Primary process thinking, divergent thinking, and coping in children

The relationships among primary process thinking, divergent thinking, and coping were investigated in fifth-grade children. Specifically, it was hypothesized from psychodynamic theory that access to and integration of primary process thinking would be positively related to divergent thinking and that both integration of primary process and divergent thinking would be predictive of coping ability. The Rorschach (Holt's scoring system) and Alternate Uses Test (spontaneous flexibility score) were administered to 53 fifth-grade children. Zeitlin's Coping Inventory, a teacher's rating scale, was the coping measure. Results confirmed the hypotheses for boys in that the percentage of primary process and the Adaptive Regression score on the Rorschach were significantly related to divergent thinking, r(27) = .33, p less than .05 and r(27) = .34, p less than .05, respectively. Divergent thinking was significantly related to teachers' ratings of coping ability for boys, r(27) = .58, p less than .01. There were no significant relationships among the variables for girls. These sex differences in the pattern of correlations are consistent with previous findings.     

Affective Expression in Children's Fantasy Play,Primary Process Thinking on the Rorschach,and Divergent Thinking

The relationships among expression of primary process thinking on the Rorschach, affective expression in fantasy play, and divergent thinking were investigated in first and second grade children. Sixty children received the Rorschach (Holt's scoring system), a play task (Affect in Play Scale), and the Alternate Uses Test. Major hypotheses were supported because the amount of primary process thinking on the Rorschach (frequency and percent) was significantly, positively related to amount of affective expression and primary process expression in play. Also, expression of affect in play (frequency, variety, integration, and comfort) was significantly, positively related to divergent thinking, independent of IQ for both boys and girls. On the Rorschach, percent of primary process was significantly related to divergent thinking for boys. The results suggest that the ability to think imaginatively in a free-association style and the ability to have access to affect-laden material are related processes.     

Affective expression in children's fantasy play, primary process thinking on the Rorschach, and divergent thinking

The relationships among expression of primary process thinking on the Rorschach, affective expression in fantasy play, and divergent thinking were investigated in first and second grade children. Sixty children received the rorschach (Holt's scoring system), a play task (Affect in Play Scale), and the Alternate Uses Test. Major hypotheses were supported because the amount of primary process thinking on the Rorschach (frequency and percent) was significantly, positively related to amount of affective expression and primary process expression in play. Also, expression of affect in play (frequency, variety, integration, and comfort) was significantly, positively related to divergent thinking, independent of IQ for both boys and girls. On the Rorschach, percent of primary process was significantly related to divergent thinking for boys. The results suggest that the ability to think imaginatively in a free-association style and the ability to have access to affect-laden material are related processes.     

Sex differences in primary process thinking and flexibility in problem-solving in children

The relationship between primary process thinking and flexibility in problem-solving was investigated. Specifically, it was hypothesized from psychodynamic theory that primary process integration on the Rorschach (Holt's scoring system) would be positively related to the capacity to shift problem-solving strategies on the Luchins' water-jar test. The Rorschach and water-jar test were individually administered to 47 third grade children. The hypothesis was confirmed for boys in that the Adaptive Regression score on the Rorschach was significantly related to performance on Luchins' water-jar test (r = .64, df = 16, p < .01). This relationship remained significant when IQ was partialed out (r = .59, df = 16, p < .01). There was no relationship between primary process integration and flexibility in problem solving for girls (r = .02, df = 26, NS). These results and sex differences were replicated with a second sample of children. Consistent sex differences also were found in the amount of primary process material expressed. Girls showed a significantly smaller percentage of primary process material than boys. Primary process integration was also related to Iowa test achievement scores, independent of IQ. This finding is consistent with previous studies.     

Primary process thinking and anxiety in children

The relationship between primary process thinking and two measures of anxiety was investigated in fourth- and fifth-grade children. Holt's Scoring System for Primary Process Responses on the Rorschach was the measure of primary process thinking. The major hypotheses were supported for boys in that frequency of expression of primary process material was positively related to behavioral manifestations of anxiety as measured by the Teacher's Rating Scale. Also, controlled access to and integration of primary process was negatively related to teacher's ratings of anxiety. There were no significant results for girls. Primary process measures were not related to the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory for Children. Possible reasons for the different relationships between the primary process measures and the anxiety measures are discussed.     

Primary process integration on the Rorschach and achievement in children: a follow-up study

The purpose of the present study was to follow-up children who had participated in a previous study which investigated the relationship between primary process integration and achievement. The major hypothesis of this follow-up study was supported in that Adaptive Regression (Holt's primary process integration measure on the Rorschach) was significantly positively related to reading achievement (r = .52, p < .001) and to overall achievement (r = .49) in third-grade children. These relationships remained significant when IQ was partialed out. Second-grade AR scores were significantly predictive of third-grade reading (r = .29, p < .05). The correlations between third-grade AR scores and achievement are similar in magnitude to second-grade correlations between these variables. This finding points to the consistency of the relationship between primary process integration and achievement over a one-year period.     

Differentiating Ego Functions of Borderline and Narcissistic Personalities

This study investigated differences in ego functions of borderline and narcissistic personality disorders through examining responses to Rorschach structural and content variables. Reality testing, thought process, affective regulation, impulse control, and the defenses of splitting and grandiosity were examined from Rorschach protocols of 50 borderlines and 26 narcissists. The borderlines produced greater distortion in reality testing, p < .05; the narcissists produced more insidious thought process disturbance, p < .05; and higher functioning groups demonstrated greater control of impulses, p < .05. Borderlines in this sample demonstrated more affective constriction than the narcissists and used more splitting, p < .05; narcissists used more grandiosity, p < .05. Implications of this study are (a) ego functions mature inconsistently, (b) affective responsivity influences ego disorganization, and (c) level of functioning and IQ are related to the production of Rorschach variables.     

Assessing Concrete and Abstract Thinking With the Draw-a-Person Technique

In this study, we examined the Draw-a-Person (DAP) technique as an indicator of concrete/literal and abstract thinking, Subjects (N = 50) included schizophrenic inpatients (n = 25) and college students (n = 25). Fourteen possible indicators of concrete/literal or abstract thinking on the DAP were generated based on theoretical considerations and prior research. Five indicators were eliminated because of their low interrater reliability. The Proverbs Test (Gotham, 1956) was used to establish evidence of concrete/literal and abstract thinking. Scores from the DAP and the Proverbs Test were correlated. Composite scores on the DAP were highly correlated (r = .52, p < .01) with the corresponding Proverbs Test score. In addition, abstract scores on the DAP were correlated (r = .54, p < .01) with a similar Proverbs Test score.. Concrete/literal DAP scores did not correlate significantly (r = .20, p > .05) with concrete/literal Proverb Test scores. Results indicate the potential for using the DAP technique to assess concrete/literal and abstract thinking when a nonverbal test is needed.     

Information,Experience, and Divergent Thinking: An Empirical Test

ABSTRACT: Divergent thinking tests are often used to estimate the potential for creative problem solving. Scores on these tests may, however, reflect a kind of experiential bias. Similar biases once plagued IQ tests, the idea being that scores reflect the individual's background and information in long-term memory as much as ability per se. The investigation reported here attempted to assess the role of experience, knowledge, and memory in divergent thinking by comparing 2 kinds of tasks. One was a standard divergent thinking task (e.g., "list uses for a shoe," "uses for a brick," "uses for a newspaper"). The other allowed a number of responses but required that the examinee produce factual, knowledge- based responses. A second objective here was to compare standard- and knowledge-based ideation with tasks that shared 1 domain (e.g., transportation) with tasks that did not share a domain. Results indicated that there was a statistically significant correlation between the 2 types of tasks but only when they shared 1 domain. This was confirmed with product–moment correlations (r = .37, p = .025) and a canonical correlation (Rc = .69, p = 008). The correlations were not significant when the tasks represented different domains. It is interesting to note that both the knowledge-based and the standard divergent thinking tasks were unrelated to grade point average, which supports their discriminant validity. Limitations and directions for future research are suggested.     

Alcoholism and the Rorschach

This study attempts to cross validate 20 hypotheses reported over the past three decades professing to differentiate alcoholics from non-alcoholics using the Rorschach. Comparison groups (N = 25 each) were matched for age, sex, race, income and education, and diagnosis. Each S received the Rorschach and a test to rule out “organicity”. Rorschach scoring was consensually validated and Chi squares were performed for all twenty hypotheses. Through the careful selection and matching of control and experimental groups, only two significant differences were found, both in the direction opposite to that predicted. Non-alcoholics gave 4 or more water responses significantly more often than alcoholics (p < .05) and significantly more “high CF with C” scores (p < .05).     

Directory of Members of the Society for Projective Techniques as of March 1, 1964

The appearance of depressive features, as reflected by responses to the Rorschach test, were explored in two groups of children from divorced and nondivorced families (referred to here as divorce and nondivorce children). The relationships between the depression scores and the children's hostility, aggression, and anxiety levels were also studied. The Rorschach Inkblot Test was individually administered to a nonclinical sample of 108 Swedish school children between 10 and 12 years old. The subjects constituted two groups,, a divorce group (27 girls, 27 boys) and a nondivorce group (27 girls, 27 boys). Divorce children scored significantly higher on Exner's (1986) Depression Index than their nondivorce peers. Furthermore, divorce children with depressive features in their Rorschach responses were found to have a high level of hostility and aggression (as manifested in their Rorschach protocols), whereas no such associations were found among nondivorce children.     

Effects on High School Students of a Teaching Module for Reducing Homophobia

Outcomes of an antihomophobia teaching unit for 130 high school students were evaluated in a pretest-posttest follow-up design, with gender and school type as independent variables. Dependent variables were cognition (Modified Attitudes Toward Homosexuality Scale; Price, 1982); homophobic guilt, homophobic anger, and delight (Affective Reactions to Homosexuality Scale; Van de Ven, Bornholt, & Bailey, in press); behavioral intentions (Homophobic Behavior of Students Scale; Van de Ven et al., in press); and short-story responses. Multivariate analyses of variance revealed that participants' anger (p < .05) and behavioral intentions (p < .0005) were significantly less homophobic at posttest and follow-up. Analyses of the cognition variable showed that hostility toward homosexuals was significantly reduced for girls (p < .0005) and initially for boys (p < .0005); however, boys reverted to previous levels of homophobia on this variable at 3-month follow-up. Similarly, analyses of the delight variable for students in single-sex schools showed that girls became less hostile (p < .05) and maintained their reduced levels of homophobia, whereas boys became less hostile initially (p < .05) but then regressed. The intervention had no effect on students' guilt and no effect on delight for coeducational students. Analysis of all participants' short-story content using sign tests indicated that the instruction had the desired effect (p < .005). However, only the female, coeducational school cohort yielded significant results (p < .05). The findings reinforce the importance of using multiple dependent measures of homophobic response and of collecting follow-up data. They also imply that extensions of the unit are warranted, especially in the absence of longer term impact for boys.     

Intelligence and regional brain volumes in normal controls

The relationship between brain size and intelligence was examined in a large sample of healthy normal volunteers (N = 90). In addition to confirmation of the small but significant relationship between IQ and whole brain volume (r = 0.25, p < .05) using magnetic resonance imaging, regional differences were examined using a completely automated procedure to generate lobar volumes to address questions related to regional specificity and its relationship to intelligence. A significant positive relationship was found between measures of full scale IQ and frontal (r = 0.25, p < .05) and temporal (r = 0.28, p < .01) regions, although when correlations across different brain regions were tested against each other, there was no evidence of regional specificity. In addition, no laterality effects were seen. Correlations between WAIS-R subtest scores and brain regions indicated few correlations between verbal subtest scores and brain size, but several significant correlations between the performance subtest scores and frontal, temporal, parietal, and cerebellar brain regions. These results support the notion of a modest relationship between brain size and measures of global intelligence and suggest diffuse brain involvement on performance tasks which require integration and use of multiple cognitive domains.     

Differentiating ego functions of borderline and narcissistic personalities

This study investigated differences in ego functions of borderline and narcissistic personality disorders through examining responses to Rorschach structural and content variables. Reality testing, thought process, affective regulation, impulse control, and the defenses of splitting and grandiosity were examined from Rorschach protocols of 50 borderlines and 26 narcissists. The borderlines produced greater distortion in reality testing, p less than .05; the narcissists produced more insidious thought process disturbance, p less than .05; and higher functioning groups demonstrated greater control of impulses, p less than .05. Borderlines in this sample demonstrated more affective constriction than the narcissists and used more splitting, p less than .05; narcissists used more grandiosity, p less than .05. Implications of this study are (a) ego functions mature inconsistently, (b) affective responsivity influences ego disorganization, and (c) level of functioning and IQ are related to the production of Rorschach variables.     

Intelligence and the Rorschach Whole Response

Previous research on the relation between intelligence and Rorschach W responses has produced inconclusive results. The problem was re-examined with methodological improvements. Ss were 58 latency and pre-adolescent boys. Rorschach W responses were coded to Friedman's developmental scoring system, and response frequencies in these categories were correlated with WISC IQ and subtest scaled scores. IQ scores were significantly related to one of two types of developmentally advanced W responses as predicted (r = .33), and no meaningful pattern of correlations was found between the developmentally more primitive types of W responses and IQ.     

A Rorschach Study of Narcissism Defense,and Aggression in Borderline,Narcissistic, and Cluster C Personality Disorders

We examined the differences between narcissism, mode of defense, and level of aggression on the Rorschach. We also investigated differences in borderline, narcissistic, and Cluster C personality disorders by examining responses to Rorschach content variables. The Lerner Defense Scale (P. Lerner & H. Lerner, 1980), the aggressive content section of the Holt (1977) method for assessing primary process manifestations, a modified version of Exner's (1986a) Egocentricity Index, Wagner's (1965) exhibitionistic M score, and grandiosity were scored on the Rorschach protocols of 17 borderline, I7 narcissistic, and 17 Cluster C personality disorders. Borderlines were found to employ primitive defensive structures to a greater degree and severity, show more intense and overall aggression as welt as more responses on the three forms of aggression in the Holt method, and have higher levels of grandiosity. Narcissists evinced significantly higher levels of egocentricity than borderlines and higher levels of idealization than the Cluster C group. Convergent validity was found on the measures of defense and aggression, which showed a strong relationship between primitive aggression and primitive defense.     

Perceptual and Cognitive Processes in Different States of Consciousness: The Waking State and Hypnosis

Hypnosis was assumed to influence perceptual and cognitive functioning in the direction of increased primary process ideation and adaptive regression. The Rorschach test was administered to 32 Ss in the waking state and under hypnosis in counterbalanced order. Hypnosis was induced by a standardized procedure. Ss received identical instructions for the Rorschach in both conditions. Protocols were scored according to Holt's system for manifestations and control of primary process. Hypnotic Rorschachs showed an increase in primary process manifestations, but no changes in defensive and coping functioning, and no overall changes in the Adaptive Regression Score. However, the nature of the data was found to be influenced by Ss' sex and level of adjustment.     

Depression,Alexithymia, and Pain Prone Disorder: A Rorschach Study

The relationship between depression and chronic low back pain (LBP) is controversial. Theorists differ in the emphasis they place on predisposing versus reactive factors in LBP disability and depression. Alexithymia has been suggested as a predisposing factor in psychosomatic disorders, including chronic LBP. This study addresses the association between depression, alexithymia, and LBP using the Rorschach comprehensive system. LBP patients were hypothesized to be distinguishable from Research Diagnostic Criteria-diagnosed inpatient depressives, to exhibit features of alexithymia, and to resemble a group of DSM-III personality disorders. Subjects were 33 chronic LBP patients. Results supported the hypotheses. On depression measures, LBP patients differed significantly from depressives (p < .001). LBP patients exhibited Rorschach features consistent with alexithymia. They also exhibited a number of similarities to the personality disorders group. The role of alexithymia as a cognitive-mediating factor in coping and adaptation is discussed.