AN ANALYSIS OF THE INFLUENCES OF SEX, CHRONOLOGICAL AGE, AND MENTAL AGE ON PERSONALITY FAC TORS S, T, D, C, R A Thesis Presented to the faculty of the Department of Psychology University of Southern California In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts *>y Howard Gray Martin September 1942 UMI Number: EP63923 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. DisssrHion Pbtaisnmg UMI EP63923 Published by ProQuest LLC (2014). Copyright in the Dissertation held by the Author. Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code ProQuest LLC. 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 4B106- 1346 This thesis, written by ... TOWARD ..HARTIN.............................. ^ 9 33 under the direction of hLs~ Faculty Committee, and approved by all its members, has been presented to and accepted by the Council on Graduate Study and Research in partial fulfill­ ment of the requirements for the degree of MASTE R...Q£..ARI& Secretary Rate S e_p £ emb.er.+19A2...... Faculty Committee Chairman TABLE OF G OH TENTS CHAPTER PACE I. THE PROBLEM . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Statement of the p ro b lem ......................................... 1 Importance of the study . . . . . . 1 I I . THE PROCEDURE AND RESULTS ...................................... 5 Subjects .................................................................... 5 Measurement of mental a g e ......................................... 5 Procedure . . . . . . . . . . . 5 III. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS................................................. 21 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Conclusions ........................................ 23 BIBLIOGRAPHY 26 LIST OF TABLES TABLE PAGE I. Means, standard deviations, and standard errors of means for males and females on each factor . 6 II. Differences, standard errors of differences, critical ratios, and probabilities of positive sex differences on each fa c to r.......................................... 6 III. Means, standard deviations, and standard errors of means of mental age categories for both sexes 7 IF. Differences, standard errors of differences, critical ratios, and probabilities of positive sex differences on each factor .................................. 9 V. Differences, standard errors of differences, critical ratios, and probabilities of significant differences between mental age categories for males ........................................................ 10 FI. Differences, standard errors of differences, critical ratios, and probabilities of significant differences between mental age categories for fe m a le s ................................................................................................. 12 FII. Means, standard deviations, standard errors of means of chronological age categories for both sexes on each factor ................................. 14 LIST OF IA.B1ES (continued) Till, Differences, standard errors of differences, critical ratios, and probabilities of positive sex differences on each factor , 15 IT: Differences, standard errors of differences, critical ratios, and probabilities of significant differences bet¥/een chronological age categories for males.................................................................................................. 17 X* Differences, standard errors of differences, critical ratios, and probabilities of significant differences between chronological age categories for. females • . 18 CHAPTER I THE PROBLEM The problem of finding unitary traits of personality . is being attacked by factor analysis techniques. To date, the. mathematical psychologists have succeeded in isolating certain clusters of behavior items from the bewildering tangle of personality, but the nature of these factors and their relat­ ions to other variables of personality remain to be explored. Within the limits described below, this thesis reports an attempt to discover the interrelations among three common variables and the personality complex known as factors S, T, I), C , and R. Statement of the problem. It was the purpose of this study to determine (1) the influence of sex on personality factors S, T,. D, C, and R; (2) the influence of chronological age on each of these factors,; and (3) the influence of mental age upon the factor scores. Importance of the study. Before the Guilfords1 an­ alyses of introversion-extroversion were completed,^ various J.P. Guilford and R.B. Guilford, An Analysis of the Factors in a Typical Test of Introversion-Extroversion, Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 28, 1933, 377-399 psychologists had made studies of the influences of sex, chronological age, and mental age on introvers ion- extrovers ion. Because these authors variously had emphasized the social, in­ tellectual, and emotional aspects of this personality dimen­ sion in their questionnaires, there was no comparability in their findings. After Guilford successfully had constructed aa inventory designed to isolate and measure the fundamental factors comprising the introversion-extroversion dimension, it was then possible to determine the influences of sex, ehrono 3,ogical age, and mental age on each of the factors in turn. This set of factors commonly is known as factors S, T, X), C, and R. The factors S, T, D, C, and R, taken together, probably cover the area of personality generally encompassed by the 4 concept of introversion-extroversion. These factors may be 5 described as follows: S - social introversion, as exhibited in shyness and ten- dencies to withdraw from social contacts T - thinking introversion, an inclination to meditative thinking, philosophizing, and analyzing one1s self and others 2 ' J.P. Guilford and Kenneth W. Braly, Extroversion a- nd Introversion, Psychological Bulletin, 27, 1930, 96-107 3J.P. Guilford, An Inventory of Factors S, T, D, C, and R, 1941, Sheridan Supply Company, Beverly Hills, California ^J.P. Guilford, Manual for Inventory for Factors S, T, D, C, and R, 1941 ,"S he rid an Supply Company, Beverly Hills, Call. 5Ibid., p. 1 3 B - depression, including feelings of unworthiness and guilt C_ - cycloid tendencies, as shown in strong emotional reactions, fluctuations in mood, and tendency to­ ward flightiness or instability H - rhathymia, a happy-go-lucky or carefree disposition; liveliness and impulsiveness These factors are "psychologically meaningful" clusteis of behavior items and thus meet the objection which has been raised of the "unintelligibility" of the results-of such cor­ relation analyses*6 They are objectively demonstrable units ot personality as opposed to personality traits by fiat. Each factor represents a dimension of personality with two opposite poles, that is, a dichotoay. In each case one end of the scale is arbitrarily named the positive end. S, T, and B poles include characteristics traditionally regarded as in- trovertive. The R pole includes extrovertive tendencies and the C pole includes.some of both, e.g., day dreaming and emot­ ional impulsiveness. The application of the Spearman-Brown formula to equi­ valent halves of the inventory gave estimated reliabilities of .98, .89, .91, and .89 for factors S, T, B, C, and R respect- 7 ively.' Gordon W. Allport, Personality; a Psychological Inter pretation, McGraw-Hill Company, Hew York, 1937 7 J.P. Guilford, op. c it., page 1 4 Chapter II describes the procedure followed and en­ umerates the results obtained. Chapter III contains the sum­ mary of the thesis and the conclusions derived from the results. Embodied in the discussion of the conclusions are several suggestions for further research studies which resulted from the findings of this thesis.