Abstract

The purpose of this study was to clarify the manifestation and control of the primary process thinking on the Rorschach responses with relation to the ego strength and field dependence-independence. Barron's Ego Strength Scale & HFT were used for assessing ego strength & field dependence-independence. Holt's scoring system was applied to assess primary process thinking. Included as the hypotheses in this study were: 1. Strong ego strength group will manifestate less the- primary process thinking contents on the Rorschach responses than weak ego strength group. 2. In field independent groups, strong ego strength group will defend more effectively to the primary process thinking manifested on Rorschach responses than weak ego strength group, whereas in field dependent groups, there will be a decrease in the efficiency of defense compared to field independent groups. In order to test these hypotheses, a total of 48 male freshmen in SNU which had been in the range of upper 25% and lower 25% on the HFT (Hidden Figure Test) and Ego Strength Scale scores among 316 male and female college students, were selected. As three subjects were dropped out, for 45 subjects Rorschach was administered and assessed by Holt's scoring system. Due to subjects' attrition, unequal unweighted mean analysis of variance was applied for this study. The results were as following; In strong ego strength group, the primary process thinking contents were manifestated less than those of weak ego strength group (p<.01) and no significant difference was found in the primary process thinking contents between field dependent group and field independent group. The effective defense to the primary process thinking contents was found to be significantly correlated with field independence as well as strong ego strength (p<.01). This results were viewed as suggesting that the effective defenses to the stimulus causing anxiety require strong ego strength and field independent cognitive style. With above mentioned findings, the followings were discussed. These results suggest that the Holt's scoring system of the primary process thinking at least have the construct validity in the light of Barron's Ego Strength Scale, and support Freud's standing of the primary process thinking. Finally., the necessity that except ego strength, field dependence-independence is to be considered to understand the psychopathology, and the limitations in this study were discussed.