Perceived family functioning, interpersonal orientation, and Rorschach measures of aggression and mutuality of autonomy

This study examined the relationship between retrospectively reported family-of-origin functioning, present interpersonal adjustment, and fantasied perceptions of aggression and mutuality. One hundred seven archival protocols were scored for family functioning quality on the Colorado Self-report Measure of Family Functioning (CSMFF) (Bloom, 1985; Bloom & Lipetz, 1987; Bloom & Naar, 1994), interpersonal affiliativeness and hostility on the a portion of the Leary (1956) System of Interpersonal Personality Diagnosis, primary and secondary process manifestations of aggression on the Rorschach using a portion of Holt's (1977) content-scoring system, and Mutuality of Autonomy (MOA) (Urist, 1977; Urist & Shill, 1982) of relationships between perceived human, animal and object content on the Rorschach. Subjects reporting healthy family functioning, as remembered at age 12, were found to be significantly more affiliative than were subjects reporting unhealthy family functioning (p = .001). Family functioning subscales found to predict interpersonal orientation were somewhat different than hypothesized for the CSMFF, with Authoritarian Family Style, Cohesion, Democratic Family Style, and Conflict contributing approximately 40% of the overall variablity in affiliativeness in the present study. Subjects reporting unhealthy family functioning were no more likely to perceive primary and secondary process manifestions of aggression on the Rorschach than were subjects reporting healthy family functioning, although there was a trend in the expected direction (p = .76). Subjects reporting healthy family functioning were no more likely to perceive relationships on the Rorschach as more empathic and egalitarian than were subjects reporting unhealthy family functioning. Overall, subjects tended to be somewhat more interpersonally hostile, and more likely to perceive relationships between figures on the Rorschach as portraying malevolence and imbalance in mutuality, than would be expected in the general population. Results are discussed in terms of specific contributions of family functioning variables to the prediction of interpersonal adjustment, generalizability of results to other populations, and weaknesses in methodology. It is recommended that future research of this type employ a prospective longitudinal design. rather than rely solely on self-report and archival data.