Professional Documents
Culture Documents
G - A. A Comparison: Abn. Psychol.
G - A. A Comparison: Abn. Psychol.
G - A. A Comparison: Abn. Psychol.
10. CAMERON, N. Deterioration and regression in schizophrenic thinking. J . abn. SOC. Psychol.,
1939, 34, 265-270.
11. FLANDERS, J. P. A review research on imitative behavior. Psychol. Bull., 1968, 69, 316-337.
12. GILL,W. S. Attitude change and schizophrenia. Psychol. Rec., 196Fj, 16, 289-296.
13. KANFER, F. H. and MARSTON, A. R. Human reinforcement: vicarious and direct. J . exper.
Psychol., 1963, 65, 292-296.
14. MCCALL,R. B. Fundamental Statistics for Psychology. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World,
1970.
15. MARLATT, G. A. A comparison of vicarious and direct reinforcement control of verbal behavior
in an interview setting. J . Pers. soe. Psychol., 1970, 16, 695703.
PNOMLNM
Recently Stagner (I6) has suggested that the concepts of self-actualization
(Maslow) and psychosocial maturity (Erikson) seem rather closely related. Self-
actualization (SA) refers t o an organism's drive to actualize its potentialities. Self-
actualizers are people who are developed or are developing to the full stature of
which they are capable. Characteristically, these people have superior perception
of reality, increased self-acceptance, increases in spontaneity, detachment, autono-
my, and creativity. A self-actualized individual is more autonomous and self-
directed. He depends less on other people and is less ambivalent about them(g).
Mas1ow)'O) has stated that in the study of SA people there has been a move
toward greater objectivity that has resulted in a standardized test of SA known as
the Personal Orientation Inventory (POI) ( I 3 , 14). This tcst has been shown t o be
psychometrically adequate @ ) .
Erikson(4)has postulated that a person goes through eight stages in develop-
ment from infancy to old age. The development of these stages depends upon social
interactions in which a demand is placed on the individual and thc child reacts to
these demands; that is, a crisis ensues. A residual attitude is left with thc indi-
vidual, an orientation toward himself and the world after the resolution (no matter
how succcssful) of each crisis. The components of an individual's personality thus
are determined by thc manner in which each of these successive crises is resolved.
Basic Trust develops when the crisis of the first stage is resolved succcssfully, whilc
Basic Mistrust develops given an unsuccessful resolution. I n actuality, most
individuals fall somcwhcre on a continuum between these extremes.
The six continua that represent the personality components thought to de-
velop during the six stages from birth through late adolcsccnce and early adulthood
are: (a) Basic Trust us. Basic Mistrust; (b) Autonomy us. Shame and Doubt; (c)
Initiative us. Guilt; (d) Industry us. Inferiority; (e) Identity us. Role Confusion;
and (f) Intimacy us. Isolation. I'sychosocial maturity, then, reflects how success-
fully each crisis was resolved. The more successful the resolution, the greater the
degree of psychosocial maturity.
'The authors wish t o extend a note of thanks to Dr. Wanda Jagocki for her helpful comments
while this manuscript was in preparation and to David Kelly for his assistance in the computer
center. The present research was supported by a reasearch grant given to the authors by the Board
of Trustees of Hartwick College.
*Requestsfor reprints should be sent to Dr. Paul v. Olcsak, Psychology Department, Hartwick
College, Oneonta, N. Y. 13820.
416 P A U L V. OLCZAK AND J E F F R E Y A. GOLDMAN
METHOD
Subjects. The Ss were 155 lower-level undergraduate students (males = 44;
females = 111) at Hartwick College enrolled in the authors’ introductory and
developmental psychology courses.
Instruments. The POI(13,14) was used to assess level of self-actualization (SA).
This test consists of 150 paired opposing statements. I n each instance, the S must
choose one of the two that is more relevant to him. The test is scored on two major
scales: inner-directedness and time competence, and 10 complementary scales :
self-actualizing values, existentiality, feeling reactivity, spontaneity, self-regard,
self-acceptance, nature of man, synergy, acceptance of aggression and capacity
for intimacy.
Level of psychosocial maturity was assessed by means of the Inventory of
Psychosocial Development (IPD), developed by Constantinople ( 2 ) and based on
a Q-sort measure originated by Wessman and Ricks(19). The I P D consists of 60
rating-scale items, 5 that reflect successful and 5 that reflect unsuccessful resolu-
tions of each of Erikson’s first six stages of psychosocial development. Short words
or phrases rated on a 7-point scale that described how characteristic (7) or un-
characteristic (1) that phrase was of him were substituted for the original Q-sort
format. Six separate subscales were derived based upon Erikson’s first six stages of
psychosocial development. For each subscale the ratings on the 5 items that
reflect successful resolution were summed and then added to the reversed scores
for the 5 items that reflect unsuccessful resolution. For example, an item that
contributed to the measure on Erikson’s first stage (Trust vs. Mistrust) and that
reflected an unsuccessful resolution (e.g. , “pessimistic, little hope”) with a score of
7 ( i e , , extremely characteristic) was reversed t o a 1 and added to those items keyed
in the positive direction. This procedure yielded a potential range of scores for each
subscale from 10 to 70 that reflected unsuccessful to successful resolutions, re-
spectively. Scores on each of the six subscales: Trust vs. Mistrust; Autonomy vs.
Shame and Doubt; Initiative us. Guilt; Industry us. Inferiority; Identity us. Role
Confusion; and Intimacy vs. Isolation then were added to derive an overall measure
of psychosocial maturity (scores ranged from 60 to 420).
Procedure. On t,he first day of class the POI was administered. Approximately
6 weeks later, the I P D was administered to the same 8s.
RESULTS
Correlations between the I P D and POI are presented in Table 1. Of the 84
m
F
z6
Z
rn
1. CORRELATIONS
TABLE BETWEENTHE TOTAL SCOREOF PSYCHOSOCIAL MATURITYON THE INVENTORY
OF PSYCHOSOCIAL ITS
DEVELOPMENT,
SIX SUBSCALES ORIENTATION
A N D T F ~ EPERSONAL INVENTORY 8
Inventory of Psychosocial Development
M
Psychosocial Trust us. Autonomy us. Initiative us. Industry us. Identity US. Intimacy us. M
Maturity Mistrust Shame & Doubt Guilt Inferiority Role Confusion Isolation z
Time Competence .324*** .320*** .234** .279*** .019 .221** .304*** F?
Inner Directedness .380*** .269*** .356*** .386*** - .023 .397*** .2?33*** *
0
Self-actualizing Values .279*** .167* .268**" .317*** ,080 .246** ,111 e
Existentiality .137 .lll .am*** .177* - .273*** .256** ,092 ?
Feeling Reactivity .315*** .124 .275*** .339*** .091 .344*** .179*
Spontaneity ,335*** .266*** .330*** .382*** - .099 .342*** .238**
*32
Self-regard .375*** .379*** .292*** .314*** .072 .347*** .187* z*
Self-acceptance .359*** .318*** .287*** .300*** - ,039 .310*** .374*** 2
Constructive U
Nature of Man .128 .041 - .091 .042 .161* .172 cd
.189* i
z
Synergy .170* .lo9 .183* .184* .052 .144 .053 *
Acceptance of 8
Aggression .321*** .190* .255** .308*** .092 .359*** .167* 0
Ca acity for Intimate G*
Eontact .228** .135 .237** .263*** - .046 .321*** .088 r
415 P A U L V. OLCZAK A N D JEFFREY A. GOLDMAN
REFERENCES
1. Braun, J. R. and LaFARO, D. A further study of the fakability of the Personal Orientation
Inventory. J . clin. Psychol., 1969, 25, 296-299.
2. CONSTANTINOPLE, A. An Eriksonian measure of personality development in college students.
Develop. Psychol., 1969, 1, 357-372.
3. CONSTANTINOPLE, A. Some correlates of average level of happiness among college students.
Develop. Psychol., 1970, 2, 447.
4. ERIKSON, E. H. Identity and the life cycle: Selected papers. Psychol. Iss., 1959, 1-171.
5. FOULDS, M. L. and Warehime, R. G. Effects of a “fake good” response set on a measure of
self-actualization. J . counsel. Psychol., 1971, 18, 279-280.
6. GOLDMAN, J. A. and OLCZAK, P. V. Psychosocial maturity and the attraction paradigm: The
effects of a between versus within Ss design. Unpublished manuscript, 1974.
7. GUINAN, J. F. and FOULDS, M. L. Marathon group: Facilitator of personal growth? J . counsel.
Psychol., 1970, 17, 145-149.
8. LICHTENSTEIN, E. Techniques for assessing outcomes of psychotherapy. I n McReynolds, P.
(Ed.) Advances in Psychological Aosessment. (vol. 2 ) Palo Alto, Calif.: Science and Behavior
Books, 1971.
9. MASLOW, A. H. Deficiency motivation and growth motivation. In Jones, M. R. (Ed.) Nebraska
Symposium on Motivation. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1955.
10. MASLOW, A. H. The Farther Reaches of H u m a n Nature. New York: Viking Press, 1971.
11. OLCZAK, P. V. and GOLDMAN, J. A. Self-actualization and the attraction paradigm: The effects
of a between versus within-Ss design. Unpublished manuscript, 1974.
12. REIMANIS, G. Psychosocial development, anomie, and mood. J. Pers. SOC. Psychol., 1974, 29,
355-357.
13. SHOSTROM, E. L. A test for the measurement of self-actualization. Ed. psychol. Meas., 1965,
24, 207-218.
14. SHOSTROM, E. L. Manual for the Personal Orientation Inventory ( P O I ) : An Inventory for the
Measurement of Self-Actualization. San Diego, Calif. : Educational and Industrial Testing Service,
1966.
15. SIMMONS, D. D. Development of an objective measure of identity achievement status. J .
proj. Tech. pers. Assess., 1970, S4, 241-244.
16. STAGNER, R. Psychology of Personality. (4th ed.) New York: McGraw-Hill, 1974.
17. Warehime, R. G., ROUTH,D. K. and FOULDS, M. L. Knowledge about self-actualization and
the presentation of self as self-actualized. J . Pers. soc. Psychol., 1974, SO, 155-162.
18. WATERMAN, A. S. Relationship between the psychosocial maturity of entering college freshmen
and their expectations about college. J . counsel. Psychol., 1972, 19, 42-46.
19. WESSMAN, A. E. and RICKS,D. F. Mood and Personality. New York: Holt, Rinehart &Winston,
1966.
PROBLEM
In September of 1971, Arieti‘‘) published a brief article in which he stated
that more research had been done in the field of schizophrenia than in any other
disorder, but that to date no really definitive results had been obtained. He ended
his comment by saying, “The field is still wide open.” In 1906, Mayer ( 6 ) spoke of
insufficient funds of adjustment in schizophrenic patients and of habit patterns as
being inadequate for adjustment. In 1962, Sullivan(6. pv 248) stated that “The
etiology of a schizophrenic illness is to be sought in events that involve the indi-
vidual. The significant events seem to me t o be wholly within one category--viz.,
events relating the individual with other individuals more or less highly significant
‘This research wm supported by funding from The Officeof The Surgeon General, Department
of the Army.
2Reprints may be obtained by writing Dr. Louise B. Apperson, 2710 Wheeling St., Aurora, Col.
80011.