the pseudologes behaviour is outlined in which the observed belief in an almost delusional system is initiated and maintained by the anxiety and guilt reduction that it affords.

CONCORDANCE COEFFICIENT (W), CORRECTION FOR THE INEQUALITY OF INTERVAL IN THE UNDERLYING RHOS

The coefficient of concordance (W) was computed by two methods, (1) by arithmetic averaging of the underlying rhos (rs) and (2) by transforming the rss to an equal-interval scale before averaging. The first method is traditional, while the second method is, methodologically, more correct in that rs is not an equal-interval statistic. Method 2, for which a computer program had to be written (available from the authors), yielded Ws which were, on the average, 12% larger than those of Method 1. The magnitude of difference suggests that either method is satisfactory for indicating the gross degree of concordance. However, if a comparison between matched-groups is contemplated, then the more accurate method seems appropriate. Further, it was found that Method 2 was less affected by irregularities in the data, e.g., small number of atypical Ss, than was Method 1. Five sets of data, covering a wide range of Ws and Ns, were presented and the relationship between the corrected W, sample size, and the traditional W were also considered.

SUBJECTIVE FACTORS IN SOCIAL STEREOTYPING AND IMPRESSION FORMATION

Stereotyping, the process of forming judgments from limited cues, was assessed by both the coefficient of concordance (W) and the mean intercorrelation between antonyms (rs). In the context of the study, W reflects social stereotyping while rs reflects a combination of social and individual stereotyping. The experimental Ss ranked 6 female physiques from those most-suiting to those least-suiting each of 15 traits. Embedded randomly within the 15 traits were three pairs of antonyms which form the basis of the present paper. Analysis of the antonymal data showed that in all three cases rs was of greater magnitude than W, suggesting that rs is a more accurate estimator of total stereotyping than is W. In terms of variance explained, rs was approximately twice the magnitude of W, implying that measures such as W, χ3, and analysis of variance, which ignore subjective factors, greatly underestimate stereotyping. Finally, it was pointed out that the same problem exists in impression formation, where tests such as analysis of variance may, by excluding subjective factors, underestimate the potency of target-persons and traits. In contrast, it was noted that factor analysis and related techniques were potentially immune from these distortions.