Longitudinal stability of personality characteristics1

An empirical study, based on a longitudinal sample of approximately 1,000 boys and girls, investigated whether ratings of personality traits show longitudinal stability. A reformulation of the Campbell and Fiske (1959) multitrait-multimethod criteria in terms of stability across time was employed to give a more profound analysis of longitudinal stability. The results point to considerable stability across a period of three years (from 10 to 13 years of age) in ratings of personality traits, performed by independent raters. These results are discussed in relation to views, put forward by several researchers, that ratings mainly mirror implicit personality theories of the raters, and therefore are less useful as data in psychological research and application.     

The variation of hand steadiness with physical stress

The performance of 12 subjects in a hand steadiness task was compared at different work loads. Hand steadiness expressed in the form of values of hand shakiness was found not to increase linearly with work intensity. On the contrary, the relation between hand shakiness and activation level, induced by physical work, was found to be positively accelerated by an exponent of 1.6. Subjective effort measured by a ratio estimation method grew, likewise, according to a positively accelerating function with an exponent of about 1.6, while subjective effort according to the "RPE" category scale like hear rate grew linearly with work load.     

BINOCULAR INTERACTION IN MOTION PERCEPTION

An earlier experiment has shown a high degree of overestimation of small motion tracks as compared with static space perception. In the present paper this is hypothesized as the visual outcome of a central nerve process specific for motion stimulation. The hypothesis is submitted to a test in an attempt to show a possible binocular intereaction of the effect. The experiment demonstrated a significant binocular summation and thus supported the hypothesis.     

On testing the equality of proportions in the paired case with incomplete data

The problem of testing two correlated proportions with incomplete data is considered by means of Monte Carlo simulations studies. A test proposed in this paper, which can be regarded as a generalization of McNemar's test, is recommended in all cases with incomplete data and not too small samples.     

PERCEPTION OF MOTION AND CHANGING FORM: A study of visual perception from continuous transformations of a solid angle of light at the eye

It is shown how geometrically changing projections of objects which move and/or change their shape carry no specific information about form and three-dimensional motion. How, then, does the visual apparatus produce specific percepts from such non-specific changing stimuli? By applying an analogue computer technique, changing projections of artificial objects are generated on a CRT screen. These projections are fed into the eye by means of an optical device where they form a continuously changing solid angle of homogeneous light. The main conclusion is that it is a principle of perceptual three-dimensionality which gives specificity to the percepts. Preliminary statements of principles for prediction of perceived motion in depth from a given change in proximal stimulus are presented.     

DIFFERENTIATION OF CHARACTER NEUROSIS AND SYMPTOM NEUROSIS ON THE BASIS OF DIFFERENCES BETWEEN TWO SERIAL EXPERIMENTS

The difference between two serial tests as regards signs of hysteria and obsession-compulsion is compared with differences in number of symptoms reported by the patient. Signs in the more formal colour-word test, measuring habitual behaviour patterns, correspond to fewer symptoms than signs in a tachistoscopic test revealing more of the perceptual representation (content) of behaviour disorders. This difference is supposed to reflect important aspects of the difference between character neurosis and symptom neurosis.     

THE STABILITY OF PATHOLOGIC SIGNS IN THE PERCEPTUAL PROCESS AS REVEALED BY A SERIAL TACHISTOSCOPIC EXPERIMENT

S mith , G. J. W., and J ohnson , G. The stability of pathologic signs in the perceptual process as revealed by a serial tachistoscopic experiment. Scand. J. Psychol ., 1961, 2, 142–148.—The study demonstrates high inter-rater and inter-set consistency in a serial tachistoscopic experiment utilizing pairwise presentations of stimuli A and B, B being presented at constant time levels, A at gradually increasing ones. Two parallel sets contain two series each. In one series A is incongruent with B, in another a threat directed against B. Fifty psychiatric patients are given the two sets with a one-day interval. Reports of change in A and B during the micro-genesis of A are scored in the dimensions of repression, isolation, projection, and depression.     

An empirical comparison of 5 standard procedures for one-dimensional scaling

Scales on the badness of 10 offenses/crimes are derived by using the five most common scaling methods: averaging of the badness-ratings of the stimuli on an 11-point scale; mean ranks of complete rankings of the 10 stimuli; Thurstone scales for complete forced-choice and constant-sum pair comparisons, resp.; and ratio scales derived from pairwise ratio judgments for all pairs. From older investigations, a logarithmic correspondence of ratio scales and Thurstone or average ratings, resp., can be predicted. The data corroborate this prediction. They show furthermore that the ratio scale has an exceedingly close, logarithmic relation to each of the other four scales. We therefore conclude that, once a universe has been shown to be scalable, a scale can be constructed very economicaly by simply averaging ratings.