Field dependence and extraversion neuroticism on an inpatient psychiatric service

Abstract

Compared relationship between field dependence (FD) and the scales of Neuroticism (N) and Extraversion (E) using paraprofessionals ( N = 22), grofessionals ( N = 42) and psychiatric inpatients (Ar = 35) to elucidate the igh FD found among the psychiatric inpatients. Recent evidence contradicts Witkins' (1965) early view that as a group, psychiatric inpatients would show psychopathology a t the extremes of the FD continuum. The N scale was chosen because it taps a narrow behavioral band, the individual's vulnerability to break down under stress. The major hypothesis that FD and N would be functionally related was based on previous empirical findings (Cattell, 1955) and Seligman's (1975) theory of "learned helplessness.