| The purpose of this study was to investigate physical maturational rate as related to personality characteristics of adolescent males. A comparison of selected personality traits of early, average, and late physical maturers was made.;Three instruments were administered to the sample: (a) a Likert-type self-rating scale to assess rate of physical maturation, (b) the California Psychological Inventory (CPI) to measure personality variables, and (c) the Edwards Social Desirability (SD) scale to measure the subjects' response-bias tendencies.;A stepwise discriminant analysis was performed to examine personality differences among the early, average, and late maturers. The use of this stepwise procedure resulted in the identification of an optimal set of variables which were found to differentiate among the groups at the .001 signifiance level. The distinguishing variables were: (a) Capacity for Status, (b) Sociability, (c) Self-Acceptance, and (d) Achievement via Conformance. F ratios indicated that this combination of variables significantly separated each of the three groups.;Two signifiant discriminant functions were extracted. The first function identified the characteristics which distinguished the early maturers. Adjectival analysis of the traits associated with the polarities of the variables on this function indicated that the early maturers were characterized by a common dimension which was labeled "Ascendancy." The concept encompasses the desire and the capability to be influential, outgoing, dynamic, poised, socially attractive, and potent in interpersonal relations.;The sample for the study consisted of 75 undergraduate male students at The University of Alabama, 25 in each maturational category.;The second discriminant function, descriptive of the late maturers, appeared to measure asocial, independent tendencies. The basic concept associated with the constellation of variables on the second function was labeled "Social Distance," denoting the late maturers' lack of social involvement and characteristics of defensiveness, alienation, and hostility.;In contrast, the average maturers were found to be distinguished by a major descriptive theme which was labeled "Conformance." The discriminant functions, univariate F tests, and data trends combined to characterize the average maturers as conservative, conventional, cautious, passive, rule-respecting, and deferential.;Because the research strategy involved the relation between two self-report measures, the degree to which the subjects' self-descriptions were influenced by inclinations toward response bias was investigated. A Pearson product-moment correlation was computed between the subjects' response-bias scores from the SD scale and maturational self-ratings. A highly nonsignificant correlation coefficient of .08 was found, indicating that only 0.6% of variance in maturation scores could be attributable to a response-bias function. Further, a Chi-square test statistic showed that the self-ratings of the subjects did not deviate significantly from the expected distribution of maturational ratings in the population. These findings discount the influence of response-bias tendencies which might have affected similarly both self-report measures, artificially affecting the relationships found between personality traits and maturational groups. |
