Psychological Repo~rs,1975, 37, 355-361. @ Psychological Reports 1975
PERSONALITY CHARACTERISTICS OF WOMEN'S LIBERATION ACTIVISTS AS MEASURED BY THE MMPI1 HAROLD F. O'NEIL, JKa AND MARY TEAGUE Unhersity of Texas at Austin ROBERT E. LUSHENJ? A N D SUE DAVENPORT Florida State University Summary.-The study was designed to explore the validity of notions held by the women's Liberation movement regarding personaliry characteristics of movement activists. Two groups, one composed of 19 college student activists in the women's liberation movement and the other composed of 34 female college students, were given a computer-administered MMPI. n e results do not support rhe imputations that these college student activists in che women's liberation movement exhibit deviant personality characteristics or that they are more maladjusted than control subjects.
A highly visible and growing movement of considerable social significance is that of women's liberation. Proponents of this new movement exhort females everywhere to challenge the traditional sex roles and the distribution of duties and rewards falling to the two sexes. Despite the obvious support the women's liberation movement has received, there has been much opposition to it and denunciation of those active in it by both males and females. The positions taken by women's liberationists have been interpreted by some as representing rejection of natural, biologically dictated roles and even of heterosexuality. The angry, hate-filled rhetoric of some of the more extreme groups within the movement, along with the generally controversial contentions and demands of movement activists, has raised questions about the mental health and emotional stability of those involved in the movement. A common line of criticism has included argumentam ad hominum statements contending that those females embracing the movement reflect various types of undesirable personality characteristics and deviant adjustment patterns, ranging from frustrated and unfeminine to neurotic and pathologically disturbed. Numerous books and periodicals have contained instances of this type of criticism (Decter, 1972; Lawrenson, 1971; Mailer, 1971). Recently, there have been a few psychological investigations concerning the validity of such criticisms. One of the first articles in chis area by Fowler and Van de Riet (1972) compared 18 women belonging to a women's liberation group, 16 of their undergraduate age peers, and cwo groups (ra = 12; n = 1 7 ) of elderly women using the Adjective Check List as a personality measure. 'The authors would like to thank Ms. Jody Fitzpatrick for her assistance on this manuscript. 'On leave to Advanced Research Projects Agency, Washington, D. C. Wow at the Veterans Administration Hospital, Bay Pines, Florida.
356
H. F. O'NEIL, JR., ET AL.
They found that the primary personality differences occurred between age groups and not between feminists and their age peers. In general, the feminists were more autonomous and aggressive and less deferent than the elderly; these trends were also seen in comparing the undergraduate females to the elderly women. As compared with their peers, the feminists were slightly more dominant and self-confident and less affiliative. Two other studies by Cherniss (1972 ) and Pawlicki and Almquist ( 1973) resulted in similar findings. Cherniss, using an unstructured, nondirective interview technique, found the women's liberation activists ( n = 1 2 ) were characterized by higher autonomy, self-control, and assertive behavior, and to have had stronger mothers and more alienation during adolescence than a nonactivist group ( n = 8). Pawlicki and Alrnquist compared 44 college females and 31 members of a national women's liberation group using the California F scale, the Rotter I-E scale, and the Rydell-Rosen Tolerance of Ambiguity scale. The authors found that members of the women's liberation group were less authoritarian, more internal, that is, felt more control over their environment, and were more tolerant of ambiguity than the college female sample who were not members of a women's liberation group. While these studies have provided some insights, they have failed to deal directly with the concept of mental health which has been the crux of the attack of many women's liberation critics. In addition, the scales or techniques used have, in some cases, been too narrow to assess adequately global mental health characteristics as they apply in different situations. Thus, it was felt that the use of a broader, clinical measure of mental health, the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory, would facilitate the investigation of personality characteristics of women's liberation activists. In summary, the purpose of this study was to explore some of the personality differences between a group of women active in the women's liberation movement and a group not involved in the movement. -
-
METHOD Subjects Announcements were made at women's liberation small group and business meetings on the Florida State University campus that subjects were needed for a study on "personality characteristics." All of the women present at the meetings where the announcements were made ( n = 20) volunteered to participate in this study. Selection of subjects from a women's liberation group, rather than relying upon self-report measure of attitudes towards women's liberation, was designed to obtain a behavioral measure of activism. A comparison group of "normal" college women, nonactive in the women's liberation movement, was obtained by using the computer-administered MMPI scores of 34 Florida State
MMPI SCORES OF WOMEN'S LIBERATION ACTIVISTS
357
University students participating in another study (Lushene, O'Neil, & Dunn, 1974). Since only a few women ( n = 20) at the Florida State University campus at that time were heavily and actively involved in women's liberation and these constituted the women's liberation group, it was thought that the second sample of subjects represented a nonactive sample of women. Apparatus and Materials The IBM 1500 Computer-Assisted Instruction System (IBM, 1967) was used to present the MMPI (Dahlstrom & Welsh, 1960). Students interacted with the computer via terminals which consisted of ( a ) cathode ray tube, ( b ) light pen, and ( c ) typewriter keyboard. The 16 terminals were located in an air-conditioned, sound-deadened room. As reported in more detail by Lushene, O'Neil, and Dunn (1974), the automated version of the MMPI included all 566 items. Items were presented one at a time on the cathode ray tube. Students were instructed to depress "t" for "true," "f" for "false," or "?" for "don't know" on the terminal keyboard to indicate their responses. The statement "Press space bar to continue" was inserted after each item to allow for accurate latency recordings. Latency served as a dependent measure in a study reported elsewhere (Dunn,Lushene, & O'Neil, 1972 ) . A total of 26 scales were computer scored. For the automated MMPI, the IBM 1500 system was used to score the MMPI on line. The scales scored included the 13 original scales: Hypochondriasis ( H J ) , Depression ( D ) , Hysteria (Hy ), Psychopathic Deviate ( P d ) , Masculinity-Femininity (Mf ), Paranoia ( P a ) , Psychasthenia ( B t ), Schizophrenia ( S c ) , Hypomania ( M a ) , Social Introversion Extroversion (Si) , Lie (L), Frequency (F), and Correction ( K ) . Thirteen additional scales scored were: Social Maladjustment (SOC), Depression (DEP), Feminine Interests (FEM) , Poor Morale (MOR ), Religious Fundamentalism (REL) , Authority Conflict ( A U T ) , Psychoticism (PSY), Organic Symptoms (ORG), Family Problems (PAM), Manifest Hostility (HOS), Phobias ( P H O ) , Hypomania ( H Y P ) , and Poor Health (HEA) (Wiggins, 1969). When the subjects r e p r t e d to the Computer Assisted Instruction Center they were instructed in use of the terminals. Then each subject took the computerized MMPI. After each subject finished the test, a debriefing session was held in which the experimenters explained the general nature of the experiment and answered questions about the test. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Examination of the raw MMPI scores for both the women's liberation and the control group showed that one subject in the control group had a validity ( F ) scale value of 23, while one subject in the women's liberation group had a
358
H.F. O'NEIL, JR., ET AL.
score of 24. Since scores above 22 are generally considered to indicate highly invalid profiles, both subjects were excluded from the study, resulting in 19 subjects in the women's liberation group and 33 subjects in the control group. To compare the over-all profiles of the two groups, discriminant function analyses (Cooley & Lohnes, 1962) between the women's liberation and control groups were conducted both for the basic scales and for the Wiggins scales. For the basic scales, the two profiles were significantly different ( P = 2.75, df = 13/ 38, p < .01). The profile for the Wiggins scales were also significantly different ( F = 3.32, df = 13/38, p < .01). To determine which scales contributed to these profile differences, t tests between the control and women's liberation groups were conducted on each of the 26 scale scores. The results of these tests are presented in Table 1. It can be seen that on seven of the 26 scales, the women's liberation group differed significantly from the control group. The differences suggest that women in women's liberation are more independent and less constrained by traditional social customs than are the control women ( P d scale), that they have fewer of the traditional feminine interests and pursuits ( M f , FEM),that they endorse fewer of the traditional Judaic-Christian beliefs (REL), and that they perceive their family life as relatively unhappy and that their parents were unnecessarily critical and quarrelsome ( F A M ) . The differences on the Pd scale again confirm the greater autonomy of the women's liberation activists noted in previous studies (Cherniss, 1972; Fowler & Van de Riet, 1972). The present findings concerning family life and parental relations are also reflected in the findings of Cherniss ( 1972 ). Two of the three validity scales also show significant differences between the women's liberation and control groups. Although there is a significant difference on the L scale, examination of Table 1 shows that the difference in mean absolute score is less than one point. The L scale is generally interpreted as a rather blatant lie scale, and the results on that scale suggest that the women's liberation group is less likely to admit obvious faults in themselves. However, the fact that the K scale, which is a much more subtle measure of defensiveness, indicates no significant difference between the two groups suggests that the findings with respect to the L scale may not have much interpretive value. The women's liberation group also had significantly higher validity ( F ) scale values than did the control group. Two factors probably contribute to the relative elevation of the F scale in the women's liberation group compared to the control group. First, the Pd scale, which is the highest scale in the women's liberation group, shares five items in common with the F scale; therefore, item overlap probably contributes to some extent to the elevated F scale. Secondly, although only two of the 10 clinical scales significantly differentiated between the women's liberation and control groups, on eight of those 10 scales the wom-
MMPI SCORES OF WOMEN'S LIBERATION ACTIVISTS
3 59
TABLE 1 MEANMMPl SCALESCORES (NOT k CORRECTED) AND f VALUESFOR 19 WOMEN'S LIBERAT~ON( N = 19) AND CONTROLGROUPS( N = 34) Scale
Women's Liberation
Control M
t
P
M
Hypochondriasis Depression Hysteria Psychopathic Deviate Masculinity-Femininity Paranoia Psychasthenia Schizophrenia Hypomania Social Introversion, Extroversion Lie Frequency Correction Social Maladjusunent Depression Feminine Interests Poor Morale Religious Fundamentalism Authority Conflict Psychotism Organic Symptoms Family Problems Manifest Hostility Phobias Hypomania Poor Health
5.74 20.26 20.05 17.58 36.95 8.16 15.21 15.68 17.89
5.85 18.61 18.94 13.48 39.33 7.67 16.36 14.03 17.15
24.21 2.95 8.26 9.63 11.00 8.79 17.26 9.21 1.37 7.42 8.95 4.84 7.53 8.37 7.11 14.05
24.15 2.03 4.67 9.88 10.36 8.06 20.70 9.79 5.52 7.18 9.12 5.12 4.91
5.11
8.12
9.03 15.45 4.58
.ll 1.15
1.13 3.07 2.20 .60 .GO .84 .60 .03 2.28 3.68
< .Ol < .05
< .05 < .Ol
.28
.40 .5 1 4.05 .39 5.69 .24 .13 .28 2.83 .20 1.66 1.52 .69
< .01 < .01
< .01
en's liberation group scored higher than did the control group. Therefore, on the whole, the women's liberation group did endorse somewhat more abnormal ideals or behaviors than did the control group, and the P scale reflects this. In general the data provide some support for the claims that these women in women's liberation exhibit deviant personality characteristics. This support comes from the indications that these women active in women's liberation were somewhat more independent, less feminine (in terms of traditional interests and pursuits), less religious and the products of slightly more abnormal family backgrounds than their non-involved counterparts. It should be recognized, however, that these differences, although significant, are not large. In all cases, the T scores on the MMPl scales for the women's liberation group are well within normal limits.
H. F. O'NEIL, JR., ET AL.
The negative results of this study are of perhaps more interest than the positive findings. For example, it appears that these women in the women's liberation movement do not display more odd or unusual behaviors (PSY) and are not more socially maladjusted (SOC) than the controls. Further, negative results indicate that these women's liberationists are not more hostile (HOS), do not have more difficulty dealing with authority figures ( A U T ) , are not more depressed ( D E P ) , nor can their morale said to be lower (MOR) than the inactive group's. Hence, present findings clearly do not support the imputations that these women's liberation student activists are less emotionally adjusted and mentally healthy than their nonactive control group. They do not-exhibit pathological personality characteristics and they differ from their nonactive counterparts on only a few personality characteristics. Attempts to interpret the differences between the women's liberation and the comparison groups (women's liberation group as being more independent, less feminine, less religious, and having a somewhat more troubled family background) raise questions about standards of normality and mental health for females. While the women's liberation group exhibited some personality characteristics which depart from cultural notions regarding normal feminine personality characteristics, there are questions about the validity of these notions concerning normality for females. Bardwick (1972) has pointed out that even though some of the impetus and driving force for the women's liberation movement may arise from individual psychopathology and conflict, the movement has raised fundamental questions about the psychopathology of society and about the positive, healthy characteristics of those who deviate from the cultural norm. Clearly, psychology and the mental health professions need to reexamine existing concepts about female mental health and normality before valid standards are available for evaluating personality characteristics or the mental health of the general female population or of women's liberation activists. REFERENCES
BARDWICK, J. M. (Ed.) Readings on the psychology o f women. New York: Harper & Row, 1972.
CHERNISS, C. Penonality and ideology: a personological study of women's liberation.
Psychiatry, 1972, 3 5 , 109-125. COOLEY,W. W., & LOHNES,P. R. Multivariate procedures for the behavioral sciences. New York: Wiley, 1962.
DAHLSTROM, W. G.,
& WELSH,G. A. An MMPI handbook: guide to use in clinical practice and research. Minneapolis: Univer. of Minnesota Press, 1960. DECTER,M. The new chastity and othw arguments against women's liberation. New York: Coward, McCann, & Geoghegan, 1972. DUNN,T.G., LUSHENE, R. E., & O'NEIL, H. F., JR. Complete automation of the MMPI and a study of its response latencies. ]ournu1 of Consulting and Clinical PsychoG ogy, 1772, 39, 381-387.
MMPI SCORES OF WOMEN'S LIBERATION ACTIVISTS
361
FOWLER,M. G., & VAN DE RIET,H. R. Women today and yesterday: an examination of the feminist personality. Jourml of Psychology, 1972, 82, 269-276. IBM CORPORATION. IBM Coursewriter 11 authofs guide, Par$ I: Course pkanning. New York: Author, 1967. LAWRENSON,H. The feminine mistake. Esquize, 1971, 75, 82-85. LUSHENE,R. L., O'NEIL, H. F., JR., & DUNN,T. G. Equivalent validity of a completely computerized MMPI. Journal of Personality Assessment, 1974, 38, 353-361. MAILER, N . The prisoner of sex. Boston: Liale, Brown, 1971. PAWLICKI,R. E.,& ALMQuIST, C. Authoritarianism, locus of control and tolerance of ambiguity as reflected in membership and nonmembership in a women's liberation group. Psychological Reports, 1973, 32, 1331-1337. WIGGINS, J. S. Content dimensions of the MMPI. In J. N. Butcher (Ed.). MMPI: research developments and clinical applica~ions. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1969. Pp. 127-180.
Accepted June 18, 1975.
PERSONALITY CHARACTERISTICS OF WOMEN'S LIBERATION ACTIVISTS AS MEASURED BY THE MMPI1 HAROLD F. O'NEIL, JKa AND MARY TEAGUE Unhersity of Texas at Austin ROBERT E. LUSHENJ? A N D SUE DAVENPORT Florida State University Summary.-The study was designed to explore the validity of notions held by the women's Liberation movement regarding personaliry characteristics of movement activists. Two groups, one composed of 19 college student activists in the women's liberation movement and the other composed of 34 female college students, were given a computer-administered MMPI. n e results do not support rhe imputations that these college student activists in che women's liberation movement exhibit deviant personality characteristics or that they are more maladjusted than control subjects.
A highly visible and growing movement of considerable social significance is that of women's liberation. Proponents of this new movement exhort females everywhere to challenge the traditional sex roles and the distribution of duties and rewards falling to the two sexes. Despite the obvious support the women's liberation movement has received, there has been much opposition to it and denunciation of those active in it by both males and females. The positions taken by women's liberationists have been interpreted by some as representing rejection of natural, biologically dictated roles and even of heterosexuality. The angry, hate-filled rhetoric of some of the more extreme groups within the movement, along with the generally controversial contentions and demands of movement activists, has raised questions about the mental health and emotional stability of those involved in the movement. A common line of criticism has included argumentam ad hominum statements contending that those females embracing the movement reflect various types of undesirable personality characteristics and deviant adjustment patterns, ranging from frustrated and unfeminine to neurotic and pathologically disturbed. Numerous books and periodicals have contained instances of this type of criticism (Decter, 1972; Lawrenson, 1971; Mailer, 1971). Recently, there have been a few psychological investigations concerning the validity of such criticisms. One of the first articles in chis area by Fowler and Van de Riet (1972) compared 18 women belonging to a women's liberation group, 16 of their undergraduate age peers, and cwo groups (ra = 12; n = 1 7 ) of elderly women using the Adjective Check List as a personality measure. 'The authors would like to thank Ms. Jody Fitzpatrick for her assistance on this manuscript. 'On leave to Advanced Research Projects Agency, Washington, D. C. Wow at the Veterans Administration Hospital, Bay Pines, Florida.
356
H. F. O'NEIL, JR., ET AL.
They found that the primary personality differences occurred between age groups and not between feminists and their age peers. In general, the feminists were more autonomous and aggressive and less deferent than the elderly; these trends were also seen in comparing the undergraduate females to the elderly women. As compared with their peers, the feminists were slightly more dominant and self-confident and less affiliative. Two other studies by Cherniss (1972 ) and Pawlicki and Almquist ( 1973) resulted in similar findings. Cherniss, using an unstructured, nondirective interview technique, found the women's liberation activists ( n = 1 2 ) were characterized by higher autonomy, self-control, and assertive behavior, and to have had stronger mothers and more alienation during adolescence than a nonactivist group ( n = 8). Pawlicki and Alrnquist compared 44 college females and 31 members of a national women's liberation group using the California F scale, the Rotter I-E scale, and the Rydell-Rosen Tolerance of Ambiguity scale. The authors found that members of the women's liberation group were less authoritarian, more internal, that is, felt more control over their environment, and were more tolerant of ambiguity than the college female sample who were not members of a women's liberation group. While these studies have provided some insights, they have failed to deal directly with the concept of mental health which has been the crux of the attack of many women's liberation critics. In addition, the scales or techniques used have, in some cases, been too narrow to assess adequately global mental health characteristics as they apply in different situations. Thus, it was felt that the use of a broader, clinical measure of mental health, the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory, would facilitate the investigation of personality characteristics of women's liberation activists. In summary, the purpose of this study was to explore some of the personality differences between a group of women active in the women's liberation movement and a group not involved in the movement. -
-
METHOD Subjects Announcements were made at women's liberation small group and business meetings on the Florida State University campus that subjects were needed for a study on "personality characteristics." All of the women present at the meetings where the announcements were made ( n = 20) volunteered to participate in this study. Selection of subjects from a women's liberation group, rather than relying upon self-report measure of attitudes towards women's liberation, was designed to obtain a behavioral measure of activism. A comparison group of "normal" college women, nonactive in the women's liberation movement, was obtained by using the computer-administered MMPI scores of 34 Florida State
MMPI SCORES OF WOMEN'S LIBERATION ACTIVISTS
357
University students participating in another study (Lushene, O'Neil, & Dunn, 1974). Since only a few women ( n = 20) at the Florida State University campus at that time were heavily and actively involved in women's liberation and these constituted the women's liberation group, it was thought that the second sample of subjects represented a nonactive sample of women. Apparatus and Materials The IBM 1500 Computer-Assisted Instruction System (IBM, 1967) was used to present the MMPI (Dahlstrom & Welsh, 1960). Students interacted with the computer via terminals which consisted of ( a ) cathode ray tube, ( b ) light pen, and ( c ) typewriter keyboard. The 16 terminals were located in an air-conditioned, sound-deadened room. As reported in more detail by Lushene, O'Neil, and Dunn (1974), the automated version of the MMPI included all 566 items. Items were presented one at a time on the cathode ray tube. Students were instructed to depress "t" for "true," "f" for "false," or "?" for "don't know" on the terminal keyboard to indicate their responses. The statement "Press space bar to continue" was inserted after each item to allow for accurate latency recordings. Latency served as a dependent measure in a study reported elsewhere (Dunn,Lushene, & O'Neil, 1972 ) . A total of 26 scales were computer scored. For the automated MMPI, the IBM 1500 system was used to score the MMPI on line. The scales scored included the 13 original scales: Hypochondriasis ( H J ) , Depression ( D ) , Hysteria (Hy ), Psychopathic Deviate ( P d ) , Masculinity-Femininity (Mf ), Paranoia ( P a ) , Psychasthenia ( B t ), Schizophrenia ( S c ) , Hypomania ( M a ) , Social Introversion Extroversion (Si) , Lie (L), Frequency (F), and Correction ( K ) . Thirteen additional scales scored were: Social Maladjustment (SOC), Depression (DEP), Feminine Interests (FEM) , Poor Morale (MOR ), Religious Fundamentalism (REL) , Authority Conflict ( A U T ) , Psychoticism (PSY), Organic Symptoms (ORG), Family Problems (PAM), Manifest Hostility (HOS), Phobias ( P H O ) , Hypomania ( H Y P ) , and Poor Health (HEA) (Wiggins, 1969). When the subjects r e p r t e d to the Computer Assisted Instruction Center they were instructed in use of the terminals. Then each subject took the computerized MMPI. After each subject finished the test, a debriefing session was held in which the experimenters explained the general nature of the experiment and answered questions about the test. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Examination of the raw MMPI scores for both the women's liberation and the control group showed that one subject in the control group had a validity ( F ) scale value of 23, while one subject in the women's liberation group had a
358
H.F. O'NEIL, JR., ET AL.
score of 24. Since scores above 22 are generally considered to indicate highly invalid profiles, both subjects were excluded from the study, resulting in 19 subjects in the women's liberation group and 33 subjects in the control group. To compare the over-all profiles of the two groups, discriminant function analyses (Cooley & Lohnes, 1962) between the women's liberation and control groups were conducted both for the basic scales and for the Wiggins scales. For the basic scales, the two profiles were significantly different ( P = 2.75, df = 13/ 38, p < .01). The profile for the Wiggins scales were also significantly different ( F = 3.32, df = 13/38, p < .01). To determine which scales contributed to these profile differences, t tests between the control and women's liberation groups were conducted on each of the 26 scale scores. The results of these tests are presented in Table 1. It can be seen that on seven of the 26 scales, the women's liberation group differed significantly from the control group. The differences suggest that women in women's liberation are more independent and less constrained by traditional social customs than are the control women ( P d scale), that they have fewer of the traditional feminine interests and pursuits ( M f , FEM),that they endorse fewer of the traditional Judaic-Christian beliefs (REL), and that they perceive their family life as relatively unhappy and that their parents were unnecessarily critical and quarrelsome ( F A M ) . The differences on the Pd scale again confirm the greater autonomy of the women's liberation activists noted in previous studies (Cherniss, 1972; Fowler & Van de Riet, 1972). The present findings concerning family life and parental relations are also reflected in the findings of Cherniss ( 1972 ). Two of the three validity scales also show significant differences between the women's liberation and control groups. Although there is a significant difference on the L scale, examination of Table 1 shows that the difference in mean absolute score is less than one point. The L scale is generally interpreted as a rather blatant lie scale, and the results on that scale suggest that the women's liberation group is less likely to admit obvious faults in themselves. However, the fact that the K scale, which is a much more subtle measure of defensiveness, indicates no significant difference between the two groups suggests that the findings with respect to the L scale may not have much interpretive value. The women's liberation group also had significantly higher validity ( F ) scale values than did the control group. Two factors probably contribute to the relative elevation of the F scale in the women's liberation group compared to the control group. First, the Pd scale, which is the highest scale in the women's liberation group, shares five items in common with the F scale; therefore, item overlap probably contributes to some extent to the elevated F scale. Secondly, although only two of the 10 clinical scales significantly differentiated between the women's liberation and control groups, on eight of those 10 scales the wom-
MMPI SCORES OF WOMEN'S LIBERATION ACTIVISTS
3 59
TABLE 1 MEANMMPl SCALESCORES (NOT k CORRECTED) AND f VALUESFOR 19 WOMEN'S LIBERAT~ON( N = 19) AND CONTROLGROUPS( N = 34) Scale
Women's Liberation
Control M
t
P
M
Hypochondriasis Depression Hysteria Psychopathic Deviate Masculinity-Femininity Paranoia Psychasthenia Schizophrenia Hypomania Social Introversion, Extroversion Lie Frequency Correction Social Maladjusunent Depression Feminine Interests Poor Morale Religious Fundamentalism Authority Conflict Psychotism Organic Symptoms Family Problems Manifest Hostility Phobias Hypomania Poor Health
5.74 20.26 20.05 17.58 36.95 8.16 15.21 15.68 17.89
5.85 18.61 18.94 13.48 39.33 7.67 16.36 14.03 17.15
24.21 2.95 8.26 9.63 11.00 8.79 17.26 9.21 1.37 7.42 8.95 4.84 7.53 8.37 7.11 14.05
24.15 2.03 4.67 9.88 10.36 8.06 20.70 9.79 5.52 7.18 9.12 5.12 4.91
5.11
8.12
9.03 15.45 4.58
.ll 1.15
1.13 3.07 2.20 .60 .GO .84 .60 .03 2.28 3.68
< .Ol < .05
< .05 < .Ol
.28
.40 .5 1 4.05 .39 5.69 .24 .13 .28 2.83 .20 1.66 1.52 .69
< .01 < .01
< .01
en's liberation group scored higher than did the control group. Therefore, on the whole, the women's liberation group did endorse somewhat more abnormal ideals or behaviors than did the control group, and the P scale reflects this. In general the data provide some support for the claims that these women in women's liberation exhibit deviant personality characteristics. This support comes from the indications that these women active in women's liberation were somewhat more independent, less feminine (in terms of traditional interests and pursuits), less religious and the products of slightly more abnormal family backgrounds than their non-involved counterparts. It should be recognized, however, that these differences, although significant, are not large. In all cases, the T scores on the MMPl scales for the women's liberation group are well within normal limits.
H. F. O'NEIL, JR., ET AL.
The negative results of this study are of perhaps more interest than the positive findings. For example, it appears that these women in the women's liberation movement do not display more odd or unusual behaviors (PSY) and are not more socially maladjusted (SOC) than the controls. Further, negative results indicate that these women's liberationists are not more hostile (HOS), do not have more difficulty dealing with authority figures ( A U T ) , are not more depressed ( D E P ) , nor can their morale said to be lower (MOR) than the inactive group's. Hence, present findings clearly do not support the imputations that these women's liberation student activists are less emotionally adjusted and mentally healthy than their nonactive control group. They do not-exhibit pathological personality characteristics and they differ from their nonactive counterparts on only a few personality characteristics. Attempts to interpret the differences between the women's liberation and the comparison groups (women's liberation group as being more independent, less feminine, less religious, and having a somewhat more troubled family background) raise questions about standards of normality and mental health for females. While the women's liberation group exhibited some personality characteristics which depart from cultural notions regarding normal feminine personality characteristics, there are questions about the validity of these notions concerning normality for females. Bardwick (1972) has pointed out that even though some of the impetus and driving force for the women's liberation movement may arise from individual psychopathology and conflict, the movement has raised fundamental questions about the psychopathology of society and about the positive, healthy characteristics of those who deviate from the cultural norm. Clearly, psychology and the mental health professions need to reexamine existing concepts about female mental health and normality before valid standards are available for evaluating personality characteristics or the mental health of the general female population or of women's liberation activists. REFERENCES
BARDWICK, J. M. (Ed.) Readings on the psychology o f women. New York: Harper & Row, 1972.
CHERNISS, C. Penonality and ideology: a personological study of women's liberation.
Psychiatry, 1972, 3 5 , 109-125. COOLEY,W. W., & LOHNES,P. R. Multivariate procedures for the behavioral sciences. New York: Wiley, 1962.
DAHLSTROM, W. G.,
& WELSH,G. A. An MMPI handbook: guide to use in clinical practice and research. Minneapolis: Univer. of Minnesota Press, 1960. DECTER,M. The new chastity and othw arguments against women's liberation. New York: Coward, McCann, & Geoghegan, 1972. DUNN,T.G., LUSHENE, R. E., & O'NEIL, H. F., JR. Complete automation of the MMPI and a study of its response latencies. ]ournu1 of Consulting and Clinical PsychoG ogy, 1772, 39, 381-387.
MMPI SCORES OF WOMEN'S LIBERATION ACTIVISTS
361
FOWLER,M. G., & VAN DE RIET,H. R. Women today and yesterday: an examination of the feminist personality. Jourml of Psychology, 1972, 82, 269-276. IBM CORPORATION. IBM Coursewriter 11 authofs guide, Par$ I: Course pkanning. New York: Author, 1967. LAWRENSON,H. The feminine mistake. Esquize, 1971, 75, 82-85. LUSHENE,R. L., O'NEIL, H. F., JR., & DUNN,T. G. Equivalent validity of a completely computerized MMPI. Journal of Personality Assessment, 1974, 38, 353-361. MAILER, N . The prisoner of sex. Boston: Liale, Brown, 1971. PAWLICKI,R. E.,& ALMQuIST, C. Authoritarianism, locus of control and tolerance of ambiguity as reflected in membership and nonmembership in a women's liberation group. Psychological Reports, 1973, 32, 1331-1337. WIGGINS, J. S. Content dimensions of the MMPI. In J. N. Butcher (Ed.). MMPI: research developments and clinical applica~ions. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1969. Pp. 127-180.
Accepted June 18, 1975.
