Social schemata of emotionally disturbed boys and their male siblings.

Abstract

The social schemata of a group of emotionally disturbed boys (R) were compared with those of their male siblings (NR) and an equated-control group (C). It was hypothesized that the human figures would be the greatest distance apart in the schemata of Group R, with the "mother-son" schema expected to provide the most noticeable group differences. The results indicate that Group R put a greater distance between pairs of human figures than Group C, but not more than Group NR. Unexpectedly, the groups did not differ in their separation of the mother and son figures. These and other findings were discussed within the framework of the "disturbed family" approach to the study of emotional problems in childhood.

Families' Schemata of Social Relationships

“…Several studies have supported the validity of this assumption (7,15,18,32); other studies (6,8,31) have shown that subjects' placements of figures reflect actual social behavior. Similar techniques have also been used to describe variation in individuals' schemata of family relationships (9,11,12,30,33,34); less frequently, schemata of family relationships have been studied in two or more members of the same family (3,4,5,17). To our knowledge, however, the concept of social schemata or techniques for its assessment have not heretofore been used to address the question of how a family unit characterizes or represents itself, as a unit, vis à vis individuals and entities outside the family.…”

“…There were 21 families who served in a pilot phase at the beginning of data collection, during which minor procedural variations were tried and observations made. Data from those 21 families were not included in the analyses presented here 4. That is because the closer the like-age figures were to one another, the smaller the distance, and thus the higher the resulting ratio 5.…”

The Felt Figure Test on Measures of Distance and Height in Israeli Children

“…Some researchers have varied the technique and others have studied children (DuHamel & Jarmon, 1971): Rabinowitz & Shavit, 1977;Tolor, Warren, & Weinick, 1971). The technique is based upon the psychological premise that physical proximity -i.e., the distance between figures -indicates psychological closeness or remoteness.…”

“…"This is yourself and another boy," whereas subjects in the Rabinowitz and Shavit (1977) study did not know whom the figures represented. The present study follows the DuHamel and Jarmon (1971) instructions, but in addition, the subjects for this study include both sexes, not only boys.…”