Ego Control Patterns and Attribution of Hostility

Abstract

As a step toward clarifying personality factors in interpersonal perception, it was hypothesized that patterns of ego control are related to the degree of hostility attributed to self and others and by others to self. On the basis of MMPI scores used as indices of ego control patterns, 41 repressors, 14 expressors, 24 expressor-sensitizers, and 22 sensitizers were selected from 296 nursing students. Love scores from the ICL were used as measures of hostility attributed. While the results were not reliable enough for clear conclusions, they were consistent with the hypotheses. Repressors attributed little hostiliy to themselves and others, and little hostility was attributed to them by others. The degree of hostility attributed by expressors to others and by others to them was significantly greater than the degree of hostility they attributed to themselves. Sensitizers were not described as particularly hostile and did not attribute much hostility to others; the degree of hostility attributed to self was slightly more in this group than in the repressors or expressors, but was significantly more for the expressor-sensitizers than for repressors or expressors. Relating patterns of ego control to attribution of hostility is seen as a fruitful approach to further research in the field of personality and interpersonal perception, but the need for further controls and improved methods in such research is clear.