Doctoral Dissertations

Date of Award

5-1994

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

Major

Psychology

Major Professor

Alvin G. Burstein

Committee Members

John Lounsbury, Wes Morgan, Robert Jronick

Abstract

This study evaluated relationships between specific dimensions of two major personality assessment instruments. Psychoanalytic developmental theory describes oral, anal, and phallic character types associated with the fixation of libido at various developmental epochs. A measure for psychosexual drive from Burstein and Loucks' scoring system for Rorschach's test was used to operationalize the concept of psychosexually-based character structure. In contrast, Tellegen and his associates have developed an empirically derived Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire (MPQ). The question addressed by this study is whether membership based on psychosexual scores on Rorschach's test can be predicted by traits as measured by Tellegen's test. Sixty-two subjects out of a larger subject pool were identified as being oral, anal, or phallic characters, or as "neutralized" by applying a set of rules employing the Burstein-Loucks psychosexual drive score. A canonical discriminant function analysis was performed employing the eleven primary traits of the MPQ as predictor variables in discriminant equations. The analysis was able to correctly classify subjects sixty-two percent of the time, a statistically significant result. Results of the analysis were found to be generally consistent with the descriptions of psychosexual character types found in the literature of psychosexual drive theory. Given that identification of these character types was based on only a single part of the information available in the Rorschach protocol, results are interpreted as representing convincing evidence of the validity of the constructs underlying both these divergent systems of organizing personality.

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