Rorschach findings on college students showing different constellations of subscores on the A. C. E

Differentially Talented Females: Some Critical Methodological Issues for the 1980s

Usually psychometric studies have searched for the personality correlates associated with L (high linguistic and low quantitative ability) and Q (low linguistic and high quantitative ability) patterns. Neuropsychological studies, on the other hand, have searched for the cortical processes associated with L and Q patterns or for the psychological functions (presumably linguistic and visuospatial) associated with left- and right-hemispheric processing, respectively. To further our understanding of the relationship of L and Q patterns to personality correlates and modes of information processing and to clarify conflicting interpretations attributed to sex and sex-role factors, a cohort-sequential methodology and a convergence of psychometry with neuropsychology are recommended; three critical methodological issues are explored.

Vocational interest and personality correlates of differential abilities

Based upon the proposal of Yonge and Regan (1975) that the six Holland vocational groups show different patterns of abilities, the vocational interest correlates of differential combinations of abilities were investigated. From the Scholastic Aptitude Test scores of a sample of 412 college freshmen, three ability groups were created: (1) verbal greater than mathematical, (2) verbal equal to mathematical, and (3) mathematical greater than verbal. Based on responses to the Vocational Preference Inventory and 16 PF, significant differences in group means were found on scales related to artistic interests. For both sexes the highest scores on these scales were made by the high verbal-low mathematical group.

Personality correlates of differential abilities in a sample of lower than average ability

Critics of IQ tests often emphasize the importance of non-intellectual components of intelligent behavior. Previous research has identified masculinity-femininity as one factor contributing to the differentiation of people along a dimension of high verbal ability at one end and high mathematical (or other “practical”) ability at the other. However, almost all of this information was derived from the study of groups whose over-all ability was about 1 SD above the population mean. To test the generalizability of these findings the Guilford-Zimmerman personality correlates of differential abilities were investigated in a lower than average ability group. Masculinity was related to the high mathematical-low verbal ability complex for females but not for males. The importance of studying the interaction of sex and type of ability was discussed.