Rorschach Erlebnistypus and problem-solving styles in children.

Abstract

This study was designed to determine whether children who, on the basis of their Rorschach Erlebnistypus score,were identified as being introversive or extraversive differed with respect to their approaches to certain novel problem-solving tasks.It was thought that the extra-tensives would characteristically manipulate the task materials more and make more mistakes than would the introversives,owing to the notion that the introversives internalize more of their manipulations and attempted solutions.Sixty-nine sixth and seventh graders at a university-run laboratory school were administered the Rorschach.From that number fifteen introversive and fifteen extratensive children were identified who were also given three subtests from the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised(WISC-R).These subtests were the Block Design,Object Assembly,and Mazes.Systems were devised to count the number of manipulations made by the chidren on the Block Design and Object Assembly subtests and the number of errors committed on the Mazes subtest.These manipulations and errors were recorded and mean manipulation and error scores were tabulated for both the introversive and extratensive groups.T-tests,using these mean scores,tested the hypotheses of this study.The hypotheses of this study were: 1)Extratensive children make significantly more manipulations than do introversive children on the Block Design subtest of the WISC-R. 2)Extratensive children make significantly more manipulations than do introversive children on the Object Assembly subtest of the WISC-R. 3) Extratensive children make significantly more errors than do introversive children on the Mazes subtest of the WISC-R.The results of the analysis of the data revealed that the introversive group performed fewer manipulations than did the extratensive group on the Block Design subtest as expected but not on the Object Assembly subtest.Furthermore,the extratensives did not commit more errors on the Mazes subtest than did the introversies.It was concluded that introversive and extratensive children do differ with respect to problem-solving styles.It is not known,however what tasks are required so that these differences are evident.