*werner stangl: Das Polaritätsprofil zur Einschätzung der kindlichen Persönlichkeit (PKP) *

Zeitschrift für Differentielle und Diagnostische Psychologie 1989, Heft 2.

Diese Arbeit präsentiert die Entwicklung und Validierung eines Polaritätsprofils zur Messung der subjektiven Einschätzung der kindlichen Persönlichkeit (PKP). Es wurde von der Zielsetzung ausgegangen, ein ökonomisch einsetzbares Instrument für die praktische Anwendung in erzieherischen Beratungs- und Entscheidungsfeldern zu konstruieren. Anhand der Daten von insgesamt 377 Elternpaaren wird die Validität des Verfahrens nachgewiesen. Aufgrund der Orientierung an den Primärfaktoren des 16 PF lassen sich Übereinstimmungen der subjektiven Urteilsstrukturen des PKP mit den objektiven Strukturen dieses Verfahrens nachweisen. Mit einer Clusteranalyse werden 6 Haupttypen kindlicher Persönlichkeit bestimmt, die weitgehend mit bisherigen Typologien übereinstimmen (ich-stark, aktiv - sozial angepaßt, ausgeglichen - ich-bezogen, dominierend - labil - passiv, ich-schwach - introvertiert, ich-schwach).

 

A semantic differential for measuring child personality  

The semantic differential is a classic approach to describe persons. The Semantic Differential for Measuring Child Personality (SDMCP) was developed to obtain subjective judgments of child personality to be used in educational counseling and decision making. Contrary to objective personality tests, the aim of the SDMCP is to get standardized descriptions of a child from different persons. These descriptions can be compared with regard to individual attribution processes and expectancies concerning future child development.

The SDMCP contains 31 pairs of adjectives resp. adjective groups, derived from traditional personality concepts (Lersch, Cattell). Each item had a 5-point scale as well as an additional "neither…nor"-category.

The SDMCP was analyzed based on data from a sample of 778 parents (mean age: 40 years; 50 % males, 50 % females; average number of children: 2.2 children) and 121 children (mean age: 12 years). The children were used to validate the parental estimations.

The results (ANOVA; factors: parent and child gender, child age) showed some interaction effects which may be interpreted as the effects of role stereotypes and parental expectancies with respect to the development of child personality. In general, parents have very distinctive expectancies of child future personality.

The internal structure of the SDMCP was tested by factor analysis. Six factors explain 80 percent of variance and are congruent to traditional classifications of personality with objective tests, especially to the secondary structure of the 16PF. These results validate the hypothesis that the parental semantic structure is similar to scientific psychological categories.

A cluster analysis (Ward) identified 6 main types of child personality: strong and active - socially adjusted and well-balanced - self-centered and dominant - labile - passive and weak - introverted and weak. These clusters were crossvalidated by a discriminant analyses. The results confirmed the structure found. These types of personality are similar to empirical results in other studies.

Criterion validity has been tested with a subsample of 377 parents by comparing the judgments of fathers and mothers (The mean correlation between the single judgments of fathers and mothers was rØ = .43, the contingency coefficient between the 6 clusters was CC = .53). Additionally, in a sample of 121 families the self-ratings of the children were compared to parental ratings. Both analyses proved to be satisfactory (The mean correlation between the judgments of fathers and children was rØ = .29, between mothers and children rØ = .27. Comparing clusters the contingency coefficient between parental and children ratings was CC = .45. A remarkable difference was found between the coefficients for boys (CC = .43) and girls (CC = .62)).

 

 

Das Polaritätsprofil zur Einschätzung der kindlichen Persönlichkeit (PKP). Zeitschrift für Differentielle und Diagnostische Psychologie 1988, Heft 4, S. 221-237. (pdf, 376kb)

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