An investigation of the rod and frame test in relation to emotional dependence and social cue attentiveness

Abstract

The primary objective of this investigation was to examine the relationships between field dependence-independence, as measured with the Rod-and-Frame Test (RFT), and both emotional dependence and social cue attentiveness. According to Witkin, field dependent Ss tend to demonstrate greater emotional dependence and are relatively more attentive to social characteristics of their environmental surroundings than field independent Ss. Although a review of the literature provides tentative support for Witkin's hypotheses, a critical examination of this evidence suggests that many of the findings are ambiguous. Fifty-six male undergraduate students were administered the RFT, two measures of emotional dependence and two measures of social attentiveness. The Pensacola Dependency Scale (Jones, 1957) and Thurstone's Word Associations With Homonyms (1952) were selected as measures of emotional dependence. The two indices of social cue attentiveness included an incidental recognition task consisting of social and nonsocial items and a measure of S's response style in a Personal Space task. In general, the results indicated that RFT field dependence was not significantly related to either measure of emotional dependence. These observations are based on correlational data as well as on comparison of S's with extreme RFT scores. Canonical analysis demonstrated that two components of RFT performance, namely accuracy and variability, accounted for only seven per cent of the common variance shared by the two measures of emotional dependence. The proposed relationship between RFT performance and the two indices of social cue attentiveness received partial support. Although the RFT was not related to incidental recognition of social and nonsocial environmental cues, support was found for the relationship between the RFT and social cue attentiveness as indicated with S's style of responding in a Personal Space task. The findings were discussed with respect to the task requirement of the RFT, the association between perception and personality and alternative interpretations of Witkin's thesis.