A naturalistic investigation of community adjustment of facially disfigured burned teenagers

The purpose of the study was to determine the effects of facial disfigurement, resulting from severe burns, on the community adjustment of teenagers. The study was conducted within the theoretical framework of ecological psychology. A behavior setting survey was carried out, using daily records of the subjects' activities away from home, over a continuous 4-week period. The subjects served as their own data collectors; and the experimental subjects selected, according to a number of criteria (and subject to the approval of the investigator), their own control. The sample included a group of twenty-two facially disfigured burned teenagers, and a matched, nondisfigured control group. Similarities and differences were explored between the two groups along nine major descriptive variables. A factor analysis of the intercorrelations between various measures employed was conducted. The major findings were: (a) Comparisons were made separately for male and female subjects. Of the resulting 96 comparisons, 12 (12.5 %) yielded statistically significant differences, of these, 10 significant differences occurred among male subjects. In the light of these results, the common-sense assumption that attractive appearance would be more important to female teenagers must be questioned. (b) Disfigured males venture less, range less widely, and spend less time in certain types of settings, and disfigured males compensate by reentering the same settings more often and spending more time in them. (c) Facial Disfigurement appears to make less difference in the community participation of the female. (d) Results of the exploratory factor analysis suggest that several measures seem to be intercorrelated. Specifically, the number of different settings entered seem to be positively correlated with the number of entries into settings and the number of varieties formed by settings entered, and negatively correlated with the number of entries per setting and amount of time per setting.Psychology, Department o

An investigation of relationships between neurotic styles and conceptual dynamics

Some of the relationships between neurotic styles and conceptual dynamics were investigated. The neurotic styles studied were: obsessive, hysteric, and impulsive. Conceptual variables were divided into formal and content characteristics. The formal characteristics were permeability, impermeability, propositionality, preemption, cognitive complexity, and self-identification with contrast. The content characteristics were classified as attitudes, behavior, facts, repetitions, and self-references. The results of the investigation are as follows: 1.) Significant correlations were established between permeability and impermeability, as well as between propositionality and preemption, thus supporting the view thait these are two unitary dimensions. 2.) Hysterics use significantly more permeable constructs than either impulsives or obsessives. 3.) Hysterics use significantly more propositional constructs than obsessives. 4.) Obsessives use significantly more constructs consisting of attitudes than either hysterics or impulsives. 5.) Obsessives use significantly fewer constructs consisting of facts than impulsives. These significant findings pertaining1 to content variables were discussed, in terms of an abstract-concrete continuum, with attitudes being the mostt abstract and facts the most concrete, thus confirming the experimental expectations. 6.) Obsessives use significantly fewer repetitions than either hysterics or impulsives, which was seen as a reflection of a relative absence of naivete.Psychology, Department o