The birth of the Society of Multivariate Experimental Psychology

This paper describes the inception of a scientific movement (the Society of Multivariate Experimental Psychology); the individuals who begot it; the two journals and numerous scientific articles which resulted; its effects in stimulating new areas of teaching and of theoretical development; and its international reception as well as its successes and failures in stimulating the creation of satellite societies on the same pattern.     

THE STRUCTURE OF DEPRESSION, BY FACTORING Q-DATA, IN RELATION TO GENERAL PERSONALITY SOURCE TRAITS

The factor structure of a wide, representative sample of questionnaire items was determined across the domain of depression, and their relation to normal personality factors was fixed. The depression items were administered, along with personality marker items from the 16 P.F. Test (or HSPQ), to a mixed group of 139 patients and controls and to 169 younger adults. Eight meaningful simple structure factors were found, 7 replicating across samples. Second order analysis showed no general factor in depression, but rather 4 distinct second orders.     

A note on correlation clusters and cluster search methods

Four methods of determining the clusters in a correlation matrix are described and compared. The choice of method has to be made according to the size of the matrix and the type of cluster sought. The relativity of clusters is emphasized and a distinction is drawn between phenomenal clusters and nuclear clusters. The relative utility of clusters and factors is briefly commented upon.     

Critical Reviews of Recent Books

Stevens, S. S., & Davis, H. Hearing: Its Psychology and Physiology. New York: Wiley, 1938. Pp. 489. Reviewed by A. F. Rawdon-Smith and Morgan Upton.

Woodworth, R. S. Experimental Psychology. New York: Halt, 1938. Pp. 889. Reviewed by Mary Rose Sheehan.     

REOCCURRING NATIONAL PATTERNS FROM 30 YEARS OF MULTIVARIATE CROSS-CULTURAL STUDIES*

This paper examines the methodological approach, which spans 30 years, of applying factor analysis to a large number of variables that describe cultural domains of nations. Five studies which use a similar factor analytic approach are compared by obtaining congruence coefficients. Eight factors in these five studies are found to match. These eight factors are hypothesized to form the basic dimensions of a national profile upon which all nations can be measured and compared. These factors would describe a nation's cultural dimensions much like personality traits describe an individual's character.