AN EVALUATION OF THE P.Q. (PERSONALITY QUOTIENT) TEST

SUMMARY The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the effectiveness of the P.Q. test in a homogeneous community and to determine some of the relationships of this test to environmental factors and other measures of ability, achievement, and personality. Test results for 146 boys and 113 girls attending high school at Mooseheart, Illinois, comprise the data upon which this study is based. The results may be stated as follows: 1. Raw scores on parts of the test were found to become larger with increasing age and progress through the grades. The fact that the relationship between raw extroversion scores and age is greater than the relationship between extroversion scores and grade suggests that, for this group at least, P.Q.'s based on age rather than grade norms may be more accurate. 2. Chance correlations were found for boys between part scores on the test and both intelligence and academic achievement as measured by the Morgan Mental and Sones-Harry Achievement tests, respectively. Slight positive correlations were found for the girls. A statistically reliable sex difference was found between the correlation for self-determination and both achievement and intelligence. A statistically reliable sex difference is approached between correlations for extroversion and both achievement and intelligence. 3. Slight positive correlations were found between some of the part scores on the test and class ranks indicating that individuals with high P.Q.'s have a slight advantage in academic competition. 4.The correlation between the P.Q.'s of fifty-four pairs of siblings was found to be .04 ± .067, while the correlation between their I.Q.'s was found to be .35 ± .059. This may, perhaps, be interpreted to mean that the P.Q. is more dependent upon environmental influences than upon hereditary factors. 5.On the basis of the available data and with the age factor only partially controlled, no statistically significant difference was found between the average P.Q. of children who had been at Mooseheart for less than six years when compared with children who had been at Mooseheart for more than twelve years. This may be interpreted to mean that the Mooseheart environment has set up no handicaps to freedom of personality development, as measured by the P.Q., in comparison to that of the average home. 6. Mooseheart children made significantly lower scores than criterion groups on the sub-trait tests for social aggressiveness, economic self- determination, and adjustment to the opposite sex. No significant differences were found on the sub-trait test for self-determination. Such differences as do exist can be explained on the basis of the differing environments for the Mooseheart and criterion groups. 7.Intercorrelations between the sub-trait test scores indicate that there is no dear-cut distinction between self-determination and extroversion scores and that self-determination correlates least well with other sub-traits as measured by this test. This accounts for the fact that Mooseheart children are significantly below the average on three sub-trait tests but not significantly below the average on total score. 8.With the exception of economic self-determination, sub-trait and extroversion scores were found to be in essential agreement with ratings by the Dean of Men in selecting boys with the greatest and least amount of each trait. Similar ratings by the Dean of Women for the girls did not agree so well with test scores, probably because of the less overt behavior of the girls. The results of these ratings indicate that low X. scores may be thought of as high introversion scores. 9. In so far as this group is concerned at least, an apparent tendency for low P.Q.'s to be associated with problem boys does not prove to be statistically reliable. No evidence was available to indicate a relationship between P.Q. and behavior problems among girls.