Psychosomatic Medicine 19:50-60 (1957)
© 1957 American Psychosomatic Society

Assessment of Significant Role Attitudes in Primiparous Mothers by Means of a Modification of the TAT

¹ College of Medicine, University of Illinois

A modification of the Thematic Apperception Test was utilized to investigate constellations of significant attitudes toward the female role among two groups of primiparous mothers. Stories told by mothers of colicky, excessively crying, infants and stories told by mothers of normal, well-adjusted infants were quantitatively compared with respect to five dimensions of attitudes toward female role functions and family relationships and significant differences were revealed. In the present paper, qualitative analyses of the protocols of 4 representative subjects were undertaken in order to provide a greater understanding of the different attitudinal configurations of the groups. More intense internal conflict over dependency needs, greater ambivalence toward: role functions, and greater anxiety concerning personal performance in those functions were revealed in the protocols of the experimental subjects. The hypothesized general significance of differential attitudes toward female role functions for the early mother-child interaction and for disturbances of early infancy was discussed. The study indicated how projective methodology might be usefully applied to the study of psychological factors in mother-child relationships.