Evening star., 1940-11-23
Of Stors, Men
And Atoms
Notebook Of Science Progress
In Laboratory. Field
And Study
BIZ Thomas r. Henry.

By Thomas r. Henry.
| Between the 18th and 18th year q rev.
| olutionary change takes place In the
human personality.
There is a marked turn inward as
| revealed by the child's "erlebnitstype," q
| new psychological measurement, DR..
Marguerite R. Hertz of Western Reserve
University has just reported to the
American Psychological Association.
| This finding is based on the use of the
Rorschach test in which a person Is
asked to identify certain figures on a
sheet of paper. Actually they are only
ink blots, not intended to represent any,
thing. They look vaguely, however, like
animals, trees, clouds, etc. The ink blot
which may seem to one person to re-
semble closest dog standing still may
seem like running dog to another and
like bush to somebody else.
The Interpretation put upon a blot,
1t is claimed, reveals good deal Of what
is going on inside the mind. There is
certain normal pattern of Interpretation,
marked deviation from which indicates
that the mental processes are deviating
from standard.
Generally, Dr. Hertz explained to the
psychologists, use of color terms in the
interpretations is an indication of close
contact with the outside world. Attrib-
uting movement to an object, on the other
hand, indicates that the stimulation for
the Interpretation is coming out of the
depths Of ones own personality. In
other schools of psychology these con-
trasting attributes are described as ex-
troversion and introversion. An indi-
vidual's "erlebnitstype" is the ratio be-
tween color and movement symbols
brought out in the Interpretation.
The extroversion interpretations are
most common in young children, DR..
Hertz found The child has not developed
an inner life. 1t is wholly a creature of
the real world Of things in which it lives
and has not reached the stage of build
ing up imaginary images in the mind
which eventually come to mean as much
as actual objects and to furnish an
equivalent stimulation. There is how
ever, degree of introversion in chill
dren which varies among individuals.
But at about the start of adolescence,
Dr.. Hertzs tests reveal, comes the intro
versal swing. The children are DOM
mated more and more by inner expe-
rience. They tend more and more to
interpret the world, including the ink
blots, in terms of their stored up men,
ories and experiences. Previously the
-I~sII i I.N- L. II
swayed entirely by the surroundings Of
the moment. The children who already
were introverted remain so.
1t amounts, DR.. Hertz said, to striking
balance which will determine the per-
sonality of the individual through life.
With the growth of introversion the
! child becomes more restrained and less
troublesome. Her tests, she said, dis
prove the old idea that children tend to
become more emotional at adolescence.
On the contrary, they try to bury their
emotions and appear to the world as
cool and collected however much they
may be seething inside.
At the same meeting new technique
of getting at the inside reactions of the
child, somewhat similar to the Ror-
schach scheme, but using real pictures
instead of meaningless ink blots, was
explained to the psychologists by Drs.
Eva Ruth Balken and Adrian H VAN
derveer of the University of Chicago.
The problem. child is shown a sequence
of pictures of home and play situations
and asked to make each the basis of
story.
The stories the children tell are re-
corded and serve the child psychiatrists
somewhat as dreams serve the psyche
analyst. The story suggested by the pic
lures becomes, in fact, waking dream.
1t is interpreted in the light of what is
known of the child's behavior and the
particular problems for which he has
been referred to the clinic.
The sequence of pictures is especially
rich in home situations and children are
encouraged to weave fantasies around
them. These fantasies become accounts
of their own discontents and yearnings.
Hatred of father and of younger brothers
and sisters frequently is expressed. When
child makes up story in which
father shown in picture'is is killed in an
accident the Interpretation of a hidden
family conflict is fairly obvious.
This new technique of analyzing chill
dren's minds is in its infancy, DR..
Balken reported, and efforts now are
being made to standardize it on the
basis of stories told by entirely normal
children. Then marked deviations from
the pattern stories will indicate at once
81 ~,
should be investigated.