Published as a separate and in The Journal oj Psychology, 1975,91,71-76.

COMPARISON OF EDWARDS PERSONAL PREFERENCE SCHEDULE NORMS WITH RECENT COLLEGE SAMPLES*

Herbert H. Lehman College oj the City University oj New York

DOROTHY MURGATROYD AND EDWARD I. GAVURIN

SUMMARY

Comparisons of the 15 major needs assessed by the Edwards Personal Preference Schedule (EPPS) were made between the original manual norms for college men and women published in 1959 and urban college men and women studied in 1973; between the means for Roman Catholic sisters published by Gardiner in 1973 and urban college women studied in 1973; between urban college men and urban college women studied in 1973; between urban college men and women studied in 1969 and urban college men and women studied in 1973. The major trends noted in the data were (a) a shift in the expressed needs of the sexes so that they were more nearly alike and (b) a similarity in the patterns of need changes for the sexes. It is suggested that these changes may be attributed to societal changes in the past decade.

A. INTRODUCTION

The Edwards Personal Preference Schedule [EPPS (1)] was developed to assess 15 of the major psychological needs formulated by Murray (5). It is a forced-choice inventory which has been widely used to assess personality in selected individuals as well as specific groups with diverse characteristics. Norms for college men and women as well as adult men and women are included in the manual (1) published in 1959. Reliability has been determined as acceptable. Validity relies on self- and peer-ratings and correlation with other scales. Data of this nature are included in the manual and are subject to the problems encountered with such criteria. A lack of published norms since that date, however, was noted by Gardiner (2) in his assessment of Roman Catholic sisters in 1973. As a result, he could not

*Received in the Editorial Office on May 22, 1975, and published immediately at Provincetown, Massachusetts. Copyright by The Journal Press.

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interpret whether the differences in needs for his sample were due to real differences between Catholic sisters and other women or were a function of a change in the need profile of women in general.

Fortunately, data more recent than 1959 are now available as a result of a number of studies at Lehman College which provide norms for urban college men and women. One study of 46 men and 87 women performed in 1969 permits an assessment of the changes that occurred a decade after publication of the manual (4). A second study of 83 men and 163 women at the same college was performed more recently in 1973 (3). The objective of the present paper is to compare the more recent urban college samples with Gardiner's sample as well as with the original 1959 manual norms.

B. METHOD

Table 1 shows the means and SDs of variables on the EPPS given in the following studies which were used for comparison purposes: (a) college men and women reported in the EPPS Manual (1) in 1959; (b) urban college men and women in 1969 reported by Murgatroyd, Stuart, and Denmark (4); (c) Roman Catholic sisters reported by Gardiner (2) in 1973; (d) urban college men and women in 1973 reported by Gavurin and Murgatroyd (3).

The following comparisons were made by computing the t ratio for the mean difference between groups for each of the 15 needs assessed by the EPPS: (a) 1973 Roman Catholic sisters vs. 1973 urban college women; (b) 1973 urban college men vs. 1973 urban college women; (c) 1959 college men vs. 1973 urban college men; (d) 1969 urban college men vs. 1973 urban college men; (e) 1959 college women vs. 1973 urban college women; if) 1969 urban college women vs. 1973 urban college women.

C. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

1. 1973 Roman Catholic Sisters vs. 1973 Urban College Women

In 1973 Catholic sisters were significantly higher than the college women in Deference, Order, Affiliation, Succorance, Abasement, Nurturance, and Endurance (p < .01). They were significantly lower in Achievement (p < .02) and Exhibition, Autonomy, Change, and Heterosexuality (p < .01). No differences were found between the two groups for Intraception, Dominance, and Aggression. These differences in needs are almost identical with those reported by Gardiner between his group of Catholic sisters and the manual norms reported in 1959 for women college students.

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DOROTHY MURGATROYD AND EDWARD I. GAVURIN

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Dominance and Autonomy are the two exceptions. In these exceptions the differences were in the same direction although not significant. Thus the differences reported in Gardiner's study may be construed as reflecting real differences between Catholic sisters and college women. His profile of a Catholic sister compared to a college woman remains essentially the same. This is somewhat surprising, since there are a number of significant differences between the 1959 college women norms and the 1973 urban college women. The concordance in profile, nevertheless, indicates that the direction of the differences of the recent urban college norms can be relied upon and gives us confidence in making further comparisons.

2. 1973 Urban College Men vs. 1973 Urban College Women

The 1973 college men were significantly higher than the college women in Achievement, Exhibition, Autonomy, Dominance, and Aggression (p < .01). Women were significantly higher in Affiliation, Succorance, Abasement, and Nurturance (p < .01). The direction of these differences is similar to the differences between men and women in the 1959 manual data, except that the 1973 college men were higher in Exhibition, and differences between the sexes for Deference, Intraception, Change, and Heterosexuality had disappeared. Compared to the 1959 data, both sexes were lower in Deference and higher in Change. Men scored higher for Intraception, but lower for Heterosexuality, while women scored higher in Heterosexuality. Change in these traits presumably reflects changes in values experienced during the decade of the 60's, so that the sexes have become more alike in their expressed needs.

In the Edwards general adult sample there was a significant sex difference for every one of the 15 needs. In 1959 Edwards' college sample had a significant sex difference for 12 needs, but in the 1973 sample only nine needs differed significantly by sex. No reversals in needs have occurred. Thus it would appear that change over time has tended to make men and women more alike.

3. 1959 College Men vs. 1973 Urban College Men

In spite of the fact that many sex differences have remained stable over the last 15 years, Table 1 reveals that there have been significant changes within each sex and that the 1973 urban college men were significantly lower than their 1959 counterparts in Deference, Order, Affiliation, and

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DOROTHY MURGATROYD AND EDWARD 1. GAVURIN 75

Dominance (p < .01), but higher in Intraception and Aggression (p < .01). Such changes in needs reflect a general change in the college man's profile. The college student of the 50's was deferent, affiliative, orderly, and strove for leadership within the institution. Presumably with the decade of the 60's and student assertiveness on campus the college man wanted to think things out for himself and became more aggressive in asserting himself.

4. 1969 Urban College Men vs. 1973 Urban College Men

The table also indicates that the 1973 urban college men were significantly lower than their 1969 counterparts in Endurance (p < .01), but higher in Heterosexuality (p < .01). Thus the needs for the 1973 and 1969 college men were more nearly alike than the needs for the 1973 men and the 1959 manual data. This might be expected on the basis of both the shorter time span and the similarity of location for the 1969 and 1973 data. One need which did not follow this trend is Heterosexuality which was less important as a need for the 1969 college men than either the 1959 data or the 1973 college men. Since no ready explanation is available, this fluctuation may have been due to chance.

5. 1959 College Women vs. 1973 Urban College Women

On the other hand, the 1973 urban college women were significantly lower than their 1959 counterparts in Deference, Exhibition, Affiliation, and Dominance (p < .01), but higher in Autonomy, Succorance, Nurturance, Heterosexuality, and Aggression (p < .01). Again the conforming, affiliative college student has become less conforming and affiliative but more autonomous and aggressive. In addition the 1970's college woman was freer in expressing her basic needs; hence Succorance, Nurturance, and Heterosexuality were significantly higher than the 1959 norms.

The 1973 college woman changed significantly in nine traits from the 1959 norms, while the 1973 college man changed significantly in six traits; four of these six traits are identical (Deference, Affiliation, Dominance, and Aggression) for both sexes with the direction of change the same.

6. 1969 Urban College Women vs. 1973 Urban College Women

The 1973 urban college women were significantly lower than their 1969 counterparts in Endurance (p < .01), but higher in Heterosexuality and

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Aggression (p < .01). The pattern is similar to the 1969-1973 data for men in that for the two needs (Endurance and Heterosexuality) in which change occurred for men, a similar change also occurred for women.

D. CONCLUSIONS

The major trend in the data has been a shift in the expressed needs of the sexes so that they are more nearly alike. Also many of the traits in which significant change has occurred are identical for men and women. While these findings seem logical in terms of societal changes, the fact must be stressed that the comparisons are made with samples from one urban college student body.

REFERENCES

1. EDWARDS, A. L. Manual for the Edwards Personal Preference Schedule. New York:

Psychol, Corp., 1959.

2. GARDINER, H. W. Catholic sisters and the Edwards Personal Preference Schedule. J. of Psychol., 1973, 85, 97-100.

3. GAVURIN, E., & MURGATROYD, D. Personality correlates of anagram problem solving. J. of Psychol., 1974, 88, 97-101.

4. MURGATROYD, D., STUART, I., & DENMARK, F. Perceptual style, locus of control, and personality in urban white college students. Soc. Behau. & Personal., 1974, 2, 204- 211.

5. MURRAY, H. A. Explorations in Personality. New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 1953.

Department of Psychology Herbert H. Lehman College Bedford Park Boulevard West Bronx, N ew York 10468

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