Peer conformity and achievement in female manic-depressives.

Tested the assumption that female manic-depressives have similar personality characteristics to those reported for male manic-depressives. Besides using previously employed self-report measures from which personality attributes related to conformity and value achievement have been inferred, a peer conformity experiment was carried out. 16 remitted female manic-depressives were matched with 16 nonpsychiatric controls. The groups did not differ on the self-report personality measures. Experimental conformity scores were analyzed as a function of direction and intensity of confederate endorsement of authoritarian statements. Manic-depressives were generally less conforming than controls. Endorsement conditions yielded varying amounts of conformity, with extremely positive confederate endorsement evoking significant anticonformity in remitted manic-depressives. (17 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)