You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
Helen Hall Jennings previously collaborated with Dr. J. R. Moreno in administering a so-called sociometric test to groups of children. The test was devised by Moreno to study personal feelings of the members of a group for each other, by means of allowing each a number of choices of other members with whom he wished to function. The research reported in this book is a variation of the sociometric test aimed to reveal 'the individual psychology of choice: how individuals differ in the kind and extent of their interpersonal relations'.
Each individual was asked to choose (or reject) as few or as many others within the group as she wished, with whom she would like to live, work, study or play. The test was carried out in the New York Training School for Girls which had a population of approximately four hundred ranging from twelve to sixteen years in age. The tests were given twice, with an interval of eight months between.
An attempt was made to study the common trends in the choice process and to present personality studies of individuals in the overchosen or 'leader' group and in the underchosen or isolated group. A kind of stability in the number of choices by an individual was observed. It was found that length of residence, age, intelligence, or exceptional opportunity to contact others does not increase positive choices, that there is very little correlation between the number of positive or negative choices by and toward the subject. The individual's contact range was found to increase during the first nine months of residence and then to remain stationary. Choice appeared to be an expression of attraction toward an individual which is in a way earned by the person chosen.
The members of the overchosen as well as the underchosen groups showed marked individual variations, but certain trends could be discerned from personality studies which are presented. These are made up from observations by the examiner, descriptions by other members of the group and b