| Abstract: | Asked 24 disturbed and 24 normal boys (mean age = 10.5 yrs) to construe 12 persons known personally to them and 12 familiar inanimate objects on 2 sets of 12 5-point bipolar constructs. Ss were also asked to arrange the people and inanimate objects into personally meaningful groups. There was significantly lower differentiation and articulation, but not integration, in the interpersonal conceptual structure of disturbed Ss compared to normal controls. No differences were found in construing inanimate objects. Results are interpreted as indicating that disturbed boys are handicapped by a limited interpersonal conceptual structure for anticipating and predicting their social environment. (23 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved) |
