James L. Hafner

Early Recollections of Individuals Preparing for Careers in Clinical Psychology, Dentistry, and Law.

Abstract This study compared the early recollections (ERs) of three groups of students preparing for careers in clinical psychology, dentistry, and law. Recollections of psychology students showed significantly more “negative affect,” “threatening situations,” and “less reference to groups of people” than did the other two groups. “School” was mentioned significantly more in the ERs of law students than in the ERs of the other groups. Law students reported ERs which indicated the highest frequency of the “active dimension,” dentistry students the least. The implications of the findings for vocational choice are discusssed.

Age, Sex, Race, and the Lüscher Color Test

Scores on Lüscher Color Test are claimed to be independent of age, sex, and race. The test was administered to 102 consecutive admissions (71 males, 31 females; 35 Negroes, 67 Caucasians) to an acute psychiatric inpatient unit. The preference for each of the 8 Lüscher colors was correlated with age, sex, and race. Two of the 48 biserial correlations were significant (p = .05). Negroes demonstrated significantly greater preference for grey than did Caucasians. Females showed significantly greater preference for red than males. These results are essentially supportive of the Lüscher premise, i.e., age, sex, and race are independent of color preference.

The development of a WAIS short form for clinical populations

Assessed the validity of a brief form of the WAIS in the evaluation of several clinical populations. The short form was composed of three subtests: Similarities, Picture Arrangement, and Block Design. The sample consisted of 27 schizophrenics, paranoid type; 30 schizophrenics, schizoid-affective type, 29 schizophrenics, chronic undifferentiated type; and 28 organics (brain syndrome patients). Correlations were computed between the weighted IQ scores of each population and the Full Scale IQ. Correlations of .94 for chronic undifferentiated schizophrenics and .81 for organics were particularly noteworthy. Moreover, this triad of subtests underestimated the IQ score for organics by 7.11 points, which suggests that the constant used with this population should be corrected appropriately.

Early Recollections of First-Borns.

Compared the early recollections of 50 first-borns and 98 later-borns. The first-borns mentioned significantly more nonfamily members, illness/injury, hospital/doctors office in their early recollections than did later-borns. Later-borns, on the other hand, mentioned significantly more siblings than did first-borns. With regard to other variables, there were no significant differences in early recollections of the two groups. Findings were discussed in the context of Adlers personality theory.

Early recollections of alcoholic women

Early recollections of 27 alcoholic women were significantly different from those of 30 control subjects. Recollections of alcoholics suggested more disturbed relationships with family and nonfamily members, more references to incidents that elicited fear, anxiety, and other negative affects, and little acceptance of responsibility for what happens in their memories. Utilizations of these results must be viewed cautiously until further investigation with larger and varied samples provides additional supporting evidence.

Early Recollections of Women Preparing for Nursing Careers

Early recollections of 35 nursing students were significantly different from those of a group of 38 nonnursing majors. Recollections of nursing students suggested more mastery and vigorous physical movements. The settings of the incidents of nursing students were less frequently inside their homes. Recollections of nursing students suggest that their actions are usually the results of their own decisions. If confirmed on cross-validation with larger and varied samples, such indicators might be used with other sources of information for vocational counseling.

EARLY RECOLLECTIONS OF NEUROTIC DEPRESSIVE PATIENTS

Early recollections of 25 neurotic depressive patients were significantly different from those of 25 control subjects. The recollections of neurotic depressive patients suggested more disturbed relationships with family members, more references to incidents that elicited fear, anxiety, or other negative affects, and little acceptance of responsibility for what happens in their memories. If confirmed for a much larger sample, such signs might be used with other sources of information for diagnostic and treatment purposes.

Family Size, Birth Order, Sex and Social Interest: Are They Related?

This study of relations of family size, birth order, sex, and social interest for 125 volunteer subjects yielded no significant relationship among birth order, sex, and social interest. Family size was related to social interest; persons coming from small families had higher Social Interest scores than persons coming from large families. The findings are discussed with regard to internal consistency of these constructs within Alfred Adlers theory.

Early Recollections, Present Crises, and Future Plans in Psychotic Patients

To assess relationships among early recollections, present crises, and future goals 118 hospitalized patients with different psychiatric diagnoses were interviewed about problems, plans and two early childhood recollections. Relationships among these recollections, present crises, and future plans were identified and recorded for each patient by two psychologists. There was a greater frequency of relationships between early childhood recollections and present crises than between such recollections and future goals or present crises and future goals (χ3 = 34.91, df 1, p < .001).

The use of a modified administrative procedure (MAP) for the bender‐gestalt test with schizophrenic patients and normals

Advocated a modified procedure for administering the Bender Gestalt Test that involves administering the BG in a conventional way and, after a brief intervening period, a second administration with specific instructions to copy the BG designs exactly. Three subtypes of schizophrenia and a normal control group were studied: 25 paranoids, 25 chronic undifferentiated, 25 schizoaffectives, and 25 controls. Each schizophrenic subgroup demonstrated significant improvement in performance on the BG when the modified administrative procedure was employed. Some implications of the findings are discussed.