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The use of photographs as a performance measure of personality rigidity

Author

Edgar Allen Smith, University of the Pacific

Date of Award

1964

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (M.A.)

Department

Physiology and Pharmacology

First Advisor

Bernard Meer

First Committee Member

Edgar Gregory

Second Committee Member

Edgar W Pohlman

Abstract

The literature on rigidity reveals a concentration in two fairly distinct areas: that of problem solving for cognitive rigidity) and motor rigidity. The early investigators felt that assessing these peripheral response mechanism would give a measure of the deeper, central personality mechanism that affects all of behavior. However, such an assumption was highly questionable and based more on analogical reasoning than on empirical evidence. It was Cattel who first pointed out that assuming motor rigidity "extends also through all dissappontement to feel or think perseveratively is a speculation undertaken at one's own risk" (1946, p. 233). Luchins (1951), concerned with problem solving rigidity, has also expressed doubt that cognitive measures of rigidity tap central personality rigidity.

Pages

75

Recommended Citation

Smith, Edgar Allen. (1964). The use of photographs as a performance measure of personality rigidity. University of the Pacific, Thesis. https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/uop_etds/1553