Thesis (Ed.D.)--Boston University / The purpose of this investigation was to make a comparative analysis of the personality characteristics of 20 stutterers with those of 20 predelinquents and 20 adjusted boys.
As stutterers and predelinquents represent overtly opposite types of behavior, it was hypothesized that stutterers show a high degree of emotional control and predelinquents a low one, whereas the adjusted boys were assumed to fall midway between the two emotionally disturbed groups. It was further hypothesized that stutterers and predelinquents show significant covert differences in various other aspects of their personality which can be detected by means of the Rorschach and WISC analysis.
The 60 boys selected for this study were ten through twelve years of age, had an I.Q. between 90 and 130, came from the same town, and all were living at home. The 20 stutterers' speech symptoms were diagnosed by the Public School speech clinician. The 20 predelinquents were referred by teachers to the school psychologist (this writer) for acting-out behavior and in addition showed four predelinquency characteristics from a listed set of criteria.
Eight Rorschach and eight WISC variables were selected for comparison. Of the eight Rorschach variables, seven showed statistically significant differences among the three groups. The outstanding finding of this study revealed that stutterers had many more indicators of maladjustment than predelinquents. According to the Rorschach variables, the adjusted boys consistently showed the most favorable scores and the stutterers consistently the least favorable. Stutterers had less self-awareness and ability to empathize with others than either the predelinquents or the adjusted boys (M score; p=.05). Stutterers had considerably poorer human relationships (H score; p=.05), and were less aware of what is socially expected of the (P score; p=.01). Stutterers had many more anxiety indicators (p=.01) and a smaller range of interests (Content categories; p=.01). The hypothesis that stutterers and predelinquents represent opposite poles on a behavior continuum of internalized control and impulsivity was disproved. The Rorschach color ratio indicated that stutterers had very little emotional energy at their disposal, and what is usually considered emotional control was, in fact, shallow affectivity (FC score; p=.01). Stutterers had as few internalized controls as predelinquents. The latter, as expected, had a lopsided balance between self-control and impulsivity (CF+C; p=.01), whereas the adjusted boys had an even distribution of self control and impulsivity.
In the WISC, the differences between the groups were not clearly discernable, because their overall I.Q.'s, their Verbal and Performance I.Q.'s differentiated among the three groups in a statistically significant degree (p=.05). Stutterers had a much larger gap between Verbal and Performance I.Q.'s than the two other groups, and such a scatter is considered an indicator of maladjustment. The Stutterers also showed a greater drop of their Vocabulary level (p=.05), and they also had a greater drop of their Performance subtests below their Performance Mean (p=.05). The use of this so-called scatter analysis made it clear that maladjustments can be detected in the WISC by the Vocabulary Scatter and the Mean Performance Scatter.
As an implication of practical significance it follows from the findings of the Rorschach and the WISC in this study that predelinquents are much easier to reach therapeutically during the ages of ten through twelve than stutterers, because the latter have poorer human relationships, less empathy, and shallow emotionality. [TRUNCATED]
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bu.edu/oai:open.bu.edu:2144/19122 |
| Date | January 1960 |
| Creators | Moller, Hella |
| Publisher | Boston University |
| Source Sets | Boston University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis/Dissertation |
| Rights | Based on investigation of the BU Libraries' staff, this work is free of known copyright restrictions. |
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