Abstract
21 female subjects from a psychiatric population scoring high on one of two MMPI scales, Hysteria or Psychasthenia, were given Jackson's (1956) shortened version of the Embedded Figures Test. Hysteria correlates positively and significantly .71 with time spent in detecting embedded geometric figures. Obsessive-compulsiveness and Embedded Figures Test performance time are negatively correlated —.63. The average times were 102.5 sec. for hysteria subjects and 62.6 sec. for psychasthenia subjects. Chi-squared establishes the significant association of MMPI measurements for hysteria and obsessive-compulsiveness with field-dependence and field-independence, respectively.
Witkin (1965) contends that, when pathology develops in a global, psychologically undifferentiated personality, it is likely to be hysteria. By contrast, articulated and differentiated personality functioning emphasize different defense mechanisms and the resultant pathology is of an obsessive-compulsive nature. The cognitive dimensions of psychological differentiation are field-dependence and field-independence and an obvious test would be to associate MMPI scale scores on Hysteria and Psychasthenia (obsessive-compulsiveness) with field-dependence and field-independence, respectively. But differences on MMPI scales have not been associated with field-dependence/independence (Adevai, Silverman, & McGough, 1968); and a comparison of subjects divided into field-dependent/independent groups failed to detect differences in MMPI scores (Stansell, Neville, & Johnson, 1975). Partial support for Witkin's thesis was obtained when Morris and Shapiro (1974) found that field-dependent females (but not males) from a psychiatric population scored high on the MMPI Hysteria scale. Contrary to expectations field-independent subjects from the psychiatric population did not demonstrate high scores on the Psychasthenia scale.
One probable reason for lack of success in the studies cited is that the rod-and-frame test was used to determine field-dependence/independence, a test which is problematic when concerned with pathology. On the one hand, there are few extreme scores in a normal population (Vaught, 1968), and, on the other hand, in a psychiatric population many field-dependent but few field-independent rod-and-frame test scores are to be found (Neville, Workman, & Johnson, 1969). Instead of the rod-and-frame test the Embedded Figures Test is used in the present investigation.
Unsuccessful attempts to relate MMPI scores may also indicate an insensitivity of the relevant scales, Hysteria and Psychasthenia, to detection of specific pathology when in fact pathology is present. Dahlstrom, Welsh, and Dahlstrom (1975) report a significant correlation of scores on these two scales for a female psychiatric population; and the present authors have observed that psychiatric patients frequently have extreme scores on several MMPI scales. The problem of specifying pathology is addressed in the present study by obtaining an Embedded Figures Test measure of field dependence/independence from subjects with extreme scores on only one of the MMPI scales in question but not on both.
Method
Twenty-one females 2 that had T scores of 70 or higher on the Hysteria or Psychasthenia scale of the MMPI (Dahlstrom, Welsh, & Dahlstrom, 1975) participated in the study. Nine scored high on Hysteria and 12 on Psychasthenia (obsessive-compulsive)’. They resided at a psychiatric board-and-care home or were outpatients at a community clinic, averaged 32.2 yr. of age (ranging from 20 to 49 yr.), and averaged 13.1 yr. of formal education (ranging from 10 to 18 yr.). To reiterate, only those patients who scored high on one of the scales, Hysteria or Psychasthenia, specifically relevant to the global/differentiation dimension were given Jackson's (1956) version of the Embedded Figures Test, a version which contains 12 items and whose scores correlate .96 (men) and .97 (women) with those on Witkin's original set of 24 figures. An investigator who had no knowledge of the MMPI scores administered the Embedded Figures Test.
Female subjects were used to avoid problems of sex differences in field-dependence and field-independence (Witkin, 1965).
Results and Discussion
Pearson rs confirmed the expected relationships. Scores on Hysteria correlated significantly with time spent on the Embedded Figures Test (r = .71, p < .05). A negative correlation, also significant at the .05 level, was found for scores on the Psychasthenia scale and Embedded Figures Test performance time (r = -.63, f < .05; Runyon & Haber, 1967).
Subjects scoring high on the Hysteria scale averaged 102.5 sec. compared to 62.6 sec. for subjects with high Psychasthenia scale scores (see Table 1). Mean time spent on the Embedded Figures Test for all subjects, 79.8 sec., determined placement into field-dependent or field-independent categories. Scores above the mean were field-dependent and those below were field-independent. Chi-squared, significant at the .05 level, further demonstrated the association of the MMPI scale for Hysteria with field dependence and the obsessive-compulsive scale with field-independence (χ12 = 4.20, p < .05).
Embedded Figures Test Performance Times (Sec.)
The present paper, a pilot study, tested Witkin's (1965) contention that “persons functioning at a more or less differentiated level are likely to differ in presenting symptoms” (p. 317). Additional research is indicated by the positive results reported above. A definitive test, however, will require a larger sampling as well as a less problematic measure of field-dependence/independence than the rod-and-frame test or Jackson's version of the Embedded Figures Test.