PURDUE UNIVERSITY THIS IS TO CERTIFY THAT THE THESIS PREPARED UNDER MY SUPERVISION BY COMPUTES WITH THE UNIVERSITY REGULATIONS ON GRADUATION THESES AND IS APPROVED BY ME AS FULFILLING THIS PART OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF Professor in Charge of Thesis Head of School or Department f ô O TO THE LIBRARIAN:----- *3— THIS THESIS IS NOT TO BE REGARDED AS CONFIDENTIAL. PROFESS OB Di CHARGE grad, SCHOOL FORM 9—3-4 9—1M A COMPARISON OP THE FANTASY PRODUCTIONS ON THE THEMATIC APPERCEPTION TEST OF SIXTY HOSPITALIZED PSYCHONEUROTIC AND PSYCHOTIC PATIENTS A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of Purdue University by Arthur H* Davison In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy August, 1950 ProQuest Number: 27714124 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. uest ProQuest 27714124 Published by ProQuest LLC (2019). Copyright of the Dissertation is held by the Author. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. ProQuest LLC. 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106 - 1346 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The author wishes to express his sincere gratitude to Dr* Lawrence M. Baker for directing the research problem, for serving as a judge in establishing the reliability of the scoring scheme used in analyzing the data, and for his constructive criticism throughout the progress of the study• The author also wishes to express his appreciation to Dr. John M. Hadley for his encouragement and advice, to Dr. Irving W. Burr for suggesting the statistical procedures used in the study and to Mr. Lee Gurel for his valuable as­ sistance in serving as a judge. A further word of thanks is due to Dr. Reuben Fine, Staff Psychologist at the Kingsbridge V. A. Hospital, New York City, who developed and suggested the author's utilization of the technique for scoring Thematic Apperception Test records. Thanks are also due to Dr. Robert S. Morrow, Chief Psychologist at the Kingsbridge V. A* Hos­ pital, New York City and Dr. Ronald M. Wolfe, Chief Psycho­ logist at the V. A. Hospital, Chi111cothe, Ohio, for allow­ ing the author to select Thematic Apperception Test records from the files of their respective hospitals. Finally, the author wishes to express his indebtedness to the sixty sub­ jects, who of course must remain anonymous, for their co­ operation in making the study possible. i VITA Arthur H. Davison Born October 19, 1924 New York City, New York Academic Career: 1945 B.8., College of the City of New York 1946 M.A*, State University of Iowa 1946-1947 Michigan State College 1947-1950 Candidate for Ph.D., Purdue University Professional Career: 1946 Psychological Intern, Norwich State Hospital, Norwich, Conn. 1946—1947 Psychological Intern, Boy* s Vocational School, Lansing, Mich. 1947 Instructor (Part-time), Michigan State College, East Lansing, Michigan 1947—1950 Clinical Psychology Trainee, Veterans Administration Hospital, Marion, Indiana^ Veterans Administra­ tion Hospital, Fort Benjamin Harrison, Indiana and Veterans Administration Mental Hygiene Clinic, Indianapolis, Indiana, in cooperation with Purdue University. 1949—1950 Lecturer, Indiana University, Kokomo Extension, Kokomo, Indiana. Organizations: American Psychological Association Midwestern Psychological Association Indiana Psychological Association Sigma XI ii ABSTRACT DAVISON, ARTHUR H. , "A COMPARISON OF THE FANTASY PRODUCTIONS ON THE THEMATIC APPERCEPTION TEST OF SIXTY HOSPITALIZED PSYCHONEUROTIC AND PSYCHOTIC PATIENTS", August, 1950, 120 pages, 30 Tables, Bibliography» Thematic Apperception Test records of 60 hospitalized, white, male. World War II veterans, divided into 6 diagnostic groups of 10 each were analyzed in terms of feelings, out­ comes and interpersonal relationships. The groups included anxiety réactivés, conversion reactives, depressive réac­ tivés, catatonic schizophrenics, hebephrenic schizophrenics and paranoid schizophrenics. The main objective of the study was to determine the extent to which the TAT could be used as a means of dif­ ferentiating between the groups on a specified number of variables. Secondary considerations were, first, the differ­ ential value of the cards in eliciting fantasy material and, second, the extent to which fantasy production may depend upon the stimulus properties of the cards rather than upon actual group differences. The results indicated that, to some extent certain clinical groups could be differentiated from others at the 5% confidence level in terms of a significantly low or high iii incidence of certain variables* Tbe results were based upon the control chart method of analysis of data* The most clear-cut differentiations pertained to the depressive reactive group who offered a significantly high number of instances of hostility in all its nuances (verbal, physical, death), conflict, frustration and doubt* They ap­ proached the 5% significance level for expressions of guilt* They offered a significantly high number of unfavorable out­ comes and significantly more interpersonal - relationships than any other clinical group* With respect to the latter, they showed ambivalence in that they offered a significantly high incidence of relationships involving both moving toward and moving against on the part of characters in the stories. The group also expressed a significantly high number of man- woman relationships, the implications of which were not en­ tirely clear* Schizophrenics, for the most part, could be differen­ tiated from psychoneurotics mostly on the basis of formal characteristics of their stories. These included such things as bizarre verbalizations, illogical twists, guarding and evasion and other pathological indices for which they scored significantly high* Hebephrenic and catatonic schizophrenics offered significantly more instances of no relationships be— iv tween characters than any of the other clinical groups• The hebephrenic schizophrenics offered significantly few child-mother relationships, and the catatonic schizophrenics significantly few man-man relationships. The implications of these findings were not entirely clear and further re­ search in this area, employing more detailed analysis of data, a normal group and a greater number of subjects, was suggested. Cards 3BM, 4, 6BM, 13MF and 18GF seemed to stimulate more fantasy production than any of the other cards. Cards 5, 9BM, 11, 16 and 17BM were poorest in this respect. The findings suggested that the stimulus properties of the cards themselves might be important factors in de­ termining fantasy production, since certain cards seemed to elicit characteristic feelings and interpersonal relation­ ships regardless of clinical classification of subjects. Additional research with the aim of establishing more ade­ quate normative data was suggested. In conclusion, "the results of the present investiga­ tion suggest that the TAT, at least to some extent, may be useful in differential clinical diagnosis. This seems to follow since it has been demonstrated that certain kinds of responses apparently are emphasized more by certain groups v than by others♦ On the other hand, since no type of re­ sponse is exclusive to or definitive of any one clinical group, the test probably can be used to best advantage as a means of studying personality dynamics, per se. The findings of this study indicate that the TAT, used as a research tool, may have considerable potentialities in this challenging and extremely important area of clinical research." vi