FIELD DEPENDENCE AND PERSONALITY: A RE-EXAMINATION

Stability of Cognitive Style in Adults and Some Implications, a Longitudinal Study of the Kirton Adaption-Innovation Inventory

This study ( N = 69) confirms the longer term stability (test-retest over 3.5 years) of Kirton's Adaption-Innovation Cognitive Style concept. Earlier test-retest studies were limited to periods of up to 1.5 years, although longer term stability (implied by, for example, consistent item-factor loadings across samples from different countries and organisations) was expected. The longer term stability was supported in this study by a test-retest coefficient of 0.82. This finding indicates clearly that studies and organisational interventions which have the objective of modifying this individual style preference will, by implication, fail. If any training intervention is to be regarded as successful, then overt behaviour rather than personal preference must be addressed. More attention must now be paid to Kirton's notion of “coping behaviour” and the ways available for reducing the psychological expense to the individual when overt behaviour needs to be different from personal preference.

Intellectual Styles: Their Associations and Their Relationships to Ability and Personality

This study investigated the associations among intellectual styles in the three approaches: cognition-centered, personality-centered, and activity-centered approaches. Field dependence-independence, psychological types, and learning approaches were respectively selected as the representatives of the cognition-centered, personality-centered, and activity-centered styles. This study also explored the relationships between intellectual styles and ability as well as between intellectual styles and personality. The participants in this study were 510 students in a Chinese university. The results showed that the three style constructs did not significantly share common variance, implying that styles in different approaches likely represent different rather than similar constructs. Also, field dependence-independence strongly associated with ability, whereas psychological types and learning approaches strongly associated with personality. This suggested that different style constructs relate to ability and personality to different degree: cognition-centered styles may closely relate to ability, whereas personality-centered and activity-centered styles may highly relate to personality.

Field Dependence-Independence in Second-Language Acquisition: Some Forgotten Aspects

This study examined the role of sex and intelligence in the relationship between field dependence-independence and second language acquisition for a sample of 383 students (187 girls and 196 boys) aged between 13 and 16. The Portable Rod and Frame Test (PRFT) and the Embedded Figures Test (EFT) were used to evaluate cognitive style. A two-way covariance analysis, with intelligence as the covariate, was employed to investigate differences in second language achievement between students classified as either field-dependent or field-independent. A cluster analysis using z scores was examined to study the performance of subjects classified as either field-dependent or field-independent according to scores obtained on the EFT and the PRFT (“coincident” subjects) and those classified as field-dependent in one test and field-independent in the other (“non-coincident” subjects). No statistically significant differences between the two groups were obtained when cognitive style was defined by scores on the PRFT. When field dependence-independence was measured by scores on the EFT, field-independent girls performed better than field-dependent girls (p < .005), but this outcome was not observed for boys. These results suggest a differential contribution of the “perceptive” and “cognitive” components of field dependence-independence and a modulating role by sex.

Field dependence/independence and eye-hands-legs coordination

A study of the relationship between field-dependence and psychomotor performance is presented. Boys practicing amateur boxing (younger juniors) and 16 to 17 yr. of age were subjects. Field-dependence was assessed on Witkin's Group Embedded Figures Test and eye-hand-legs coordination by means of the SMA-3 coordinometer produced by Bryans Co. Higher scores on field-dependence were associated with better performance on the eye-hand-legs coordination task but not with effectiveness of learning.