title: A Rorschach investigation of mothers of behaviorally disturbed infants.
abstract: This investigation focuses on one facet of the interactional family, parent-child, mother-infant matrix of behaviorally disturbed infants: the personality of mother as primary caregiver. Rorschach test behavior of mothers (N = 30) of behaviorally disturbed infants were compared with two normative samples. The Rorschach test was found to indicate certain atypical psychological patterns among these mothers. Differences emerged in intellectual sphere variables: number of responses (R), common detail responses (D), rare detail responses (Dd), number of accurate form percepts (F+), percentage of form percepts that are accurate (F+%), percentage of responses with animal content (A%), and popular percepts (P). Other response trends emerged in the affective sphere: percentage of pure form responses (F%) and in the interpersonal sphere: whole human content (H) and the ratio of the whole human content to human detail content (H:Hd), as well as to the test as a whole. Based on these results, hypotheses are generated for further investigation, particularly of traits in the areas of cognitive processing and the capacity for interpersonal relations.
authors.affiliation: University of Chicago.
authors.forename: R M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Lipgar
authors.forename: C A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Waehler
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002653:Child Behavior Disorders / Q000523:psychology*; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005190:Family; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007224:Infant Care; D008297:Male; D009034:Mother-Child Relations; D009035:Mothers / Q000523:psychology*; D010552:Personality Assessment; D011594:Psychometrics; D012392:Rorschach Test / Q000706:statistics & numerical data