Perception Experiments in a Study of Ambivalence

Abstract

This investigation is concerned with the perception aspects of a larger study on the problem of ambivalence. The over-all goal in the total project is to find specific etiological factors which can be correlated with success or failure in the resolution of ambivalence. These etiological factors deal with the character of the object relations in early life, the opportunities for object relations in general, and, more specifically, the opportunities for warm object relations. Against these etiological factors a set of measurements of the resolution of ambivalence is being worked out. Two of these measurements are presented in this study.One measurement is a structured interview in which we classify our subject material according to degrees of organization or failure in the handling of impulses. The other measurement is a tachistoscopic perceptual test, a measurement of the accuracy of perception and also measurement of the range and breadth of subsequent visual imagery. In working out certain measure-

Empirical contributions to a theory of ambivalence.

“…Osgood and Walker (1959) compared the language of suicide notes with ordinary letters, noting in the former more ambivalent "constructions" and "evaluative assertions." A series of studies with psychiatric patients has been carried out by Tarachow and others (Tarachow & Fink, 1953;Tarachow, Friedman & Korin, 1957;Tarachow, Friedman, & Korin, 1958), including interview and TAT comparisons between groups of neurotics; social history data; and perception and imagery tasks. Izard (1959) attempted to operationalize ambivalence as inconsistent behavior exhibited by paranoid schizophrenics (in contrast to normals) in the perception of photographs of human faces.…”