400 JEANNE M. GIOVANNONI AND LEONARD P.

ULLMANN

Within the patient group itself, comparisons were made between patients’
ratings for the concept “Me” and for the concept “Insane Man”. All of the patients’
ratings were in the direction of a much more negative attitude toward “Insane Man”
than towards ‘(Me.” A comparison was also made between patients’ ratings of
“Me” and of “Average Man”. On only two of the scales was a significant difference
found: Patients rated “Me” as less rugged and as less relaxed than they rated
“Average Man”. It is interesting to note that normals also had rated (‘Me” as less
relaxed and as less rugged than “Average Man” p. 46).
SUMMARY
In this study the opinions and attitudes of 35 hospitalized male psychiatric
patients concerning mental illness were compared with the opinions and attitudes of
normal subjects presented by Nunnally(’). The patients’ mean responses to a 50
item questionnaire and a set of semantic diflerential ratings were in s i g d c a n t agree-
ment with the mean responses of normals to these instruments. Hospitalized mental
patients were found to be no better informed than normals about mental health.
Their attitudes toward the mentally ill were found to be as extremely negative as
normals’ attitudes toward the mentally ill.
REFERENCES
1. NUNNALLY, J. C., JR. Popular Conceptions of Mental Health. New York: Holt, Rinehart, &
Winston, Inc., 1961.

YOUTH-PARENT RELATIONS O F
MATHEMATICALLY-GIFTED ADOLESCENT8
WALLACE A. KENNEDY AND HERMAN WILLCUTT
Florida Slate University

PROBLEM
There seems little doubt that the relationship between a potential scientist and
his parents plays an important role in his development. Generally our knowledge of
this relationship is in retrospect, as distinguished men of science reminisce about
their childhood. Whether these childhood memories are accurate or reflect instead
a posthoc reconstruction is of some concern to investigators attempting to establish
the determinants of scientific productivity.
Watson(8. 9 ) , a generation ago and again recently, addressed himself t o this
problem. Watson contended, both with regard to the literature reviewed and his
own data, that the family relationships of children with high potential for creativity
and originality were permissive and democratic. This finding is in agreement with
the Iowa studies of Lewin“) and Lippitt(6)and the whole tenor of the thirties and
forties, when it was felt that the democratic society spreading downward into the
home was the best of all possible environments for the incubation of creative in-
dividuals. This feeling generalized to the extent that parental strictness and control
became almost heretical.
I n the post-Sputnik era when the very survival of democracy may well depend
upon our ability to produce highly creative, imaginative scientists, we have been
forced to recognize that many, if not most, of the great scientists of the world have
not been a product of democratic home environments. Looking a t the impressive
list of foreign-born American men of science, the American public could well ap-
preciate Bob Hope’s quip that the reason the Russians are ahead of us in space is
 YOUTH-PARENT RELATIONS OF MATHEMATICALLY-GIFTED ADOLESCENTS 401

that their German scientists are better than our German scientists. Out of this
frustration has arisen the question of the effect of early home environment on the
scientific potential of children.

PROCEDURE
For the past four years the staff of the Human Development Clinic has made an
intensive study of those superior adolescents who have attended the Math Camp a t
Florida State University. This camp, described by Nichols(s),Kennedy et al. ( 2 ) , and
Kennedy and Nelson et al. ( 3 ) , provides an intensive six-weeks experience for math-
ematically-talented high school juniors and attempts to stimulate them into under-
taking careers in science. Preliminary follow-up data indicate that the overwhelming
majority of these students are already demonstrating a propensity toward scientific
achievement: in terms of the percentage that have gone on to college and taken a
scientific curriculum, the number of scientific awards and scientific scholarships
which have been won by this group, and the number of the first math camp class
who have entered advanced or graduate training.
This group differs from that utilized in Terman’s(7)monumental study (1925)
in that it was not selected solely on the basis of high I&. That is, an additional
factor was considered-that of high achievement in the area of science and math-
ematics. These subjects are not only students of high potential but also of high
productivity.
The Kell-Hoeflin Incomplete Sentence Blank ( I ) , designed to explore youth-
parent relationships, is a 20-question, incomplete-sentence blank with an objective
scoring system which allows the responses to be rated on a seven-point scale from
highly positive family relationships to extremely negative family relationships. The
test offers relatively high test-retest (T = 30) and scorer (T = .75) reliability. The
Kell-Hoeflin norms were based on college freshmen, but the obvious possibility
exists for the development of norms for various subgroups to provide a basis for
comparative study of their family relationships.
During the past four years, 130 Kell-Hoeflins have been administered to math
campers and an equal number to a control group, a random sample of beginning high
school seniors from four schools in two states. Particularly in the early administra-
tion to the superior group, a rather high incidence of spoilage was found. Some of
these youngsters took offense at the naivete of the questions and responded more
with sarcastic humor than sincerity. Those records which indicated a lack of com-
pliance with the instructions were discarded; the N of each group was reduced to
114. Half of these records were scored by two judges, with resulting reliability of .78,
about the same as that found by the test authors.
According to the authors of the Kell-Hoeflin(’), scores of under 350 represent
positive, satisfying appraisal of the family relationship by the children. Scores from
350 to 400 indicate negative or autocratic feelings. The mean for the control group
was 388 (SD 50), indicating that the control sample of high school seniors showed less
positive, democratic feelings than the college freshmen n o r m presented by the
authors.
I t was not however the control group that motivated this study. The control
group was merely to test the applicability of the freshmen norms to high school
seniors. Our main concern was with the mathematically-superior group.

RESULTS
The mean for the 114 math camp records was 398, SD 50. For the most part
the math campers viewed their families as bordering on negative and autocratic re-
lationships; certainly no more democratic than the control group. This is in agree-
ment with the subjective evaluation of the biographic and interview data collected
on the math camp students. For the most part they describe family backgrounds
which place a great deal of emphasis on achievement, discipline, control and regimen.
402 WALLACE A. KENNEDY AND HERMAN WILLCUTT

A comparison was made between the Kell-Hoeflin (K-H) scores of the math
campers and The Rotter Incomplete Sentence Blank (ISB) scores. The higher the
maladjustment score on the ISB, a measure of personality adjustment, the higher
the K-H score. The correlation between the two instruments was .32.
No correlation was found between the K-H and intelligence on either the WAIS
or the Binet. The WAIS means for the group were 138 verbal, 125 performance and
134 over-all. The Binet I& was 138.
There were some interesting correlations found between M M P I scales and the
K-H. The K Scale correlated - .41 with the K-H, indicating that students with high
K scores tended to describe their family relations as being more positive than those
with low K scores. The group as a whole was within normal limits on the K Scale,
with a mean of 14.7, SD of 4.9. Thus the K Scale, the purpose of which is to measure
defensiveness against psychological weakness and may indicate a defensiveness that
verges upon deliberate distortion in the direction of making a more normal appear-
ance, tends to give support to the validity of a high K-H being more typical of the
math campers who were more frank in their appraisals.
The correlation between the K-H and Sc was .34, the PT Scale was .29; the SI
Scale, .25; the D Scale, .21. These correlations indicate that the relationship between
family satisfaction and personality adjustment is significant.
The K-H scores were independent of all scales of the Allport-Vernon-Lindxey,
indicating no relationship between values and family satisfaction.
SUMMARY
A question was raised whether the high productivity of the select NSF-FSU
Math Camp student body was a result of a democratic home society as suggested by
Watson and others. One hundred fourteen of these mathematically-talented, highly-
productive high school students, with a mean Binet I& of 138, were compared with a
high school control group and the college freshmen norms on the Kell-Hoeflin In-
complete Sentence Blank, a test of family relations. It was found that even more
than the average high school group which tended to view its family relationships
with less satisfaction than the test norms, the superior group demonstrated con-
sistently autocratic, somewhat nagative family relationships. There was a relation-
ship between these scores and other measures of adjustment. These data suggest,
both from the objective scores and from subjective interview data, that these stu-
dents for the most part come from somewhat autocratic, authoritarian home en-
vironments with high achievemenb demands, fixed routines and regimen.
REFERENCES
1. HOEFLIN, RUTHand KELLLEONE.The Kell-Hoeflin Incomplete Sentence Blank: youth-parent
relations. Mmgr. SOC.Res. bhild Developm., 1959, 24, No. 3.
2. KENNEDY~ WALLACE A. and the Human Development Clinic Staff. A multi-dimensional study
of mathematically gifted adolescents. Child Develpm., 1960, 31, 655-666.
3. ~ N N E D Y ,WALLACE A., NELSON, WILLARD, LINDNER, RON,TURNER, JACKand MOON,HAROLD.
Psyc ological measurements of future scientists. Psychol. Rep., 1960,7,515-517.
4. LEWIN,KURT,LIPPI'IT, RONALD and WHITE,RALPHK. Patterns of aggressive behavior in ex-
perimentally created social climates. J . SOC.Psychol., 1939,10,271-299.
5. LIPPITT,RONALD.An ex rimental study of authoritarian and democratic group atmospheres.
Stud& in Typological and &%r Psychology. I . University of Iowa Studies in Child Welfare, No.
16, 1940.
6. NICHOLS EUGENE A. Summer mathematics camp for talented high school students. Bull. nut.
Ass. see. Sch. Principals, 1959, 43, 100-103.
7. TERMAN L. M., et al. Mental and physical traits of a thousand gifted children. Genetic studies of
genius. Voi. 1. Stanford, California, Stanford University Press, 1925.
8. WATSON, GOODWIN. A comparison of the effects of lax vs. strict home discipline. J . SOC. Psgchol.,
1934 6, 102-105.
9. ATS SON, GOODWIN.Some personality differences in children related to strict or permissive
parental diacipline. J . Psychol., 1957,44, 227-249.