This srcdy reports the development of a brief measure of the construct "social-personal orientation" (SPO), defined as a tendency to define one's self-concept primarily in terms of social experiences or in rerms independent of social relntionships. Choices of "social" or "personal" terms on a 30-item adjective checklist were stable and internally consistent in three samples of college studects. Evidence on construct validity of the measure was obtained from responses of 88 males and 75 females to the Carlson Adjective Checklist and the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) . Predicted sex differences and relationships of SPO to Sensation-Intuition and Thinking-Feeling type scores on the MBTI were confirmed at the ,001 level.Among the most pervasive individual differences to be found in personality literamre is a basic difference between people who see themselves as intrinsically involved with others and those who do not. Such a. disposition to respond to the social implications of experience has been variously represented in personality theory as a trait (e.g., sociability), a need (e.g., affiliation) an erg (e.g., gregariousness), or a type (e.g., extravert); an extensive literature of methodological and substantive research attests to the ubiquity of a socialresponsiveness variable.The present study reports the development of a brief measure of the construct "social-personal orientation" as an aspect of the self-concept. Socialpersonal orientation (SPO) refers to a tendency to define one's self-concept either in terms of social relationships or in terms independent of social relationships. N o value connotations are implied by these terms: Social Orientation does not mean "other-directedness," "fitting-in," but simply means being positively oriented toward leople; Personal Orientation does not imply "selfishness" or "defensive withdrawal," but means being positively oriented toward qualities and experiences which are not primarily social. SPO may be distinguished from more inclusive, more "dynamic" formulations of a social responsiveness variable in that it ( a ) represents conscious cognitions which the person uses in organizing his experiences and ( b ) describes qualitatively whether one is socially or personally oriented, not how much or in what ways. Previous work established relationships between a questionnaire measure of SPO and indices of self-esteem, sociometric status, and parental identification in preadolescents (Carlson, 1963). Sex differences in the development and the correlates of SPO were found in a longitudinal study of adolescent development (Carlson, 1965), and later pilot investigations with adults yielded significant sex differences in SPO and relationships of SPO co Introversion-Extraversion type scores on the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator.
One of the major controversies in contemporary personality research-the struggle between advocates of "dispositional" vs. "situational" formulations-now seems to be resolved m mutual agreement that "mteractional" conceptual frameworks are required. While this detente is a heartening development, it offers no solution to a central, enduring question How do personality dispositions structure and modulate the individual's transactions with the field? Urgently needed are conceptual frameworks capable of guiding such mteractional mquiry, yet few promismg formulations can be found m contemporary work Paradoxically, the basic steps toward a "new" and viable personology may consist m redamung and testing a theoretical hentage neglected dunng the recent neo-behaviorist era, and in reinstating quahtative, categoncal constructs as tools of mquiry. Some coherent vision of the nature and organization of mtraindividual quahties and of the nature of person-situation interactions is required by the task at hand. One of the most promising and neglected approaches to this problem may be found in Jung's (1923) theory of psychological types This paper reports a set of studies testing derivations from Jungian type theory, and addresses two basic questions: (1) Is Jungian theory capable of provldmg novel and testable insights into person-situation relationships? (2) Can theoretically-guided research emjdoying categoncal constructs offer a clearer, more differentiated-and more humanly economical-understanding of person-situation interactions than is afforded by current concerns (cf., Carlson, 1971) with estabhshing general laws?Over the past fifty years, Jungian type theory has met a curious i.We are grateful to Shanm Jones, Broadus Miller, and James Maney few their hdb in data collection , ,, . . a. Requests for TepraOs shmM be salt to Rae Carlson,
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