Rorschach aggressive content in normal and problematic children.

Rorschach aggressive content was examined in 42 children who had been referred for psychological evaluations and 42 children who were considered well-adjusted. The two groups did not differ on two standard, global indices of aggressive content, but they did differ with respect to various specific kinds of aggressive imagery. In particular, the normal children more frequently focused on aggression in the context of direct interactions--fights--whereas the problematic children talked as if the figures were at the mercy of unknown or unreal attackers.

Utopian visions of schizophrenic adolescents.

Twenty-four normal and 24 hospitalized schizophrenic adolescents described an ideal society for an imaginary island. The normals usually tried to establish a functional democracy. The schizophrenics seemed more sensitive to basic biological needs, but their main goal was to create a personal paradise, a place in which every need and desire would be met. In their search for paradise, the schizophrenics often introduced themes that had a Jungian, archetypal flavor - e.g., themes from antiquity, God, sex, homes, animals, opposites (such as love and hate), birth, and death.

Personality correlates of drug preference among college undergraduates.

Three groups of college drug users--those expressing a preference for marijuana, amphetamines, or barbiturates--reported on experiences resulting from their drugs, and these groups, together with a group of nondrug-users, completed the Omnibus Personality Inventory (OPI). On the OPI the nonusers appeared more conventional and conforming than each drug group. Those preferring marijuana were less anxious than any other group, but the most distinctive group was that preferring barbiturates, which appeared the least intellectually inclined and the most emotionally distressed. This group's personality dispositions also seemed generally concordant with the experiences they reported from the drug.

The growth of political ideas and their expression among young activists.

Two studies were conducted. In the first, developmental information was gathered on young people's efforts to construct and elaborate on an ideal society. The subjects were 54 white middle-class boys, equally divided among 8-, 11-, and 16-year-olds. The interview protocols suggested a typology consisting of (1) a personalistic, nongovernmental construction of society, based on the child's own life space, with a concern for biological needs such as food and shelter; (2) a construction of specific but unrelated governmental institutions; (3) a better-organized conception of how institutions are interrelated; (4) a commitment to abstract principles. In the second investigation, the task and typology were applied to the study of high school left-wing activists and nonactivists -93 in all. The activists were not clearly more committed to abstract principles, although they were entertaining utopian possibilities of a society with few laws. But the surprising finding was the activists' resemblance to the youngest children (type I); they too constructed a personalistic society potentially within their own life space and were concerned with biological life-supportive issues.