A COMPARATIVE FACTOR ANALYTIC STUDY OF NORMAL AND NEUROTIC VETERANS. A STATISTICAL INVESTIGATION OF THE INTERRELATIONSHIPS OF INTELLECTUAL AND EMOTIONAL FACTORS AS DISCLOSED IN THE PRIMARY MENTAL ABILITIES EXAMINATION AND THE MINNESOTA MULTIPHASIC PERSONA

159 Pages·06.521 MB·English

by  ABRAMS, ELIAS NELSON

December 5, 1949
Committee on Doctoral Study
School of Education
New York Unirersity
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publication of said <
E lias N. Abrams
Sponsoring Committee: Professor Brian E. Tomlinson,
Professor Leonard A. Larson and
Professor William P. Sears
A COMPARATIVE FACTOR ANALYTIC STUDY
•OF NORMAL AND NEUROTIC VETERANS
A S tatistical Investigation of th e
Interrelationships of In tellectu al
and Emotional Factors as Disclosed
in the Primary M ental A bilities
Examination and the Minnesota
Multipbasic Personality Inventory
ELI A3 NELSON ABRAMS
Submitted in p a rtial fulfillm ent of the
requirements for the degree of Doctor of
Philosophy in the School of Education of
New York U niversity
1949
35
tab le of contents
Chapter Topic Page
I The Problem ........................................... 1
Introduction .................. 1
General Statement .................. 3
Specific Problems ............ 4
D efinition of Terms ........................................................ 4
Delimitations .............................................................. 7
The Need for the Study ............ 7
II H istorical Background of the Problem ... . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Introduction ................................... 10
Factor Studies in Mental A b ilities.............. 12
Factor Studies in Personality and Emotional
Adjustment ......................................... 13
Studies in Pattern Analysis ......................... 21
III Procedure in Collecting D ata................................................ 25
The Subjects .................................................................................. 25
Comparison ox the Guidance and Non-Guidance Parts of
the "Normal" Group.................................................. 28
Age Levels of the Two Groups ............ 30
Educational Achievement Levels of the Two Groups .... 31
The Instruments ........................................................................... 32
Primary Mental A bilities ............................ 33
Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory ......... 35
The Method ............................. 38
IV Results ................................................................... 43
Comparison of the "Normal" and Neurotic Groups 43
Comparison of the Correlation Matrices for Both
Groups ............... 49
Comparison of the Factor Matrices for Both Groups ... 52
Comparison of the Unrotated Factor Loadings ......... 55
Interpretation of the Factors .............................................. 63
The "Normal" Group Factors .................................................... 65
The Neurotic Group Factors ......................................... 67
V General Discussion, Summary and Conclusions................... 70
The "Normal" Factors ................................................................. 71
The Neurotic Factors ................................................................. 72
Comparison of the Factors .................... 74
Implications for Further Research................ 75
Bibliography .................................................................................. 76
Appendix I: Partial Correlation for the Removal of
the Influence of Level of Educational Achievement . 80
Appendix II: Factor Loadings Derived from the Rotation
of the Reference Axes .......................................................... 82
Appendix III: Compilation of Scale Items of the
Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory and
Sample Test Booklet............................. 92
Appendix IV: Sample Test Booklet - S.R.A. Primary
Mental A bilities.........................................................................123
list of tables
Table T itle Page
I Sources of the Neurotic Group............... 25
II Sources of the "Normal" Group .................................. 27
III Significances of the Differences between Means
of the Guidance and Non-Guidance Parts of the
" Normal" Gro up .................................................... 29
IV Frequency and Percentage of "Normal" and Neurotic
Subjects at Various Age Levels ....................... 30
V Frequency and Percentage of "Normal" and Neurotic
Subjects at Various Levels of Educational
Achievement .................................................................. 31
VI Means, Their Standard Deviations and Standard
Errors, and C ritical Ratios of the Difference
Between "Normal" and Neurotic Subjects in Level
of Educational Achievement ....................... 32
VII Frequency D istribution of Scores on Test Variables
of the Primary Mental A bilities for "Normal"
and Neurotic Groups ..................................... 44
VIII Frequency D istribution of Scores on Test Varia­
bles of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality
Inventory for "Normal" and Neurotic Groups .. 45-46
IX Significance of Differences in Variables between
"Normal" and Neurotic Groups .................. 48
X Zero-order Inter correlations of Variables of the
PMA and MMPI "Normal" Group ................... 50
XI Zero-order Intercorrelations of Variables of the
PMA and MMPI Neurotic Group ............................. 51
XII Frequency D istribution of the Inter correlations
of the Seventeen Variables in "Normals" and
Neurotics Before and A fter the Influence of
Educational Achievement Had Been Removed.... 52
XIII Unrotated Factor Loadings, Communalities, and
Uniqueness ...................................................................... 54
XIV Significance of the Difference between Factor
Loadings on Test Variables for Unrotated
Factor I .......................................................... 58
XV Significance of the Difference between Factor
Loadings on Test Variables for Unrotated Fac­
to r I I ............................................................................... 59
XVI Significance of the Difference between Factor
Loadings on Test Variables for Unrotated
Factor III ................................................................. 60
XVII Significance of the Difference between Factor
Loadings on Test Variables for Unrotated
Factor IV ..................................................................... 61
XVIII Recapitulation of Significances of Differences
between Unrotated Factor Loadings in Test
Variables of "Normals" and Neurotics .............. 62
XIX Rotated Factor Loadings, Communalities, and
Uniqueness....................................................................... 64
v
LIST OF TABLES
APPENDIX II
Table Title Page
The "Normal" Group
A Centroid Factor Loadings .................................................. 83
B Results of the Rotation of -§• through 27° >
Counterclockwise ............................................................. 84
C Results of the Rotation of ^ ^ through 49 °>
Counterclockwise .............................................................. 85
The Neurotic Group
A’ Centroid Factor Loadings ............................... 86
B1 Results of the Rotation of & through 28 ,
Counterclockwise ............................................ 87
C1 Results of the Rotation of %~<P through 53 ,
Counterclockwise ...............................................^............ 88
D' Results of the Rotation of ^ 0 through 45 >
Counterclockwise ................................................ 89
S' Results of the Rotation of 4-9* through 75 »
Counte r clo ckwi se ................................................ 90
F' Results of the Rotation of $.<$ through 15 ,
Counterclockwise ........................................................... 91
vi
CHAPTER I
THE PROBLEM
Introduction
From time immemorial man has sought to discover and inspire meaning in
observable existences where previously no such meaning was readily discern­
ible. In a Kantian sense, he has never ceased to wonder at the order in the
universe and the moral law. He has never ceased to inquire whether in the
outer world of science or the inner world of experience there is anything
which calls for or answers to this meaning. Astonishingly, he has been able
to produce in te llig ib le orderliness with respect to the former. He is s t i l l
groping in the dark, s.s i t were, to give a semblance of order to the understand­
ing of the a c tiv itie s of his own kind. Through the concept of cosmic constel­
lations, he has been able to project order in the heavens. It cannot be said
that he has accomplished as much in the realnof the human personality. "The
fundamental variables or dimensions of human ability are s till very much w ithin
the unexplored te rrito ry reserved for psychologists."1 That he is on the thresh­
old of the discovery of laws which govern the activities of individuals is an
ever-present incentive. The status of this last is not unlike the concept of
the universe in the ancient world, Man has moved far in his knowledge of the
ordering of th e universe. He has extended his knowledge tremendously beyond
mere positional references to constellations. With respect to the systemiza-
1. J. P. G uilford, Psychometric Methods, p. 457.
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tion and compositon of personality and the study of the functional aspects
man presently occupies a position sim ilar to that of a sophisticated philos­
opher of those ancient times.
/
There are lite ra lly thousands of concepts representing observable traits
whereby human ab ility and human personality can be described. These concepts
are available to scien tific thinkers. To use a ll would be wasteful of time
and energy, and therefore, economically disadvantageous. The law of parsi­
mony must obtain. One of the objectives of science is to reduce that which
is complex to that which is simple. Its aim, in part, is to describe and
understand adequately and comprehensively the complex and the multiplex by
means of the least number of concepts. Then, to pursue the analogy of the
ancient and the contemporary the concept of constellation for the ancient
philosopher served as a lever by means of which further knowledge could be
pried loose from the secrets of nature, well-concealed by ignorance and frus­
tra tin g superstition. For the contemporary thinker in the realm of the func­
tioning personality, the analogy of configuration or gestalt serves a like
purpose.
For centuries man has pondered about the interrelationships of different
tra its th at, when integrated, describe a personality. He has speculated
about these m atters and has devised many theories to account for the differ­
ences th at ex ist among his fellows. He has attempted to discover in what
respect and to what extent tra its w ithin a single individual are related to
each other. He has contrived many methods, logical and mathematical, to
a ssist him in these endeavors. One of the latest developments is the adapt­
ation of the tool of factor analysis to these problems.
The identification of c rite ria to account for differences in personality
lias in the past given rise to concepts which account for these differences in
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terms of types. Young takes to task some of the critics of the theory of
types by assertin g th at far too many of them "have employed measures of
specific and rather simple perceptual, memory, and associational a b ilitie s
rather than large configurations of personality—involving both in tellectu a l
and em otional features—as the basis for their testings."-'- I t is th is com­
mingling of a b ilitie s in intellectual functioning and tra its of emotional
adjustment in an attem pt to search out the factors that distinguish neurotics
from "normals" that is the burden of this research.
The Problem
General Statement
The concept th at intellectual functioning can be organized into a pat­
tern of specific a b ilitie s is generally recognized.* That emotional in sta ­
b ility is refle cted in the performance of intellectual tasks is both an
in fere n tia l conclusion and an empirical fact. It is, by and large, these
considerations which have led to the undertaking of the present problem.
The purpose of the present research is to explore and to investigate
certain underlying factors of intellectual efficiency and emotional sta b il­
ity in "normal" and neurotic persons. The nature of these factors and th eir
in terrelatio n sh ip s w ill be disclosed by means of factorization of th e data
*Any te s t of in tellig en ce that utilizes a differential weighting technique
to equate the scores of subtests involves the patterning of specific
a b ilitie s . This is brought sharply into focus when there is , for example,
scatter in some of the sub tests of -the Wechsler-Bellevue as in D. W echsler,
The Measurement of Adult Intelligence, pp. 150-151, q.v.
1. K. Young, Personality and Problems of Adjustment, p. 329
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derived and a comparison of the factor loadings of each in "normal" and
neurotic adult subjects.
In essence, th is research is a s ta tistic a l investigation of the inter­
relationships of in tellectu a l and emotional factors as disclosed in the
Primary Mental A b ilities Examination and the Minnesota Multiphasic Person­
a lity Inventory for the purpose of scientific parsimony in describing the
least number of concepts by means of which differences between "normals"
and neurotics can be accounted.
Specific Problems
The specific problems of th is inquiry are:
1. What are the factors that are descriptive of the interaction of intellec­
tual functioning and emotional adjustment in a "normal" group?
2. Are these factors sim ilarly constellated in the interaction of these
variables in a neurotic group?
3. What, if any, indices exist in these factors that would provide discrim-
inable differences between the "normal11 and the neurotic group?
D efinition of Terms
The term factor is defined as "one of the elements that contribute to
produce a resu lt; a constituent."^ As used in this research, it can be spe­
c ific a lly id en tified as a tra it, attrib u te, or descriptive variable that
has been incorporated into a variety of tests from which, also} it can be
extracted. More specifically and as particularly pertinent here is the inter-
p
pretation of Thurstone that a factor may be regarded as a postulated ability
1. W ebster's C ollegiate Dictionary, C. & C. Merriam Company, 5th edition,
2. L. L. Thurstone, M ultiple-Factor Analysis, p. 52
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or attrib ute and its absence as primary cause of the successful completion
of a task by some individuals and of the failure of other individuals in
the same task with the avowed purpose of assaying demonstrable differences
among individuals in respect of this ability or attrib u te.
By factor analysis is meant that
branch of statistical theory concerned with the resolu­
tion of a set of descriptive variables in terms of a
small number of categories or factors. This resolution
is accomplished by the analysis of the intercorralations
of the variables. A satisfactory solution w ill yield
factors which convey all the essential information of
the original set of variables. The chief aim is thus
to attain scientific parsimony or economy of description.
A factor loading is the weight or saturation of a known factor in a
given te st. ’’The validity of a test as a measure of one of these factors
HO
is indicated by its correlation with the factor, which is its factor loading.
The term, mental is to be understood as intellectual as distinguished
f r om emo ti o n al.
By normal is meant typical or average and characterizes a condition
which does not depart or deviate too much from the average. S pecifically,
it w ill mean th at the individual has not presented himself at a mental
hygiene clin ic for treatment, that he has no known psychiatric disorder,
and, for the particular purpose of this research, that he has not revealed
a significantly unfavorable elevation on any of the scales of the LELnnesota
M ultiphasic Personality Inventory. From an operational standpoint th is
means that to be regarded as "normal” an individual's scores must lie between
1. K. J. Holzinger and II. H. Harman, Factor Analysis, p. 3 #
2. J. P. Guilford, Fundamental Statistics in psychology and
Eduoati on. p . 264' . " '