Primary Process Measure Research Articles

Primary process thinking and anxiety in children.

The relationship between primary process thinking and two measures of anxiety was investigated in fourth- and fifth-grade children. Holt's Scoring System for Primary Process Responses on the Rorschach was the measure of primary process thinking. The major hypotheses were supported for boys in that frequency of expression of primary process material was positively related to behavioral manifestations of anxiety as measured by the Teacher's Rating Scale. Also, controlled access to and integration of primary process was negatively related to teacher's ratings of anxiety. There were no significant results for girls. Primary process measures were not related to the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory for Children. Possible reasons for the different relationships between the primary process measures and the anxiety measures are discussed.

Artistic creativity and adaptive regression in third grade children.

Summary The relationship of artistic creativity to the personality variable of adaptive regression was investigated in 27 creative and 30 uncreative third grade children. Two composite Rorschach measures of adaptive regression did not differentiate the two creative groups. A new measure of adaptive regression composed of Defense Demand and Percentage of responses with primary process as the measures of primary process, and Sum Form Level and number of Populars as the measure of control, did distinguish the creative from the uncreative children. A multiple correlation indicated that the control measures were more effective than primary process measures in differentiating the creative from the uncreative subjects. In brief, the creative children seemed to be “adapting” more than “regressing.”