Performance of criminals and neurotics on the Kahn test of symbol arrangement.

The diagnostic power of the Kahn Test of Symbol Arrangement (KTSA) in differentiating between criminals and neurotics was examined. Three groups of males--30 incarcerated criminal recidivists, 30 neurotics, and 30 trainees in a work-placement bureau--were given the KTSA and an intelligence test. The groups were equated for age and socioeconomic status. Qualitative differences between the symbol-patterns of the criminals and the neurotics were noted. The KTSA scores of the two groups differed from those of the control group but not from each other.

Dimensions of assertiveness: factors underlying the college self-expression scale.

A total of 447 Israeli students, both males and females, from four educational institutions were administered the College Self-expression Scale, a measure of assertiveness. The obtained responses were factor analyzed using the principal axis solution and the varimax rotation method. The results showed four main factors which included 43 of the 50 items of the original scale. These factors were identified as the willingness to take risks in interpersonal interactions, the ability to communicate feelings, setting rules and rectifying injustices, and the presence or absence of a tendency to invoke a self-punitive attitude. The findings were interpreted as adding support to the validity of the scale as a measure of assertiveness.

Psychodrama: group psychotherapy through role playing.

The theory and the therapeutic procedure of classical psychodrama are described along with brief illustrations. Classical psychodrama and sociodrama stemmed from role theory, enactments, "tele," the reciprocity of choices, and the theory of spontaneity-robopathy and creativity. The discussion focuses on key concepts such as the therapeutic team, the structure of the session, transference and reality, countertransference, the here-and-now and the encounter, the group-as-a-whole, resistance and difficult clients, and affect and cognition. Also described are the neoclassical approaches of psychodrama, action methods, and clinical role playing, and the significance of the concept of behavioral simulation in group psychotherapy.

Role-playing techniques: locus of control and the attraction to behavior simulation interventions.

This study investigated the relationship between internal-external locus of control and preferences to enact conflict situations designed as spontaneous, mimetic-replication or a combination of these two behavior simulation (role playing) conditions. Four groups of females, high-school students (N = 10 each), indicated their portrayal preferences on a Role Playing Situation Questionnaire. Two of these, an internal and an external group, participated in a task designed to create feelings of failure (lack of success) prior to taking the questionnaire. Spontaneous portrayals were preferred by internals, and portrayals that involved mimetic-replication were favored by externals. Unsuccessful internals preferred the combined spontaneous/mimetic-replication alternative more than did the other internals. The relationship between personality and role playing, as well as the implications for clinical uses of behavior simulation conditions, is discussed.

The effect of two kinds of role playing on self-evaluation of improved assertiveness.

The study investigated the "differential effect of role-playing enactments" hypothesis through self-evaluations of improvement in assertiveness by participants in an assertive training program. Twenty-two nonassertive Israeli students were trained in two groups: mimetic-replications (action modeling, n = 12) and spontaneous (self-produced action, n = 10) role-playing interventions. Comparisons of their scores on the Self-Expression College Scale (CSES) before and after the training showed that both groups significantly improved their self-evaluations, but the mimetic-replication group did better. In particular, this group scored significantly higher on the CSES first factor (the willingness to take risks in situations that involved other, significant persons).

The Kahn Test of Symbol Arrangement and criminality.

Two groups of male Ss--33 incarcerated criminal recidivists and 33 trainees in a work placement bureau--were tested on two versions of the Kahn Test of Symbol Arrangement (KTSA). These were the original KTSA, which used the free responding technique, and a modified KTSA, which used the forced-choice responding technique. The groups were equated for average age and sociocultural status and did not differ in their intellignece scores. The results showed that the criminals scored significantly lower than their controls on the original KTSA with a symbol-pattern characterized by repetitive and concrete types of responses. The groups did not differ on the modified KTSA. The discriminative power of the free responding technique of the KTSA proved to be superior to that of the forced-choice in the area of identifying criminal recidivists.

Role-playing techniques: the differential effect of behavior simulation interventions of the readiness to inflict pain.

Investigated the differential effect of two kinds of behavior simulation (role-playing) interventions: The spontaneous and the mimetic-pretend, on the readiness and the responsibility attributions associated with delivering electric shocks to others (N = 25). Shocks were administered in a teaching situation using the Buss Aggression Machine in the "teacher-learner" paradigm. The results showed that the spontaneous Ss were more ego-oriented and more inhibited in administering shocks than the mimetic-pretend Ss. Unlike the latter Ss, who evinced task-oriented behavior and attributions, the spontaneous Ss assumed personal responsibility for their actions and evaluated the outcomes by minimizing their contribution. Implications for clinical use of role-playing are discussed.

The effectiveness of the psychodramatic double method, the reflection method, and lecturing in the training of empathy.

Studied the effectiveness of the psychodramatic Double method, the Reflection method, and the Lecture method in improving empathic ability. Sixty-four high school sophomores were assigned randomly to four groups of 16 Ss, 8 males and 8 females, each. Three groups received one of the three training methods and the fourth served as no-training control. The Ss' level of empathy, before and after the training, was measured by a modified version of the Accurate Empathic Scale. The results showed that all three training methods produced significant improvements compared with the control group. The effect of the Double method was significantly greater than that of the other two methods. The Reflection method ranked second, yet was not significantly better than the Lecture method. Females scored higher than males both before and after the training, but there was no significant sex and training method interaction effect.

Functional infertility and femininity: a comparison of infertile women and their mothers.

The hypotheses that functionally infertile women and their mothers will express more difficulties in femininity and motherhood than organically infertile women and their mothers, and that mothers of functionally infertile women will evince less such difficulties were investigated with groups of functionally infertile women, former mechanically infertile women, and their mothers (n = 20, each). The results showed significantly more difficulties in the functional daughters/mothers groups. Each daughters' group scored similar to their respective mothers. There were significant correlations between the results of the daughters and their mothers only for the functionally infertile group. While the existence of a conflicted maternal background was demonstrated, difficulties in femininity and motherhood did not appear to constitute a sufficient cause for functional infertility.

Recall of figure "A" of the Bender-Gestalt test among delinquents.

The Bender-Gestalt test was administered to 182 Israeli adolescent males: four groups of juvenile delinquents and two of nondelinquent high-school students. Each of the delinquent groups was administered one of the following versions: a standard administration with figure A first (n = 60), a change of sequence with figure A last (n = 22), a regular sequence with figure A changed to two adjacing circles (n = 20), and with figure A changed to two adjacent diamonds (n = 20). One nondelinquent group took the test under standard administration with figure A first (n = 30), and one took it with figure A last (n = 20). The results showed significantly low recall of the original figure A by delinquents when it appeared first. This phenomenon was related to both primary effect and the design depicted in figure A, with a greater influence of the latter. Difficulties in integration were suggested as inhibiting delinquents' recall.