Validity studies of a proverbs personality test.

Data from twenty samples including 282 salesmen, 78 factory supervisors, 49 public school teachers, 147 penitentiary inmates, 34 Marine Corps enlistees, 361 college students, 36 student nurses, and 234 high school students were used in a correlation analysis of a three-factor list of proverbs from the Famous Sayings Test. "Low positive correlations with corresponding measures and educational and occupational group differences tend to sustain the supposition that three content factors—Conventional Mores, Hostility, and Fear of Failure—are assessed by the three scales. The factors, as measured, do not appear related to academic overachievement, psychopathy, or success as a salesman. However, the Fear of Failure Scale may have some utility for the forecasting of success as a factory supervisor." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)