The artificial dispute over Implicit Personality Theory: An answer to Jackson, Strieker, and Mirels

In their evaluation of Tzeng and Tzeng's (1982) concerns over the level of sophistication currently evident in the study of Implicit Personality Theory (IPT), Jackson and Strieker (1982) and Mirels (1982a) reaffirm their disputed positions at the opposing extremes of the myth-vs.-fact continuum of IPT. The present paper re-examines major measurement and statistical issues in the empirical study of IPT that are still unacknowledged by either Jackson and Strieker, or Mirels, or both. It is demonstrated that their dispute is artificial and can be accounted for by their lack of measuremental sophistication and their statistical partialities. Researchers are cautioned to consider more than “mechanical computability” and “statistical adoptability” in conducting and/or judging similar empirical studies.     

Patterns of self-disclosure in homosexual and heterosexual college students

Two hypotheses concerning self-disclosure were investigated and confirmed in the present study, comparing homosexual and heterosexual college students. The first hypothesis was that self-disclosure, as measured by the Jourard Self-Disclosure Questionnaire, would be positively correlated with psychological femininity. The second hypothesis was that homosexual males and heterosexual females would exhibit similar patterns of high disclosure and femininity. No significant differences were found in total disclosure between homosexuals and heterosexuals, although homosexuals disclosed less to father, and more to friends than to parents. The conclusion was that psychological femininity and masculinity are more important than biological sex in determining self-disclosure.