Character and defense: Relationships between Oral, Obsessive and Hysterical character traits and defense mechanisms

The relationship between the Basic Character inventory (BCI) and Kragh's Defense Mechanism Test (DMT) was investigated. BCI is an inventory, measuring Oral, Obsessive and Hysterical character patterns, while DMT is a projective technique, measuring defense mechanisms by means of tachistoscopic exposures of pictures. Thirty-three pregnant women participated in the study. The results showed that the Obsessive character pattern was significantly related to the defense mechanism of isolation, the Hysterical character pattern was significantly related to introjection of the opposite-self role, and marginally to repression. The Oral character pattern was significantly related to sensitivity to oral stimulus themes in the DMT. The relevance of the findings for the psychoanalytic theory of phase specificity in charcter development is discussed.     

Rarely Occurring Headaches and Rarely Occurring Blindness: Is Rarely=Rarely? The Meaning of Verbal Frequentistic Labels in Specific Medical Contexts

In three experimental studies, factors were examined which might influence the interpretation of verbal frequentistic labels in a specific context (i.e. side effects of medical drugs). In Study 1, we directly assessed subjects' numerical equivalents of three verbal labels (recommended for use by the German Federal Health Agency), which were embedded in stylized leaflets for medical drugs; we compared the estimates with those obtained in a context-free situation. The major findings were that (1) subjects' numerical equivalents for the verbal labels were clearly lower in the context condition than in the context-free situation, (2) subjects'; interpretations appeared to depend on the seriousness of the side effects, but (3) this dependency disappeared when explicit base rates were provided. In Studies 2 and 3, we indirectly examined the influence of the seriousness of the side effects, their frequency, and of the mode of expression (verbally versus numerically) by asking for risk judgments for and choices between drugs. Results of particular importance were that (1) seriousness and frequency of side effects had the same influence on judgments and choices but the mode of expression had no significant effect on either judgments or choices; (2) when subjects’ individual numerical equivalents of verbal labels were used in the leaflets, numerically described drugs were judged equally risky as verbally described drugs but were significantly preferred for consumption. These findings have theoretical relevance for research on the processing of verbal and numerical frequentistic expressions as well as a number of practical implications for the communication of medical information.     

A cross-cultural study of personality: Swedish and English children

Five hundred and thirty-one Swedish boys and 559 Swedish girls completed the Junior Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (J.EPQ) translated into Swedish by the authors (A.-L.v.K. and L.v.K.). Factor comparisons indicated virtually identical factors of Psychoticism (P) Extraversion (E), Neuroticism (N) and social desirability—Lie (L)—in Sweden as in England. Slight item additions produced scales with adequate reliabilities. Sex differences were in line with most studies, i.e. boys scoring higher than girlson Psychoticism (P) but lower on Neuroticism (N) and Lie (L). Finally, the only significant cross-cultural difference between Swedish and Engish children proved to be on Neuroticism (N) where the Swedish children had much lower scores than the English children.     

Work motivation among high school students before and during the economic recession in the Swedish labour market

In 1990, 2349 high school pupils from 21 high schools in the Stockholm, Uppsala and Södertälje regions answered a questionnaire concerning how important different characteristics of work were in their future job. The questionnaire also included an open question, “How would you describe an ideal job?” In 1993 the same questionnaire was answered by 1171 high school students. The two measurement occasions were separated by economic changes leading, from a condition of economic security and full employment, to a condition characterised by economic insecurity and high unemployment especially among young people. Results showed that the economic insecurity of 1993 lowered the students' ratings of the importance of all characteristics of work with the exception of the security of work. A strong gender factor influenced the ratings. Thus, the female students rated the importance of the characteristics of work higher than the male students did. The only exception concerned “good pay”, which was rated higher by the male. In 1993 these effects were less pronounced, although still evident. The motivational structure seemed to be unaffected by the economic insecurity. The same four motivational factors, i.e. (1) the expressive work goals, (2) the working conditions, (3) the benefits of work and (4) the social aspects of work, appeared in the analyses of both measurement occasions.