Hutt's hypothesis that anxiety is reflected by absolute size deviations on reproduced Bender-Gestalt figures was investigated by administering the test to 40 subjects. Measures of trait anxiety and defensive style were found to be intercorrelated significantly and to interact significantly with anxiety condition. (Author/BL)

Describes the KAS scale, a new composite anxiety scale that comprises items on the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-168 (MMPI-168), a popular short form of the MMPI. Relevant normative statistics and the KAS scale relationship with other MMPI scales are discussed. (Author/KS)

Eighty-four 11-year-olds were grouped in three levels of extraversion on the basis of their Junior Eysenck Personality Inventory score. They were then given an arithmetic test consisting of addition, subtraction, division, and multiplication. A significant interaction between extraversion, sex, and type of operation was found. (Author/CH)

Findings argue for an increased emphasis on temperament research in the first postpartum months, for the development of more age-appropriate assessments, for the simultaneous use of multiple measures in such research, and for the continued inclusion of mothers as credible observers of infant behavior. (Author/RH)

The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) was used to study the personality characteristics of four groups of subjects from incest families: natural father perpetrators, stepfather perpetrators, nonparticipating mothers, and daughter victims. The daughter victims' mean profile was more elevated and differed significantly from the…

Reports results from a study of 377 high school and college students' level of personality psychology knowledge as measured by the 60-item true-false Personality Research Test. Concludes that much of what personality textbooks purport to teach undergraduates may already be known through common informal experiences. (Author/JDH)

People with drinking problems are overrepresented in counseling settings. Counselors have been unable to identify accurately the problem drinker, resulting in a decrease in counselor effectiveness. Describes seven variables that help identify problem drinking and two variables that help diagnose alcoholism. Suggestions for conducting the…

By being exposed to others with different backgrounds, children can develop open, flexible personalities that will allow them to cope with change and to assimilate changes into a satisfying personal lifestyle. (CB)

Investigated relationships between mothers' perception of infants temperament at 6 months and their behavior toward their infants at 6 and 12 months of age among 40 firstborn Israeli infants. Temperamental intensity ratings were related to auditory stimulation and contingent positive vocalization for girls and to increased physical contact for…

Historical comparison of Sultan Abdul Hamid of Turkey and King Philip II of Spain with Adolph Hitler revealed similar personality traits, possibly characteristic determinants of individuals prone to undertake genocidal measures. Commitment to bureaucratic detail coupled with opportunistic belief in Messianic destiny are key factors in these…

Using a version of the "learned helplessness" paradigm, assesses mothers' performance on a solvable task following pretreatments that involved exposure to an infant cry but that differed in the mothers' ability to exert control over termination of the cry. Proposes that learned helplessness models are relevant to the study of…

Discriminated three groups of neuropsychiatric outpatients (N=138) using a measure of aggression formed by summing subscales of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory. Results indicated that the group differences cannot be attributed to more general factors such as age, sex, education, IQ or degree of overall psychopathology. (LLL)

Examines the ways in which Parsons's systems analysis of sociology differs from those proposed by personality theorists. Uses analogies from Parsons's systems analysis of society to elaborate the systems analyses of personality. (LLL)

Derived replicated Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory clusters for both inpatient alcoholic men and women (N=300). Subsequent multivariate analyses employing several alcohol-use scales revealed significant differences among subtypes of alcoholic women but relatively poor differentiation among subtypes of men by these measures. (BH)

In a preliminary study of a single group of suicide attempters, male and female subjects did not differ in temperament characteristics. Data from both sexes indicated that suicide-prone individuals have unpleasant, arousable, and submissive temperaments, with arousability a strong discriminator of suicide attempters relative to the general…