Color preferences, extraversion, and neuroticism of art students.

Color preferences of 190 art students (G?tz & G?tz, 1974, 1975) were compared with the corresponding scores on extraversion (E) and neuroticism (N). It was found that the preferences of a group of 27 highly gifted young artists were different from preferences of average and less gifted Ss who had little or no artistic practice. In the latter group extraverts and ambiverts mainly preferred primary and secondary colors (light clear and dark clear tones included), while introverts preferred tertiary colors (earth colors) and achromatics. However, in the group of highly gifted Ss no significant differences between positive and negative rankings in both color categories were found. Neuroticism had no effect on color preferences; this holds for introverts and extraverts and for each single color.     

Color preferences of art students: surface colors: II.

In a previous study (G?tz & G?tz, 1974b) the preferences of 14 surface colors were analyzed. While this set contained only one red, one blue, one yellow, etc., the color set of the present investigation was extended, and the preferences of 5 different reds, blues, yellow, etc. were analyzed. Between the five variations of red and yellow, respectively, the greatest affective differences were found, while the opposite was true for the 5 oranges, pinks, and grays. The most preferred colors are 2 reds, 2 blues, and 2 yellows; least preferred are a greenish yellow, a penetrating red-violet, and all 5 pinks. Significant sex differences were found for 8 colors.     

Psychobiographical assessment

Psychobiography, the analysis of public persons by competent clinicians, is discussed as a possible assessment technique. Its re-emergence has emanated from recent attempts to psychoanalyze President Nixon, Adolph Hitler, and Emily Dickinson. Its position in relation to traditional personality assessment is considered as well as major previous efforts. Psychobiography is now a part of the curriculum at several leading universities and suggestions are made for future work. Because clinically unsophisticated writers from other disciplines are currently pursuing the trend, clinical psychologists should become involved to provide society with a more accurate psychological perspective.     

Modality-specific spatial coordinates

The development of spatial coordinates may depend on the integration of information from different modalities, or may be based on modality-specific coding. On the first assumption, the blind would be handicapped in deriving adequate spatial concepts, and on the other, no such handicap need exist. When spatial orientation is the salient feature of the task, subjects appear to profit from the integration of information from two or more modalities. When shape is salient, subjects adopt modality-specific coding strategies.     

Solving implicit equations in psychometric data analysis

Many data analysis problems in psychology may be posed conveniently in terms which place the parameters to be estimated on one side of an equation and an expression in these parameters on the other side. A rule for improving the rate of convergence of the iterative solution of such equations is developed and applied to four problems: the principal axis communality problem, individual differences multidimensional scaling,L _P norm multiple regression, andL _P norm factor analysis of a data matrix. The rule results in substantially faster solutions or in solutions where none would be possible without the rule.This work was supported by National Research Council of Canada grant APA 320 to the author.