Richard W. Coan

Dimensions of Experienced Control

Summary An inventory of 130 items designed to tap many facets of experienced control was factor analyzed. Eighteen oblique factors were derived. Correlations with other measures included in a six-hour personality battery were consistent with the interpretations assigned to the factors. Three item analyses and another factor analysis were undertaken for the purpose of developing a revised inventory that contains refined and expanded scales for seven factors. The dimensions measured by the revised instrument have been found to be related to intellectual performance, problems of weight control, marijuana usage, and various patterns of psychological dependence.

THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE EARLY SCHOOL PERSONALITY QUESTIONNAIRE

IN THE course of an extensive investigation of personality in middle childhood, a200-itemgroup questionnaire was constructed. It was adminis tered to two samples of firstand second-grade children. One sample consisted of 151 children from the public schools of Mahomet and Rantoul, Illinois. The other consisted of 181 children in Decatur, Illinois. The item data from the two samples were subjected independently to factor analysis. Each study culminated in 18 obliquely rotated factors. This work was reported in two earlier articles (4,7). In one of these articles (7), the alignment of the two sets of factors was considered. When a combination of criteria was applied, it was found that there was reasonably clear matching for 11 factors from either study with a corresponding set of 11 factors from the other study.

A RE-EXAMINATION OF PERSONALITY STRUCTURE IN LATE CHILDHOOD, AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE HIGH SCHOOL PERSONALITY QUESTIONNAIRE

UNTIL VERY recently in the history of fac tored personality measurement, there has been only one factored questionnaire instrum e n t f o r use at a child level. This instrument, first named the Junior Personality Quiz (JPQ), was derived from research which has been reported by Cattell and Gruen (15), and Cattell and Beloff (12). Psychologically, the JPQ factors general ly bear a close relationship to factors which have been found also at the adult level, and this rela tion has been proved by correlation (12). If such an instrument is to become widely used, either for practical or research purposes, there is, however, a need, scientifically, for re-examina tion of the structure of its component factors, up on an independent sample (for experience shows some fluctuation in simple structure). There is, also, a practical need for the extension of the scale into an equivalent B form, to give the in creased reliabilities possible from longer testing. Immediate practical aims were, therefore, (1) checking the factor structure, particularly the rotational resolution, (2) intensifying the scales, (3) extending the scales, and (4) checking the identification of the factors against those estab lished at later ages, and possibly adding one or two additional factor scales that might prove im portant. However, for the benefit of the reader unfamiliar with the several, previous, related publications (5, 9,14,15,17), it shouldbe pointed out that this research on personality structure in questionnaire responses in the age range 12 through 17 years, is also a planned part of a more general basic research program cone e rn ing personality and motivation structure. This broader program has had as its objectives the de termination of personality structure, by factor analytic and related methods, in a coordinated attack, (1) over the three possible media of be havioral observation, namely, L-data, or life | behavior, in situ; Q-data, or response to ques tionnaires, from introspective self-evaluation; and T-data, or objective non-self-evaluative, test response behavior, and (2) over the develop mental age range, by cross-sectional structur ings at the adult level, at 14 years (as here) at 10 years, at 7years, and at 4 years of age . The general coordination of L-, Qand T-data find ings is discussed elsewhere (17), and this account will digress from the questionnaire findings in the 12-16 year range only to the point of referring to their integration with Q-data findings at neigh boring ages.

Alternative Views on the Evolution of Consciousness

Contemporary theories of the evolution of human consciousness vary with respect to the nature of the direction and assumed goal of evolutionary change. The most conspicuous positions on this issue emphasize what the author has called the modes of efficiency, inner harmony, relatedness, and transcendence. Nearly every theorist posits a universal course of change corresponding to one of these modes. Available evidence on historical developments in different cultures does not support such a position. It is more reasonable to assume many possible evolutionary pathways, but there may be a natural tendency for the pathways to converge ultimately toward a condition of flexible access to all modes of consciousness.