FRANKL'S WILL TO MEANING IN A RELIGIOUS ORDER'

JAMES C. CKUMBATJGH SISTER MARY RAPHAEL RAYMOND R, SHRADEK

Feterans Administratiim Hospital Gutfport, Mississippi

St. Mary's Dominican College New Orleans

PROBLEM

The University of Tennessee KnoxmUe

This study employs the Purpose-in-Life (PIL) Test"' *' and a battery of personality measures in the study of motivation in trainees for a religious order. The PIL, which is constructed from the orientation of Frankl's "will to meaning", has yielded its highest scores among well motivated professional and successful business populations. The trainees of a congregation of Dominican sisters were chosen for study. The Dominicans are an apostolic or socially active rather than a contemplative order; they are mostly teachers, nurses and the like. Dominican training extends over a seven-year period: Postulant or Aspirant (first year). Novitiate (second year), Temporary Professed (five years). The first three years are generally conducted in relative isolation in a special convent. The trainee then moves into a socially active situation in which she may go to college, teach or follow other activities.
METHOD

Subjects. Ss were 56 trainee Sisters at various levels of training in the congregation of Saint Mary's Dominican Sisters with the mother house in New Orleans; 29 were in the first three years (in the preparatory convent), and 27 in advanced training. At the time of closing the data, 19 of the 56 originally tested a year and a half earlier had dropped out; 37 still remained. Materials. The 56 Ss were a,dministered the following battery of psychometric measures: (1) The Purpose-in-Life Test (PIL).' The 20 items of Part A are the only part objectively scored. (2) The Gordon Personal Profile, (3) The Washington Social Intelligence Scale, (4) The Buhler Goals of Life Inventory, (5) The Cattell 16 Personality Factor Test, (6) The Cattell Motivational Analysis Test, (7) The Kerr and Sperhoff Enipathy Test. In addition, all completed a special biographical data blank and attitude questionnaire.^ Evaluation of trainee proficiency was made by a special rating scale devised by the second author.' This scale was completed for each trainee by two Superior Sisters, two peer trainees, and by the trainee herself (as a self evaluation). Procedure. Since the trainees were scattered geographically, according to duty assignment, they were brought to a central testing place at St. Mary's Dominican College. Participation was entirely voluntary, and individual identity was concealed by a randomly assigned code number known to only one person, who was otherwise unconnected with the study.
RESULTS'

1. The trainee Sisters' mean PIL score of 119.27 compared favorably w'h that of the motivated business and professional group (118.90) earlier reported by Crumbaugh*". Further, the Sisters' variability (10.02) was less than that of Crumbaugh's earlier group (11.31).
'Delivered before DiviMiou 24, Ameiicaii Psychological Association, at the annual coiiveutiim m San Francisco, Aug. 30, 1968. A copy of the PIL and unpublished materials used in the study will be sent upon request. Address the first writer, c./o Veterans Administration Hospital, Gvilfport, Mississippi 39.iO2. An extended version of this paper contaiiiiiig complete tables <if all results will be dent iip"" request. Address the first writer c/o Veterans Administration Hospital, Gulfport, Mississippi 39M2,

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2. There was a substantial relationship (r = .48) between PIL scores and the general average of all ratings of proficiency in the training program. The relationship drops to .36 when proficiency ratings are limited to those of the Superior Sisters. These latter ratings are, of course, the most significant in the determination of success in training. 3. There was no high relationship between PIL scores and measures of any personality trait, though there was a substantial relationship (r = .52) with the anxiety scale of the 16 PF test. The next highest relationship was with the selfconfidence scale of the 16 PF (r = .44). 4. There was no significant difference between the PIL scores of drop-outs and those who sustained their performance in the training program.
SUMMARY

The Purpose-in-Life (PIL) Test (designed to measure Frankl's "will to meaning") and a battery of personality measures were employed to study motivation in trainees for a religious order (a congregation of Dominican sisters). Results yielded high scores on the PIL, suggesting that a high degree of purpose and meaning in life is both possessed and needed for success in the order. The PIL correlated substantially with ratings of success in training. While it did not significantly distinguish drop-outs from sisters who sustained their training, the sustainers' mean score was higher; and many factors (such as family financial problems) other than success in training influenced dropout decisions. The relationship of the PIL to personality measures was found, as in previous studies, to be low to moderate.
REFERENCER 1. CBUMBAVGH, J , C . Cross-validation of Purpose-in-Life Test bfused ou Fraukl's concept. J. individ. Psychot., 1968, S4, 74-81, 2. CBVHBAVOH, J . C , and MAHOUCK, L . T . An experimental study in existentialism: The p.<iychometric approach to Frankl's concept of noogenic neurosis, J. din. Psychol, 1964, SO, 200-207.

SUBJECT ANONYMITY AND MOTIVATIONAL DISTORTION IN SELF-REPORT DATA

GILBERT BECKER AND DONALD A. BAKAL

University of Winnipeg
PROBLEM

University of Manitoba

In view of the current interest in the social psychology of the psychological experiment, the question was raised whether (a) anonymity influences the favorability of self-report, (b) level of defensiveness interacts with anonymity, and (c) stimulus (item) characteristics (as identified through factor analysis) interact with anonymity.
METHOD

Ss were 92 female introductory psychology students (University of Manitoba) who were selected on the basis of scores on the Marlowe-Crowne"' Social Desirability scale. The scale was used to differentiate extreme levels of defensiveness, hereafter called Defensive Approval Motivation (DAM)."' *'

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GILBERT BECKER AND DONALD A. BAKAL

Three levels of Identification Treatment (IT) were created by attaching to each self-report inventory, a face sheet containing one of three sets of instructions for indicating respondent identification. In the No Name IT, Ss read, "Do NOT record your name. In order to ensure complete honesty and frankness in responding to the attitude statements, you are asked to remain anonymous by not recording your name." In the Name IT, Ss read, simply, "Print your name in the space provided." In the Alias IT, Ss read, "Do NOT record your real name. In order to insure complete honesty and frankness in responding to the attitude statements, you are asked to remain anonymous by not recording your real name. However, please print some alias or fictitious name in the space provided. When you have done this, record the alias in your notebook." The request to record the alias wag made for purposes of credibility and to simulate the experimental situation in which aliases might be asked for so that the present results might be more generally applicable. The Lie scale of the MMPI was used to assess motivational distortion. Items on the Lie scale are determined by two factors first isolated by Bendig**' and labeled Emotional Denial (ED) and Social Facade (SF). A 2 X 3 (DAM X IT) ANOVA was performed on scores based on all items of the Lie scale, those items defining ED, and those items defining SF.
RESULTS

The analysis of scores based on the entire Lie scale indicated a highly significant DAM effect (F = 56.67, p < .01). The IT effect and the interaction between DAM and IT were nil. The same analysis performed on ED and SF factor scores separately suggested an interaction between "lie" factor (LF) score and IT among the high D X M SS but not among the low DAM Ss. The possibility that the use of the factorially "impure" Lie scale (in which counterbalancing items represent each factor) had masked a triple interaction, was tested by converting the two dependent variables (ED and SF) into two levels of an additional independent variable (LF). Raw scores were converted into T scores within each LF level, and a mixed 2 X 3 X 2 (DAM X IT X LF) ANOVA was performed on the T scores.
FIG, 1. EMOTIONAL UENIAL (ED) .iND SOCI,VL FACADE (SF) STANDAKD ( T ) SCORES ACROSS THREE LEVEiiS OF IDENTIFICATION TREATMENT TIMES TWO LEVELS O F DEFENSIVE APPROVAL MOTIVATION (DAM).

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SUBJECT ANONYMITY AND MOTIVATIONAL DISTORTION IN SELF-KEPORT DATA

209

The results of the three-factor analysis are depicted in Fig. 1. The prior suggestion of a triple interaction was statistically supported (F = 4.00, p < .025). The double interaction hetween IT and LF was highly significant {F = 4.94, p < .01), as was the DAM effect (F = 50.39, p < .01).
DISCUSSION

Two main questions raised are: (a) Although the Alias IT and No Name IT are logically equivalent, why are they not also psychologically equivalent? (h) Why do ED and SF predict opposite tendencies? The only difference in the Alias IT and No Name IT seems to he the amount of work and attention associated with ensuring anonymity. In one case, S merely leaves a space hlank; in the second case, iS must create a fictitious name, record it first on the answer sheet, and then in her notebook. This added effort and consequent attention to the promise of anonymity (saliency effect) must, in turn, produce opposite effects on motivational distortion depending on the stimulus characteristics mediated hy the scale items. One may speculate, with regard to SF, that the saliency effect produces a high level of confidence in the anonymity promise while, with respect to ED, it produces grave doubts concerning the anonymity promise. Such suspicions may be characteristic of high ED. Wh**^'^^'" th^s explanation, we are led to conclude that anonymity level has no predictive value regarding motivational distortion without prior knowledge of the pattern of relationship between a given dependent variable and the two distortiondetermining factors, ED and SF. If we enlarge the meaning of anonymity to include other circumstances in which degree of self-exposure may vary, the present findings take on implications of a broad nature. For example, if we assume that anonymity is greater when S is tested in a large group than when tested in a small group, we would not be surprised to find differences between self-report data collected in small and in large groups consistent with the present findings.
SUMMARY

Female undergraduates high and low on Defensive Approval Motivation (DAM) were administered the MMPI Lie scale and instructed to record on the answer sheet their (real) name, a fictitious name, or no name at all. Scale items loading on two orthogonal factors were analyzed separately and converted into T scores. A triple interaction was found among DAM, Identification Treatment, and Lie Factor. It was concluded that anonymity level has no predictive value without knowledge of the relationship between a given dependent variable and each of the two factors that determine distortion in self-report data.
REFERENCES 1. BECKER, G . Situational discrinaination in repressor-type and senaitizer-type approval seekers and the birth order by subject sex interaction. J. soc. Psychol, in press. 2. BENDIO, A . W . An inter-item factor analysis of two "lie" scales. Psychol. Newsletter, 1959, 10, 3. CBOWNE, D . P . and MARU)WE, D . The Approval Motive. New York: Wiley, 1964. 4. FORD, L . H., JR. and HEBSEN, M . Need approval, defensive denial, and direction of aggression in a failure-frustration situation. / . Pers. soc. Psychol, 1967, 6, 228-232.