An experimental study of the temperament of juvenile delinquents: I

Abstract

This experiment was designed to explore the pattern of temperament characteristic of delinquents. Forty tests consisting of so called objective items and some other scales were administered to the subjects for the purpose of measuring the 12 temperaments (rigidity, suggestibility, irritation, frustration tolerance, ambiguity tolerance, insight, personal tempo, conflict persistence, restlessness, level of aspiration, and accuracy) and three other chara cteristics(attitudes toward people, self-acceptance, and rules of behavior). The subjects in the experimental group were 20 males and 10 females. They ranged in age from 14 to 18 and in IQ from 83 to 106. The subjects in the control group were matched to those of the experimental group on such variables as age and IQ. From the experimental results, it was found that in 18 tests, there were significant differences between temperaments of delinquents and those of the control group. These were: 1. Embedded pattern 2. Problem solving (maze) 3. Problem solving (similarity of 3 words) 4. Suggestibility test (number of dots) 5. Irritability test (pendulum chronoscope) 6. Frustration tolerance test (lucky puzzle) 7. G. S. R. 8. Aircraft range test 9. Dog-cat transitory picture 10. Cat-mouse transitory picture 11. Circle-square transitory picture 12. Classification of objects 13. Tapping 14. Sears-Hovland test 15. Persistence test (lucky puzzle) 16. Restlessness test (lucky puzzle) 17. Level of aspiration (quoits) 18. Kirihara-Downey will-temperament test: No 6. © 1963, The Japanese Association of Educational Psychology. All rights reserved.