ABSTRACT
Examined here are the effects of gender and Visual Imagery Reactivity in 80 consecutively selected psychiatric outpatients. The participants were grouped by gender and by the amounts of responsiveness to preceding therapy work using imagery (Imagery Nonreactors and Reactors). In the group of Imagery Nonreactors were 13 men and 22 women, and in the Reactor group were 17 men and 28 women. Compared were the responses to standard Rorschach (Conventional condition) with visual associations to memory images of Rorschach inkblots (Imagery condition). Responses were scored using the Visual Imagery Reactivity (VIR) scoring system, a general, test-nonspecific scoring method. Nonparametric statistical analysis showed that critical indicators of Imagery Reactivity encoded as High Affect/Conflict score and its derivatives associated with sexual or bizarre content were not significantly associated with gender; neither was Neutral Content score which categorizes "non-Reactivity." These results support the notion that system's criteria of Visual Imagery Reactivity can be applied equally to both men and women for the classification of Imagery Reactors and Nonreactors. Discussed are also the speculative consequences of extending the tolerance range of significance levels for the interaction between Reactivity and sex above the customary limit of p < .05 in borderline cases. The results of such an analysis may imply a trend towards more rigid defensiveness under Imagery and toward lesser verbal productivity in response to either the Conventional or the Imagery task among women who are Nonreactors. In Reactors, men produced significantly more Sexual Reference scores (in the subcategory not associated with High Affect/Conflict) than women, but this could be attributed to the effect of tester's and subjects' gender combined.
Subject(s)
Arousal , Gender Identity , Imagination , Pattern Recognition, Visual , Rorschach Test/statistics & numerical data , Adolescent , Adult , Awareness , Female , Free Association , Humans , Male , Mental Recall , Middle Aged , Neurotic Disorders/psychology , Neurotic Disorders/therapy , Psychometrics , Psychotherapy , Repression, PsychologyABSTRACT
A general scoring system, previously developed for the analysis of pictorial associations within the paradigm of Visual Imagery Sequences, was applied in the evaluation of visual associations to memory images of Rorschach inkblots (Imagery condition) in a comparison with standard Rorschach responses (Conventional condition). The participants, 80 consecutively selected psychiatric outpatients, were divided into Clinical Reactor and Nonreactor groups, according to how productive they were of psychodynamically revealing material during insight-oriented therapy using imagery. For this simple scoring method (which does not include the customary Rorschach scores), conclusions concerning Imagery Reactivity in the Rorschach agreed with those of previous studies using a scoring system more unique to the Rorschach. The inferences drawn from statistical analysis by groups and conditions also contribute additional refinements to the understanding of the subtle interplay between defensiveness and sensitivity to imagery in determining the patterns of scorable components within the response complex. This general scoring method correctly identified 95.6% of Imagery Reactors and 100% of Imagery Nonreactors, an improvement over the 87% efficiency of the previously described, Rorschach-based method for assessing Imagery Reactivity in the Rorschach.
