THE RELAT‘ONSHIP OF STABILITY

OF SELF CONCEPT TO THE
OF ADOLESCENTS

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ABSTRACT

THE RELATIONSHIP OF STABILITY OF SELF CONCEPT
TO THE CLOTHING OF ADOLESCENTS

by Carolyn Andree Humphrey

The present investigation, which is part of a
larger project, was undertaken to determine whether vari-
ous uses of clothing relate to the stability of the self
concept of adolescents.

The questionnaires were administered in two ses-
sions one week apart to 251 boys and 270 girls in the
central high school of a small midwestern city.

Importance of Clothing, an instrument developed
by the researchers for the larger project, was actually
a composite of eight scales, each measuring one aspect of
clothing usage. Scores for each of the aspects, including
aesthetic, comfort, interest, management, modesty, psycho-
logical dependence, social approval, and special attention,
were added separately and correlated with other variables.

Stability of self concept, both at one point in
time and over time, was measured by a modified version of
Brownfain's Self Rating Inventory, on which the subject
rated himself in relation to his peers. During each data

collection period the subject filled out two self rating

Carolyn Andree Humphrey

sheets, one denying himself the benefit of every reasonable
doubt, or the negative rating, and the other giving himself
the benefit of every reasonable doubt, or the positive rat-
ing. Affective discrepancy, stability at one point in time,
was determined by the positive minus negative ratings for
the first administration; and temporal discrepancy, stabil—
ity over time, was the negative rating minus negative rat-
ing for the two administrations. The level of self concept
was defined as the first negative rating.

Overall-feeling about the body was measured by an
instrument devised by the researchers.for the project. The
measure consisted of 23 items naming parts of the body, on
which the subject rated himself on a scale from highly sat-
isfied to highly dissatisfied with that particular part.
The ratings were then weighted so that the more extreme
feelings would have a greater effect upon the total, and
the difference between the total weighted satisfaction rat-
ings and total weighted dissatisfaction ratings was consid-
ered to be the overall feeling about the body.

Partial correlations between the aspects of cloth-
ing and both affective discrepancy and temporal discrepancy,
eliminating the effect of the level of self concept, were
computed to determine the relationship between stability
of self concept and the aspects of clothing. However, a
comparison between these correlation coefficients and the

partial correlations relating the level of self concept

Carolyn Andree Humphrey

to the clothing aspects, holding constant the stability
of self concept, indicated that level of self concept was
more closely related to the clothing usages than was the
stability of self concept.

The affective discrepancy related positively to
the interest and management aspects of clothing for the
girls and to the aesthetic, comfort, and management aspects
for boys; but the level of self concept related positively
to the same aspects in most cases. In contrast, the tem-
poral discrepancy correlated only with the comfort aspect
for females, although level of self concept did not. Since
level and both affective and temporal discrepancies were
highly negatively related, the results were explained in
terms of coping or expressive behavior.{ Those individuals
with a high level of self concept may have used clothing
as a means of self expression while those with an unstable
self concept may have used the same aspect or aspects for
coping with the social situation.

Scores on the clothing aspects were also correlated
with the subjects' feelings about their bodies. General
satisfaction with the body related positively for girls
to seeking special attention through clothing and related
negatively for both boys and girls to the modesty aspect

of clothing.

THE RELATIONSHIP OF STABILITY OF SELF CONCEPT

TO THE CLOTHING OF ADOLESCENTS

By

Carolyn Andree Humphrey

A THESIS

Submitted to
Michigan State University
in partial fulfillment of the requirements
for the degree of

MASTER OF ARTS

Department of Textiles, Clothing and Related Arts

1968

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The author wishes to express appreciation to the
following people who helped to make this study possible:

Dr. Anna Creekmore for her enthusiastic help and
concern;

Members of the examining committee, Dr. Mary
Gephart, Dr. Joanne Eicher, Dr. Pearl Aldrich,
and Mrs. Kathryn Riedel, for their helpful crit-
icisms and suggestions;

Co-workers on the larger research project, Mary
Jane Young, Sue Hundley, and Mary Klaasen, for
their cooperative spirit, with special thanks to
Mary Klaasen, who spent countless hours as editor
and critic;

Dr. Frances Magrabi for programming the data for
the computer;

And the writer's husband, David Humphrey, for his
patience and encouragement.

ii

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS O O O O O O O O O O O O

LIST OF TABLES. . . . . . . . . . . . .

Chapter
I. INTRODUCTION. . . . . . . . . .

II. REVIEW OF LITERATURE. . . . . .

Self. O O O O O O O O O O O O

Development of th self and_

Stability of self‘cencept .
Measurement of self concept
Clothing 0 O O O O O O O O O O

self.con¢§BF.

Clothing in social interaction.

Variations in clothing use.
Insecurity and clothing . .
Clothing and adolescents. .

III. STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM. . . .

Purposes. . . . .
Definition of Term
Assumptions . . .
Hypotheses. . . .

.

o Q U) o
o o o o
o o o 0

IV. PROCEDURE OF THE INVESTIGATION.

Selection or Development of Measures

Clothing. . . . . . . . . .
Stability of self concept .

Overall feeling about the body.

Social class. . . . . . . .
Selection of the Sample . . .
Selection of research site.
Selection of subjects . . .

Administration of Questionnaires

Statistical Analysis. . . . .
Limitations of the Study. . .

iii

O O O O O O OiO O
l

Page
ii

V. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION. . . . . . . . . . . .

Description of the Subjects
Transfer status . . . .
Age . . . . . . . . .
Social class. . .
Honor roll. . . . . .

Clothing. . . . . . . .
Distribution of scores.
Ranking of the means. .
Correlations between aspec s 0

Stability of Self Concept .
Distribution of scores. . . . . . .
Simple correlations between parts of the

self concept measure. . . . . . . . . .
General relationship between clothing and
stability of self concept . . . . . . .

O O O O O O O O

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Relationship between affective discrepancy

and aspects of clothing . . . . . . . .
Aesthetic aspect of clothing.
Comfort in clothing . . . . .
Interest in clothing. . . . .
Management of clothing. . . .
Modesty and social approval aspects

of clothing . . . .-. . . . . . . .
Special attention aspect of clothing.
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Relationship between temporal discrepancy
and aspects of clothing . . . . . . . .

Effect of grade and social class on the
relationship between stability of self

concept and aspects of clothing . . . .

Overall Feeling about the Body. . . . . . .
Distribution of scores. . . . . . . .
Relationship between stability of self

concept and overall feeling about the

body. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Relationship between aspects of clothing

and overall feeling about the body. . .

VI. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS. . . . . . . . . . . .
Recommendations . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
BIBLIOGRAPHY O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O

APPENDIXO O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O

47

47
47
48
48
52
53
53
55
59
61
62

63
65
69
69
7O
72
73
74
75
77
79
80
81
85
86
88
92
104
106

111

LIST OF TABLES
Table Page
1. Distribution of students by age . . . . . . . . 49

2. Distribution by grade of students in each social
Class O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O 50

3. Distribution by grade of students on the honor
rOllO O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O 52

4. Distribution of the scores on the eight cloth—
ing aspects O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O 54

5. Simple correlations between clothing aspects. . 60

6. Distribution of scores on level and stability
of self concept . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . '63

7. Multiple correlations between clothing aspects
and level and stability of self concept . . . 66

8. Partial correlations between clothing aspects
and level and stability of self concept . . . 68

9. Simple correlations relating level and stability
of self concept to grade and social class . . 81

10. Simple correlations relating clothing aspects
to grade and social class . . . . . . . . . . 82

ll. Partial correlations between clothing aspects
and stability of self concept eliminating the
effect of social class. . . . . . . . . . . . 83

12. Partial correlations between clothing aspects
and stability of self concept eliminating the
effect of grade . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84

13. Distribution of scores on overall feeling about
the bOdy O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O 86

14. Simple correlations between parts of the self
concept measure and overall feeling about the
bOdYO O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O 87

15. Simple correlations between clothing aspects
and overall feeling about the body. . . . . . 88

CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION

A self concept is thought to be formed through
social interaction with others. The people who are im-
portant to the individual, his significant others, react
to him; and through his interpretation of their reactions
he forms an estimate of himself, or his self concept. The
individual usually has several sets of significant others.
If, in his opinion, these diverse significant others view
him in the same way, his evaluation of himself is consis-
tent. If, on the other hand, there is variation among his
significant others in their responses to him, he is less
sure of who he is; or, in other words, his self concept
is less stable.1

Stone developed in detail the part clothing, as
an aspect of appearance, plays in social interaction. At
the initiation of social interaction between an individual
and others, appearance serves to establish the identity
of the participants through mutually meaningful symbols.

To these symbols three responses result, including the

 

1George Herbert Mead, Ming, Self and Society»
(Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1934), pp.
138-44 0

individual's evaluation of others in terms of their cloth-
ing, their evaluation of him in terms of his clothing, and
also his interpretation of the other people's responses to
him. It is primarily through this third process that cloth-
ing, by others' apparent reactions to it, affects the self
concept.1

The relationship between clothing and self concept
may also be in the opposite direction; that is, the self
concept may affect the individual's choice of what to wear.
Goffman stressed performances and a calculated presentation
of the self in interaction.2 Clothing, due to its visibil—
ity, is an easily manipulated aspect of this presentation
and may be used to create an impression on others. It is
through this perceived impression on others that the self
is reinforced or challenged.

During certain periods of the life cycle the indi-
vidual may be less sure of who he is. Adolescence is com-
monly regarded as a period of heightened emotions, feelings

of insecurity, and sensitivity to the opinions of others.3

 

lGregory P. Stone, "Appearance and the Self,”
Dressi_Adornment, and the Social Order, ed. Mary Ellen
Roach and Joanne Bubolz Eicher (New York: John Wiley &
Sons, Inc., 1965), pp. 221-23.

 

2Brving Goffman, The Presentation of Self in Everyr
da Life (Garden City, New York: Doubleday & Company, Inc.,
19595.

3Elizabeth B. Hurlock, Adolescent Development (New
York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc., 1949), pp. 152-53.

If clothing does serve as a meaningful symbol in establish-
ing identities, adolescence may be a period when use of
clothing by the young person is necessary to define who

he is, both to others and, reflexively, to himself.

Treece pointed out the possibility of application
of social-psychological theories in explaining clothing
behavior.1 The present study investigates the relation-
ship between two aspects of human behavior, how the ado—
lescent thinks of himself and how he uses clothing. The
study is designed to add to the body of knowledge concern-
ing clothing and its relationship to other aspects of human

behavior.

 

lAnna Jean Treece, "An Interpretation of Clothing
Behavior Based on Social—Psychological Theory" (unpublished
Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Home Economics, The Ohio
State University, 1959).

CHAPTER II

REVIEW OF LITERATURE

Included in the review of literature is a discus-
sion of theories and previous studies dealing with (l) the
self and its aspects, including development of the self
and self concept, stability of the self concept, and meas-
urement of self concept, and (2) clothing, including the
place of clothing in social interaction, variations in
clothing use, insecurity and clothing, and clothing and

adolescents.

Self

 

The word "self" has many meanings in psychology,
but the two most commonly used are self as a motivator of
behavior and self as an object of awareness, or self con-
cept. The concept of self was recognized early in American
psychology. However, during the first.half of the Twenti-
eth Century behaviorists and fundamentalists dominated the
American scene, and since self did not fit into their the-
ories, the concept lost popularity. Two movements caused
a renewal of interest in the concept of self. First, Amer-
ican psychologists began to do more clinical work and found
that behaviorist theory did not adequately explain their

observations. And secondly, later writings of Freud

emphasized the ego rather than the id. Thus, self as moti-
vator and self as object of awareness have again become

important in American psychological thinking.l

Development of the Self and Self Concept

In recent years many American theories have stressed
the importance of social influences rather than biological
determinants in shaping man's personality. These social
psychologists, as they are called, view man chiefly as a
product of the society in which he lives.2 Because of their
current acceptance among psychologists and their capacity
for explaining the self, theories of social psychology form
the framework for the present investigation.

The interactionist approach to social psychology,
developed in part by Charles H. Cooley,3 advanced by George
Herbert Mead,4 and still later treated by others, includ-

ing Tamotsu Shibutani,5 describes a self which is formed

 

1Ruth C. Wylie, The Self Concept: A Critical Sur-
veyiof Pertinent ResearEhLiterature (Lincoln, Nebraska:
University of Nebraska Press, 19615, p. 2.

2Calvin S. Hall and Gardner Lindsey, Theories of
Personality (New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 19575,
p. 115.

3Charles Horton Cooley, Human Nature and the Social
Order (2d ed. rev.; New York: Charles Scribner's Sons,
19225.

4Mead.

5Tamotsu Shibutani, Society and Personality: An
Interactionist Approach to Social Psychology (Englewood
Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1961).

through communication with others and is, therefore, always
social.l Three processes are involved in the development
of the self. These include the individual's concept of

his appearance to others, his imagination of the other's
evaluation of his appearance, and some sort of self feel-
ing or self appraisal.2 Thus, one cannot have an idea of ‘
self, or a selchoncept, without other people. In this
framework self and self concept are synonymous, for self

is the object of awareness.

Mead traced the development of the self from early
ochildhood. At first there is no self but the child by
nature reacts to others as objects, and others react to
him as an object. The child then sees himself, through
others' eyes, as an object and has feelings about himself.3
Shibutani has pointed out that the body is more discernible
than other characteristics of the self, and the treatment
which the individual receives depends in part upon the way
his body looks. Thus, ". . . one's physical attributes
provide an important foundation for the formation of self-

conceptions."4 In spite of the visibility of the body,

 

lCooley, pp. 179-82; Mead, p. 140; Shibutani, p.
22.

2Cooley, p. 184.

3Mead, pp. 135, 368-69.

4Shibutani, p. 223.

however, the individual still views it through selective
perception.l Therefore, it is the individual's idea both
of his body and others' reactions to his body which affect
his self concept.

Mead stated that self evaluations become internal-
ized into a core of self feeling which has some measure
of stability. Since the child may have many sets of sig-
nificant others, he may have many selves, each one corres-
ponding to the perceived reactions of some set of people
important to him.2

A_slight1y different picture of the self is pre-
sented by phenomenologists. This theory, particularly,
stresses the point of view of the individual himself for
explaining his behavior. What the individual perceives
as reality is in fact reality to him, and this perception
molds his actions. In this way the phenomenological con-
cept of self includes the idea of motivation. The phenom-
enal field, all experiences the individual is aware of,
determines the phenomenal self, or self concept.‘ This
concept of self includes all aspects of the phenomenal
field which the individual experiences as part of himself.
Although the phenomenal self includes more than physical

characteristics, the body and its condition are part of

 

lIbid.

2Mead, pp. 136, 142-44.

the phenomenal field. With maturation, however, particular
aspects of the individual's body become more important than
other aspects. \The self develops through interaction with
the total environment, and people are the primary part of
the surroundings; The baby first learns to distinguish
himself from the environment and later becomes aware of
his relationship to it. The values which he places on
these relationships result from direct interaction with
the environment as well as his perception of other people's
reactions to him.1
Sherif and Cantril have explained that these self
conceptualizations, or ego attitudes, are first learned
through interaction with people or objects which satisfy
the basic physical needs. Although the self is formed
early in life, it can change. Since they proposed that
the self strives to enhance itself, or become secure in
social relationships, this striving becomes a motivating
force. However, this urge for self enhancement is not a

primary drive like the physical drives.2 Sherif and Can-

tril also stressed the importance of the body as part of

 

lDonald Snygg and Arthur W. Combs, Individual Be-
havior: A New Frame of Reference for Psychology (New York:
Harper and Brothers Publishers, 1949), pp. 10, 51, 55, 99,
13, 83.

2Muzafer'Sherif and Hadley Cantril, The Psyghology
of E o Involvements: Social Attitude angyIdentifications
(New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1947), pp. 95-96,5101.

the phenomenal field, particularly during the adolescent
years. In a culture such as ours, where so much emphasis
is put upon physical attractiveness, "An adolescent's whole
ego concern may at times be focused on the attractiveness
or, real or fancied, unattractiveness of even a part of

the body,"1 and a "marked deviation in either direction
from group norms of development has psychological conse-
quences for the adolescent."2 Because of its importance

in the phenomenal field, the body may affect the way in

which the individual views himself.

Stability of Self Concept

Social psychologists vary in their views on stabil-
ity of self concept. Mead proposed multiple self concepts
to agree with the individual's perception of responses from
significant others.3 However, Shibutani, also an inter-
‘actionist, has described a relatively stable self concept
which he attributed to recurrent social relationships.4
Sherif and Cantril have implied that instability is due
to discrepancies among significant others, a proposition

similar to Mead's theory. The self, or ego, they

 

Ibid., p. 225.
Ibid., p. 226.

Mead, p. 144.

waH

Shibutani, p. 308.

10

postulated, can change but has some stability over time
due to the enduring "social and personal attitudes” which
have been incorporated into the self.1 Brownfain also de-
scribed a more or less stable self concept which results
from social interaction.2 This investigation also sub-
scribes to a self which is more or less stable as a result
of the internalization of perceived reactions of signifi-
cant others.

Several operational definitions for stability have
been proposed by self concept researchers. One of these
is the degree of certainty which the individual has about
who he is at a given time.3 This view of stability is
related to Sherif and Cantril's idea of the influence of
significant others. If all significant others respond in
a consistent and comparable manner, the individual will
be more certain of his self definition. On the other hand,
if he perceives responses which vary from significant other
to significant other, he will be more unsure of who he is.4

Closely related to this view of stability at one

 

lSherif and Cantril, p. 94.

2John J. Brownfain, "Stability of the Self-Concept
as a Dimension of Personality,” igurnal of Abnormal and
Social Psychology, XLVII (1952), 598.

3Thomas P. McGehee, ”The Stability of the Self-
Concept and Self-Esteem" (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation,
Department of Psychology, Michigan State University, 1956),
p. 3.

4Sherif and Cantril, pp. 283-84.

11

point in time is the fluctuation of self evaluation over
a period of time. "It is assumed that those more sure of
themselves would change less than those less sure of them-E

selves who would have greater fluctuation in their self- }

concepts from day to day."1

Several theorists have related stability to adjust-
ment. Rogers, a phenomenologist, concluded that the per-
son is better adjusted when the self is consistent. The
basic striving of the individual is self actualization,
or growth, he stated, but this growth cannot be achieved
unless the self is integrated.2 Lecky also theorized a
drive toward self consistency,3 and Brownfain has said that
stability is related to adjustment.4

In the literature, then, there is the idea of a
self which is formed at least in part by the social en- f
vironment. This self can be either an object of awareness
or a motivating force, or both. Moreover, the self is pre-v
dominantly thonght to be relatively stable and this stabil-

ity is associated with adjustment.

 

lMcGehee, p. 3.

2Carl R. Rogers, Client-Centered Thergpy: Its Cur-
rent Practice, Implications, and Theory (New York: Hough-
ton Mifflin Company, 1951), pp. 487, 513-14.

3Prescott Lecky, Self-Consistency: A Theory of
Personality, ed. and interpreted by Frederick C. Thorne
Tn.p.: The Shoe String Press, Inc., 1961).

 

4Brownfain, p. 598.

12

Measurement of Self Concept

Many tests for self concept or aspects of the self
concept can be found in the literature. Some of these in-
struments have been used in a test-retest method to deter-
mine stability of self concept over a period of time.1
However, Brownfain's Self Rating Inventory was the only
instrument found which measures stability of self concept
at one point in time, or how certain the individual feels
at a particular moment about who he is. Acceptable reli—
ability has been shown for the Brownfain measure, and face
validity has been judged by experts in the field. In addi-
tion, Brownfain's instrument relies upon social psychology,
particularly social interaction, as a theoretical basis,
and is designed to measure normal fluctuations of self
concept.2

The original Self Rating Inventory consisted of a
set of 25 items describing aspects of the self. The sub-
ject rated himself four times on these items, and each time
the way in which he was to view himself was defined differ-

ently.3 This variation in viewpoints allowed the person

who was unsure of who he was, and who may have thought of

 

lWylie, pp. 50-51, 120-21, 73.

2Brownfain.

31bid., p. 598.

13

himself very differently in dissimilar situations, to rate
himself in a variety of ways.

McGehee1 and Katz2 eliminated seven items from
Brownfain's measure, added two other items, and expanded
the rating scale from eight to ten points. In this version
as well as the original version, the negative rating sub-
tracted from the positive rating gave the affective dis-

crepancy, or stability at one point in time.3

Cowen,4 LaFon,5 McGehee,6 and Katz7 all found that
the negative self rating was a more sensitive measure than
the affective discrepancy, and correlated higher with other
self variables in the theoretically expected direction.

However, Katz pointed out that in these studies only the

amount of discrepancy was considered as a measure of

 

lMcGehee, p. 35.

2Irving 5. Katz, "A Study of the Stability of the
Self-Concept and Its Relationship to Sociometric Status
and Sociometric Perception" (unpublished Ph.D. disserta-
tion, Department of Psychology, Michigan State University,
1956), p. 20.

3Ibid., p. 23; Brownfain, p. 598.

4Emory L. Cowen, "The Negative Self-Concept as a
Personality Measure," Journal of Consulting ngchology,
XVIII (April, 1954), 138.

5Fred B. LaFon, "Behavior on the Rorschach Test
and a Measure of Self-Acceptance," Psychological Monographs,
LXVIII (N00 10, 1954) , 8-90

6McGehee, pp. 52-53.

7Katz, p. 49.

14

stability, ignoring the level of the self concept. He
recommended using both level and amount of discrepancy
because he felt that the two analyzed together would be
far more sensitive as a self concept measure. Stability
of self concept over a period of time was determined by
test-retest method, which was found to be a highly sensi—

O l
tive measurement.

Clothing
Clothipg in Social Interaction

Gregory Stone stated that the importance of appear-
ance for establishing, maintaining,and altering the self
through social interaction has been neglected. Social
interaction begins when the child accidentally initiates
behavior which the parents interpret as symbolic and to
which they react as if this chance happening were meaning-
ful. This is the beginning of discourse. Appearance, the
other major influence which Stone cites as determining the
self, is imposed upon the child through his clothing. It
is his perception of others' reactions to his appearance,
rather than his actual appearance, which is more influen-
tial in shaping the self. The child develops his concep—
tion of the attitudes of others by playing the roles of

these other people. Part of this role playing is dressing

 

lIbid., pp. 51, 39.

15

to fit the role, and through this complete role assumption,
the child can assume the identity of someone else. Later
the child dresses according to a real identity of himself,
which often may be the uniform of the peer group.1 Although
discourse as well as other facets of appearance, including
the real or physical body, affect the early socialization
and maintenance of the self, clothing appears to be an im-
portant factor in determining the self.

According to Stone, identity of the individual,
or his position in the social structure, is established
by his appearance to others.2 Two studies on the importance
of appearance in the evaluation of others seem to support
Stone's statements. Hoult, in a study with college men,
found that judges who did not personally know the subjects
changed their evaluations on certain personality character—
istics when the men changed from one type of clothes to
another. In a previous sample where the judges and sub-
jects were friends, the ratings did not change with a change
of clothing. The researcher postulated that clothing may
affect one's evaluations of strangers more than evaluations
of friends or acquaintances. However, since the two ex-
periments were dissimilar and reliability and validity could

only be estimated, Hoult warned against forming broad

 

lStone, pp. 216-17, 234, 236-37, 241._

2Ibid., pp. 220, 223.

16

conclusions from the data.1 Another researcher also found
that judges changed the ratings of three out of four sub-
jects on both socio-economic position and personality traits
when these stimulus-persons changed costumes.2

When the position ascribed to the individual by
others and his own self definition coincide, his identity
is said to have ”meaning." Stone stated, and seems to be
partially supported by both Douty and Hoult, that the indi-
vidual is evaluated by both himself and others according
to the clothing he wears. Thus, clothing initiates either
challenges or validations of the self because the response
elicited by clothing will either contradict or coincide
with the individual's self judgment.3 Murray Wax agreed
with Stone when he stated that women dress and groom them—
selves for social situations with their peers.4 By this
statement Wax implied that the purpose of their grooming

and dressing is to gain peer approval.

 

lThomas Ford Hoult, "Clothing as a Factor in the
Social Status Rating of Men" (unpublished Ph.D. disserta-
tion, Department of Sociology, University of Southern Cal-
ifornia, 1951), pp. 232, 256-61, 263-65, 279.

2Helen I. Douty, "Influence of Clothing on Percep-
tion of Others,“ Journal of Home Economics, LV (March,
1963), 200.

3Stone, pp. 222-23.

4Murray Wax, "Themes in Cosmetics and Grooming,"
DresgJ Adornment, and the Social Order, ed. Mary Ellen
Roach and Joanne Bubolz Eicher (New York: John Wiley &
Sons, Inc., 1965), p. 44.

17

One important aspect in the interaction process
which Stone mentioned is the individual's imagination of
others' response to his appearance. This imagined response
is important for the validation or contradiction of the
self even though there will not always be a coincidence
of reaction and imagined reaction.1 In a study investigat-
ing clothing as well as many other determinants or corre-
lates of status within the adolescent peer group, Moore
found that the high scorers' self ratings more often
equalled their peers' ratings of them than did the low
scorers' self ratings. However, this relationship did
not reach statistical significance.2 Unlike Moore, Ryan's
results did not differ for the high and low scorers. How-
ever, she did find on several variables, including cloth-
ing, that the self rating of college girls most often was
equal to their estimate of how the group rated them, which
also equalled the actual group rating. The relationship
which she found to be second in frequency of occurrence
was a self rating equal to the estimated group rating,

which did not equal the actual group rating.3 Thus, the

 

lStone, p. 236.

2Noel S. Moore, "Status Criteria and Status Vari-
ables in an Adolescent Group" (unpublished Ph.D. disserta—
tion, Department of Education, Wayne State University,
1967), p. 140.

3Mary S. Ryan, "Psychological Effects of Clothing-—
Part IV: Perception of Self in Relation to Clothing,”
Cornell University Agricultural Experiment Station Bulle-
tin 905 (Ithaca, New York, August, 1954), p. 13.

18

subject's self rating most often equalled his perception
of others' reactions to him, whether or not he perceived
correctly. Although the findings could not be interpreted
in terms of cause and effect, the existence of a relation-

ship lends support to Stone's theory.

Variations in Clothing_Use

It seems apparent that clothing is symbolic of both
personality and social role expression. Consequent-
ly, both of these represent directives for individ-
ual clothing taste. This indicates that the sig-
nificance of clothing is relational. It can serve
as an aspect of self—expression or it can be effec—
tive in social adjustment. The fact that the use
of clothing is a part of the socialization process
does not negate variations in individual expression
through apparel; however, seemingly, certain per-
sonality predispositions will alter the type of
clothing preferences and the extent of individual
or social role expression evidenced through the
medium of clothing.1

Thus, although clothing does enter into the development
of the self through the socialization process, the self
must be maintained or altered in social interaction. Be—
cause the establishment of the self is a continuing proc-
ess, people with different psychological characteristics
as well as different social roles, may use clothing dif-
ferently.

Clothing values apparently correlate with member-

ship in various groups and classes. Williams found that

 

1Dona Doreen Ditty, “Social-Psychological Aspects
of Clothing Preferences of College Women" (unpublished
Ph.D. dissertation, The Ohio State University, 1962), p.
115.

19

teenage clique members tended to have similar opinions on
appearance and clothing and their opinions differed from
those of members of other groups as well as non-group mem-
bers.1 In this same sample members of each social class
agreed more often than disagreed with other members of
their social class in their opinions on clothing and ap-
pearance, while there were several points of disagreement
between classes.2

Two studies indicate that the use of clothing is
related to general values. Lapitsky found that for both
college students and teachers specific clothing values
correlated with their related general values but did not
correlate with non—related general values.3 By correlat-
ing specific clothing behaviors with both general values
and striving for satisfaction of basic needs, Creekmore

found that some behaviors related more often to needs and

 

lMadelyn Claire Williams, "Opinions on Clothing,
Appearance and Social Acceptance as Factors in Group Co-
hesion of Ninth Grade Girls" (unpublished Master's thesis,
Department of Textiles, Clothing and Related Arts, Michigan
State University, 1963), p. 113.

2Arlene Louise Bjorngaard, "The Relationship of
Social Class and Social Acceptance to Clothing and Appear-
ance of a Selected Group of Ninth Grade Girls" (unpublished
Master's thesis, Department of Textiles, Clothing and Re-
lated Arts, Michigan State University, 1962), pp. 64-108.

3Mary Lapitsky, "Clothing Values and Their Relation
to General Values and to Social Security and Insecurity“
(unpublished Ph.D. thesis, Department of Clothing and
Textiles, Pennsylvania State University, 1961), p. 74.

20

others more often to general values although all clothing
behaviors were related to both needs and values in some
way. In this research clothing behaviors were more often
related to needs than to general values, and the relation-
ship between the specific uses of clothing and general
values was not so clear as in Lapitsky's findings.l How-
ever, difference in measures may have affected these rela—
tionships. Also, neither study involved a random sample,
thus limiting broad predictions.2 In spite of the varia-
tions found and limitations of the studies, these findings
do indicate that individuals vary in the ways they use

clothing.

Insecurity and Clothing

Clothing has been studied in relation to insecur-
ity rather than stability of self concept. Security is
often defined as being sure of oneself in social situa-
tions. Stability of self concept, according to interac—
tionists' point of view, is related to the social situa-
tion and sensitivity of the individual to others' reactions
to him. Because both security and stability of self con-

cept are related to self feelings in social situations,

 

lAnna Mary Creekmore, "Clothing Behaviors and Their
Relation to General Values and to the Striving for Basic
Needs“ (unpublished Ph.D. thesis, Department of Clothing
and Textiles, Pennsylvania State University, 1963), pp.
83-98 0

2Ibid., pp. 48-49, 50-51; Lapitsky, pp. 36, 40.

21

there appears to be some parallel between the two.

Several studies have related clothing and insecur-
ity, and each supports in some measure the idea that social-
ly secure individuals use clothing more for self expression
while those who are less secure may be using their clothes
as a means of coping with the social situation. Gates
concluded that the socially aspiring person, or in Stone's
terms, the person who is trying to change his identity,
uses clothing for social manipulation while the non-aspir-
ing individual, whose identity may be more secure, uses
clothing for self expression. She found that, in general,
aspirationally mobile women, who were actively attempting
to change their identity, more often than the concomitantly
mobile subjects, scored high on prestige use of clothing
but not on the general importance of clothing.1 Findings
from another study indicated that the more socially mature
college student, who also had more interest in leadership,
varied less in the type of clothing she chose for differ-
ent social roles than did the less socially mature student
in the sample. In addition, the less socially mature sub-
jects varied more in their clothing choices for roles which

O 2
involved more soc1al pressure.

 

lRuth Elizabeth Gates, "Clothing Behavior Associ-
ated with Types of Mobility and with Extrinsic-Reward Ori-
entation, Among a Specified Group of Non—Employed Wives“
(unpublished Ph.D. thesis, Department of Clothing and Tex-
tiles, Pennsylvania State University, 1960), pp. 178-82,
93-133.

2Ditty, p. 107.

22

This relationship between insecurity and clothing
was also investigated by Lapitsky, using college teachers
and students as subjects. Insecure subjects valued cloth-
ing more for conforming to the group and gaining social
approval while the secure subjects were more concerned with
the aesthetic aspect of clothing. In addition, teachers
with high security scores also had high scores on the eco-
nomic value of clothing.1

In dealing with striving for satisfaction of basic
needs, Creekmore found that experimentation with clothing,
use of clothing as a psychological tool, concern with fash-
ion, and use of clothing to indicate or attain status re-
lated to striving for self esteem. Concern for appearance,
including becomingness and neatness, on the other hand,
was related to the relative satisfaction of the belonging-
ness need. If striving for self esteem can be equated with
insecurity or instability of self concept and satisfaction
of the belongingness need with security or stability of
self concept, then Creekmore's findings from a homogeneous
sample further support the general hypothesis involving
clothing and security.2

When investigating the relationship of security-

insecurity of women college students and their clothing

 

lLapitsky, pp. 76-77.

2Creekmore, p. 87.

23

behavior, Brady found a positive relationship between in-
security and concern with appearance, experimentation with
clothing, and emphasis upon management of clothing.1
Lapitsky's findings, however, indicated that the more
socially secure teachers in her sample rated significantly
higher than did the more insecure teachers on the economic
clothing value. Lapitsky's definition of the economic
clothing value included both management and comfort as-
pects.2 On the aesthetic clothing value, Lapitsky's re-
sults, as well as the findings of other researchers, op-
posed Brady's concern with appearance in clothing. How-
ever, the aesthetic aspect was not defined identically or
measured by the same type of scale by these investigators.3
Perhaps these factors account for the apparent difference

in results.

Clothing and Adolescents
During the adolescent years clothing seems to as-
sume a particularly important position, although this im—

portance may differ for the sexes. Ryan found in a survey

 

lBetty L. Brady, "Clothing Behavior: Refinement
of a Measure and Relationships with Social Security and
Insecurity for a Group of College Women" (unpublished
Master's thesis, Department of Clothing and Textiles,
Pennsylvania State University, 1963), p. 52.

2Lapitsky, pp. 77, 4.

3Ibid., pp. 76-77; Brady, p. 55.

24

of several hundred subjects that high school girls were
more interested in clothing than college girls. Clothing
also seemed to be of more interest to high school girls
than high school boys, although the measures for the two
sexes were not comparable.1 Another research study has
also shown that high school girls are more aware of cloth-
ing than are high school boys. The definition of awareness
of clothing in this study is limited, however, since only
three questions were found to measure the variable.2

The importance of conformity in clothing to give
,a feeling of belongingness appears to prevail among adoles-
jcents. Alexander found that adolescents more oftenithan
any other age group indicated that clothing was important
to help them gain acceptance into the peer group.3 Ryan

also discovered that social achievement was the most im—

portant reason for being well-dressed, according to high

 

1Mary S. Ryan, "Psychological Effects of Clothing--
Part II: Comparison of College Students with High School
Students, Rural with Urban Students, and Boys with Girls,"
Cornell University Agricultural Experiment Station Bulletin
898 (Ithaca, New York, July, 1953), pp. 7-8.

2Arthur Vener, "Adolescent Orientations to Cloth-
ing: A Social-Psychological Interpretation" (unpublished
Ph.D. thesis, Department of Sociology and Anthropology,
Michigan State University, 1957), pp. 77-78.

3Olive Ness Alexander, "A Pilot Investigation of
the Motives Underlying the Desire to Feel Well-Dressed at
Various Age Levels" (unpublished Master's thesis, Cornell
University, 1961), p. 36.

25

school boys and girls as well as college girls.1 Although
there was often a discrepancy between what the subjects

felt was ideal to wear and what they reported that they
actually did wear, conformity of actual dress items was
apparent in a study of ninth grade girls. There was also

a high degree of conformity in dress items judged by the
subjects to be ideal attire.2 Apparently, then, adolescents
do manage to attain the conformity they value.

Within a clique the extent of similarity of opin-‘
ions on dress was related to group cohesion, according to
Hendricks' results. Using the same methodology and same
subjects who three years before formed the sample for Wass,3
Williams? and Bjorngaard's5 studies, Hendricks obtained
only limited support for the idea that opinions were sim-

ilar among group members and differed from non—group members.6

 

lRyan, "Psychological Effects of Clothing—-Part
II o o o ’0 pp. 13-140

2Betty Marguerite Wass, "Clothing as Related to
Role Behavior of Ninth Grade Girls" (unpublished Master's
thesis, Department of Textiles, Clothing and Related Arts,
Michigan State University, 1962), pp. 29-51.

3Wass.

4Williams.

Bjorngaard.

6Suzanne H. Hendricks, "Opinions on Clothing and
Appearance as Related to Group and Non-Group Membership
of Twelfth Grade Girls" (unpublished Master's thesis, De-
partment of Textiles, Clothing and Related Arts, Michigan
State University, 1965).

26

Although the difference in findings may be due to time
lapse and maturing of the subjects, this study does ques-
tion the idea that teenagers conform to a very marked de-
gree with their peer group.

Although adolescents seem to stress conformity,
other aspects of clothing appear to be of importance to
them. In one study, the feeling of self confidence given
by wearing certain clothes was stated as a reason for the
importance of clothing as often as was striving for accept-
ance.l However, the feeling of self confidence may come
from conforming clothes.

Sex differences may also exist in determining how
adolescents value clothing. The boys more often than the
girls in Alexander's study mentioned the importance of the
impression which clothing makes on others.2 In another
piece of research high school boys more often than rural
high school girls and rural girls more often than urban
girls felt that their clothing was important as an expres-
sion of personality.3

Although the literature indicates that teenagers

do tend toward conformity in clothing, this conformity

4A

lAlexander, p. 34.

2Ibid., p. 36.

3Ryan, "Psychological Effects of Clothing—-Part
II o o o ," pp. 13-140

27

apparently is not universal. Research with other age groups
has shown that even though clothing may be a part of the
socialization process, people do vary in the ways they

value and use dress, and these differences are related

to social and psychological variables. Other sociological
and psychological factors, including stability of self
concept, may also affect the way in which teens value and

use their clothing.

CHAPTER III
STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

Purposes
The specific purpose of this study was to determine
whether the adolescent's stability of self concept, at one
point in time as well as over a period of time, is related

to the way in which he uses his clothing.

Definition of Terms

Self Conc_pt is a "social product . . . , consisting of
the system of central meanings an individual has about
himself. . . ."1

1. Stability of Self Concept refers to the degree of
certainty the individual has about who he is.

a. Affective Discrepancy is the individual's amount
of instability, or uncertainty, at one point
in time.

b. Te_poral Discrepancy is the individual's amount
of instability, or uncertainty, over a period
of time.

2. Level of Self Concept is the point on the good-to-
bad continuum where the individual feels he is in
relation to others.

Overall Feeling about the Body is the intensity of general
satisfaction or dissatisfaction with one's body.

Clothing refers to the use of and attitudes toward cloth-
ing. The following aspects are included.

 

lMcGehee, p. 10.

28

29

Aesthetic concern refers to the use of clothing
to achieve a pleasing or beautiful appearance.
Included as a part of appearance is neatness in
dress.

Comfort means the use of clothing to achieve com-
fort whether this relates to temperature, physical
response to certain textures, or the acceptance

of tightness or looseness in garments.

Interest in clothing includes the willingness to
give attention, to investigate, manipulate, or
experiment with the putting together of the parts
of a costume.

 

Management refers to the thoughtful and careful
use of resources, including the use of time, money,
and energy in planning, buying, and using clothing;
thus, it can be an economic aspect of clothing
usage.

 

Modesty refers to the use of inconspicuous cloth-
ing, which is conservative in design, color, fit,
and body exposure.

Psychological Dependence is the use of clothing
to influence moods, emotions, and feelings.

Social Approval is the use of clothing to attain
a feeling of belongingness or the approval of
others in a particular role and usually indicates
conformity to the group norm.

Special Attention is the seeking of prestige and
status through the use of clothing. The atten-
tion that is sought may be either socially approved
or unapproved depending on the reference group.

Assumptions

Certain assumptions relating to clothing or the

self concept were inherent in this research.

1.

The individual's behavior in relation to clothing
is an indication of how he thinks clothing should
be used.

Subjects do have an idea of themselves, or a self
concept, which is at least partially organized into
a whole picture.

3.

4.

30

Stability is one dimension of the self concept.

Subjects are aware of their self concepts.

Hypotheses

A. Stability of self concept will be related to

clothing in the following ways:

1.

Stability of self concept of adolescents will be
negatively related to

a. General interest in clothing,

b. Management of clothing,

c. Use of clothing to gain social approval,
d. Use of clothing to gain special attention.

Stability of self concept of adolescents will not
be related to concern with modesty in clothing.

Stability of self concept of adolescents will be
positively related to

a. Aesthetic aspect of clothing,
b. Concern with comfort in clothing.

B. Stability of self concept and overall feeling

about the body will be related to aspects of clothing in

the following ways:

1.

Stability of self concept and overall feeling about
the body will be positively related to concern with
the aesthetic aspect of clothing.

Stability of self concept and overall feeling about
the body will be negatively related to

a. General interest in clothing,
b. Use of clothing to gain social approval,
c. Use of clothing to gain special attention.

Stability of self concept will relate negatively
to concern with the management of clothing while
overall feeling about the body will not relate to
the management aspect.

31

Stability of self concept will be positively re-
lated to concern with comfort in clothing, but
overall feeling about the body will relate nega-
tively to the comfort aspect.

Stability of self concept will not be related to
concern with modesty in clothing, but overall feel-
ing about the body will relate negatively to the

modesty aspect.

CHAPTER IV
PROCEDURE OF THE INVESTIGATION

The present investigation is part of a larger re-
search project studying the relationship between clothing
and certain sociological and psychological variables.

In addition to the present study, the larger project in—
cludes research relating clothing to peer acceptance,2
social class, school status, and status inconsistency,3
5

self esteem,4 and concern for the body.

The procedure of this study included the following

 

lAnna Mary Creekmore, "The Relationship of Cloth-
ing to Self Concept and to Attitudes toward Clothing"
(research in progress for Michigan Agricultural Experi-
ment Station).

2Mary Jane Young, "The Relationship of Social Ac-
ceptance to Clothing and to Personal Appearance of Adoles-
cents” (unpublished Master's thesis, Department of Textiles,
Clothing and Related Arts, Michigan State University, 1967).

3Winifred Sue Hundley, "The Relationship of Cloth-
ing Behaviors of High School Students to Socio-Economic
Status and Status Inconsistency" (unpublished Master's
thesis, Department of Textiles, Clothing and Related Arts,
Michigan State University, 1967).

4Mary Green Klaasen, "Self Esteem and Its Relation—
ship to Clothing" (unpublished Master's thesis, Department
of Textiles, Clothing and Related Arts, Michigan State
University, 1967).

5Effie Hewitt Hacklander, “The Relationship of
Body Concern to the Clothing of Adolescents" (research
in progress, Department of Textiles, Clothing and Related
Arts, Michigan State University).

32

33

sections: (1) selection or development of the measures,
(2) selection of the sample, (3) administration of the

questionnaires, and (4) statistical analysis of the data.

Selection or Development of Measures

Clothing

 

A questionnaire entitled Importance of Clothing
measured the aspects of clothing (see Appeng£E%. Although
Importance of Clothing was treated as one measure for pur-
poses of administration and discussion, it is actually a
composite of eight categories, each measuring an aspect
of clothing. Therefore, scores for each aspect of cloth-
ing were totalled separately with a possible score between
11 and 55 points for each category.

All items of the clothing questionnaire described
concrete situations in which the subject was asked to rate
himself from one to five according to whether he "never”
or "always" behaved in the manner described in the item.
The researchers felt that subjects would respond to items
stated as\"I do" situations more truthfully than "I feel”
because they would be more aware of their activities than
their feelings. Also, "I do" statements seemed to give
less chance for the subjects to answer in a stereotyped,
socially desirable manner and still feel that they were
answering honestly. Verbal directions for the Importance
of Clothing section instructed the student to answer as

he felt he would act in that situation if he had never

34

encountered the specific experience described in the state-
ment. In addition, the subject was directed to use the
school situation as a reference point.

Five researchersl began developing the clothing
measure by listing as many situations or feelings involv-
ing clothing as possible. These were then categorized,
the categories defined, and items developed or adapted from
Creekmore,2 Brady,3 or Sharpe4 to cover every part of each
category, or aspect of clothing. An effort was made to
weight each part according to the amount it contributed
to the particular category; that is, more items were in-
cluded to cover the more important points under each as-
pect of clothing. The final questionnaire included eleven
statements for each of the eight aspects, plus one intro-
ductory statement which was not considered in the computa—
tion of scores. In each aspect the statements were eval-
uated by the researchers to range from slight intensity,

which would measure slight importance of that aspect of

clothing, to high intensity, which would measure great

 

1The researchers, under the direction of Anna M.
Creekmore, included Mary Jane Young, Mary Klaasen, Sue
Hundley, Karen Engel, and Carolyn Humphrey.

2Creekmore, "Clothing Behaviors and Their Relation
to General Values. . . ."

3Brady.

4Elizabeth Susan Sharpe, "Development of a Cloth-
ing Interest-and—Importance Scale" (unpublished Master's
thesis, Ohio State University, 1963).

35

importance of that clothing category to the individual.
Each section included one theoretical item which was be-
lieved to measure the highest intensity of that aspect.
Also, an attempt was made to balance the intensity of the
statements under each section; that is, all clothing cate-
gories had approximately the same number of slight, moder-
ate,and very intense statements.

The measure was pretested three times, and after
each pretest items were revised and some were dropped.
Twenty-eight junior and senior retailing or education
majors in a family clothing class at Michigan State Uni-
versity during the summer of 1966 rated themselves on the
original 170 statements. Items in each section were an-
alyzed using a Likert technique to determine their ability
to discriminate between high scorers and low scorers on
that particular section.1 Items with zero or negative
discrimination were dropped and those with low discrim-
ination either dropped or, if possible, revised.

Four boys and 17 girls in the ninth through
twelfth grades comprised the sample for the second pretest
of 123 statements. All subjects were members of the Junior
Human Relations Commission of Lansing. Twenty—nine grad-

uate and 39 undergraduate women in an education service

 

lClaire Selltiz et al., Research Methods in Social
Relations (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1965),
pp. 366-700

 

36

course at the University of Tennessee during the summer

of 1966 also answered the same revised questionnaire. On
the basis of the item analysis results from the second and
third pretests, eleven statements which discriminated best
between low and high scorers were chosen for each of the
categories. All parts of the particular aspect of cloth-
ing were covered, and an attempt was made to balance the
intensity of items between categories.

One clothing aspect, psychological dependence, was
added to the Importance of Clothing measure at this point
because none of the other categories covered the effect
of clothing upon moods and feelings. However, since psy-
chological dependence was not pretested, its correlation
with stability of self concept and concern for the body

is reported here but not discussed.

Stability of Self Concept

A modified version of Brownfain's instrument meas-
ured stability of self concept at one point in time and
stability over time (see Appendix).1 With this measure
the subject rated himself on 20 self descriptive items
positively, giving himself the benefit of every reasonable
doubt, and negatively, denying himself the benefit of every

reasonable doubt. The scale ranged from one, placing the

 

lMcGehee.

37

subject among the lowest ten percent of his classmates on
this item, through ten, among the top ten percent of his
classmates on this item. On the positive rating if he felt
that he was higher than any of his classmates, he was in-
structed to give himself a rating of eleven. For the neg-
ative rating he was instructed to assign a zero to any item
on which he felt himself lower than any of his classmates.
One week later the students again filled out the two self
rating sheets from positive and negative points of refer-
ence. In some cases subjects may have rated themselves
higher on the negative rating of an item than on the pos-
itive rating. No attempt was made to correct this on an
item basis. However, if the total negative score was high-
er than the total positive score for the same administra-
tion, the subject was dropped from the sample.

Positive self rating minus negative self rating
for the first administration gave the affective discrep-
ancy, and the difference between negative rating for the
first administration and negative rating for the second
administration determined the score for temporal discrep-
ancy. Since investigators have found the negative rating
to discriminate better than positive self rating,1 the

first negative self rating was selected as the level of

self concept.

 

lIbid., pp. 52-53; Katz, p. 49; LaFon, pp. 8-9;
Cowen, p. 138.

38

Overall FeelingyAbout the Body

The instrument measuring overall feeling about the
body determines the amount of satisfaction or dissatisfac-
tion with certain parts of the body (see Appefldix). The
subject rated himself on each of 23 items describing parts
of the body on a scale from one, highly satisfied, to
seven, highly dissatisfied, with a neutral point of four.

Items for the instrument, called Body Characteris-
tics, were adapted or adopted from Secord and Jourard's
Body Cathexis Scale.l Jourard and Secord shortened their
first measure to 12 items which were suggested to be most
cathected by women.2 However, their original measure was
chosen as a basis for the present instrument because it
contained items which were applicable to both males and
females and also contained more items which appeared to
be especially of concern to teenagers.

The development of Body Characteristics began with
inspection of the 42 items of Secord and Jourard's measure,

which included both parts and processes of the body,3 to

 

1Paul F. Secord and Sidney M. Jourard, “The Ap-
praisal of Body-Cathexis: Body-Cathexis and the Self,"
Journal of Consulting Psychology, XVII (No. 5, 1953), 343.

 

2Sidney M. Jourard and Paul F. Secord, "Body-Cathex-
is and the Ideal Female Figure," Journal of Abnormal and
Social Psychology, L (March, 19555: 243.

3Secord and Jourard, "The Appraisal of Body-Cathex-
is. . . ."

39

determine which would most probably be related to adoles-
cents' concern with clothing. All items listing processes
of the body were dropped. The rating scale from Jourard
and Secord's modified version of the Body Cathexis Scale
was the basis for the scale used in this study since it
contained a wider range.1 However, the researchers for
this project replaced the short phrases on the scale with
clauses describing the degree of concern.

During the spring of 1966 15 women graduate students
in the College of Home Economics at Michigan State Univer-
sity rated themselves on the 22 remaining items. Each was
instructed to rate herself as she remembered feeling in
high school. Space was provided for writing in additional
items, and subjects were urged to make comments on the clar-
ity and applicability of the existing items.

In addition to changes suggested from results of
the pretest, several items were revised so that they would
apply to boys as well as to girls. "Excess hair" became
"body hair," "bust" became "bust or chest," "moles or
warts" became "birthmarks, moles, etc.," and "muscular
development" was added. In addition, the order of items
was rearranged to follow a more logical sequence by group-
ing parts of the body together which may be associated with

each other.

 

lJourard and Secord, "Body-Cathexis and the Ideal
Female Figure."

40

The questionnaire was then pretested on the 21 high
school boys and girls who also filled out the Importance
of Clothing instrument._ Since no write-ins or questions
about items indicated need for additions, the measure was
not revised after this pretest.

To obtain a final score for each subject which would
adequately reflect the more extreme concern at the ends
of the scale, item ratings were weighted. One through
three represented satisfaction. To obtain a satisfaction
score, therefore, the number of "1's“ marked beside all
items was multiplied by three, the number of "2's" by two,
and the number of "3's“ by one, and the weighted numbers
were added together. A dissatisfaction score was obtained
in the same way by adding together the number of "7's"
multiplied by a negative three, number of "6's" by a neg-
ative two,and number of "5's" by a negative one. Since
four was the neutral point, it was given a value of zero.
By adding the negative dissatisfaction score to the satis-
faction score, a figure was obtained which indicated whether
the individual was more satisfied or dissatisfied with his
body. In order for the score to be positive in all cases,
the number 100 was added to the sum of the satisfaction

and dissatisfaction scores.

Social Class

Hollingshead's Two Factor Index of Social Position,

including the occupational role and the amount of formal

41

education of the main wage earner of the household, was
used to determine social class level (see Appendix). Oc-
cupational index was rated on a scale from one to seven
with one indicating the occupation highest in prestige
value. Education was also placed on a scale from one to
seven, with one indicating the most formal training. To
obtain a final social class index, the occupation score
was multiplied by seven and education by four, and the
two parts summed. Summed scores were categorized into
five classes as Hollingshead directed, with one indicating
the highest social class and five the lowest.1 For tech-
nical reasons, however, the status ratings were reversed
in the statistical analysis so that five indicated the

highest social class.

Selection of the Sample
Selection of Research Site
Subjects for the study were students attending
the central high school in an industrial city with a pop-
ulation of approximately 15,000. Several criteria were
considered in the selection of a school. First, the com-
munity had a range of family socio-economic positions.

The social class distribution of the city, according to

 

lAugust B. Hollingshead and Fredrick C. Redlich,
Social Class and Mental Health: A Community Study (New
York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1958).

42

the 1960 census, approximated social class distribution

of the United States as a whole, with a majority of citi-
zens falling into middle and lower middle class categories.
Secondly, since this was the only high school in the county,
its students came from both rural and urban backgrounds,

as well as all social classes of the community.1 And third,
the size of enrollment in the school allowed for a sample
large enough to obtain a widespread representation of sub-

jects to accommodate the numerous variables of the study.

Selection of Subjects

.A random sample was not possible since no rooms
were available where subjects could gather to fill out the
questionnaires during school hours. Moreover, students
attended school on staggered schedules. Therefore, boys
and girls in six study halls formed the sample. Only soph-
omore and junior and senior study halls were chosen since
the questionnaires were administered soon after the school
year began, and freshmen would not yet be familiar with
the school routine or their fellow classmates. Selection

of the actual sample of subjects was accidental since all

 

lU.S. Bureau of the Census, U.S. Summary: General

Social and Economic Characteristics, 1960; U.S.—Bureau of
the Census, Michigan General Social and Economic Character-
isticsy 1960; U.S. Bureau of the Census, U.S. Summar :
General Population Characteristics, 1960; U.S. Bureau of
the Census, Michigan General Population Characteristics,
1960.

 

 

43

students in the six study halls answered the questionnaire.
On the other hand, subjects were chosen purposively since

only sophomore and junior and senior study halls were used.1

Administration of Questionnaires

Data were obtained in two sessions one week apart
in the fall of 1966. During the first session subjects
completed the clothing, negative self rating,and positive
self rating portions of the questionnaire. All remaining
portions as well as a duplicate negative and positive self
rating were administered during the second session. Ini-
tials, birthdate,and sex provided the basis for matching
parts of the questionnaire from the two sessions for each

individual.

Statistical Analysis

For the purpose of analysis, data for girls were
separated from data for boys and the two groups studied
independently. Frequency counts of the number of subjects
in each age level, in each grade in school, in each social
class category, the number of subjects on the honor roll,
and the total number of transfer students were calculated
to describe the subjects' backgrounds. In addition, the
number of students in each social class and the number

listed on the honor roll were given by grade in school.

 

lSelltiz, pp. 520-21.

44

Means, actual ranges, standard deviations, and simple cor—
relations between parts of each measure were computed to
help describe the findings.

Correlations were computed to determine whether a
relationship existed between the dependent variables, the
clothing aspects, and the independent variables, stability
of self concept and overall feeling about the body. In
order to determine the relationship between the level of
self concept, as well as either the affective stability
or the temporal stability of self concept, and clothing,
multiple and partial correlations were computed between
clothing, the dependent variable, and level and either the
affective or temporal discrepancy, the independent variables.

To determine whether feelings about the body were
more closely related to clothing than is self concept,
simple correlations were computed between overall feeling
about the body and clothing aspects. These correlation
coefficients were then compared with the partial correla-
tion coefficients relating parts of the self concept to
aspects of clothing. In addition, simple correlations were
computed between overall feeling about the body and level
and the discrepancy scores of self concept to ascertain
whether the independent variables of self concept and over-
all feeling about the body were related.

Finally, since social class or grade in school may

affect the relationship between clothing and self concept,

45

partial correlations between clothing and the three parts
of the self concept measure were computed holding constant
the effects of social class or grade, as well as the level
or one of the discrepancy scores for stability of self con-
cept. These partial correlations were then compared with
the partial correlations relating clothing to the three
parts of the self concept measure to determine whether
social class or grade in school do actually affect the

relationship.

Limitations of the Stugy

Throughout the study certain limitations could not
be avoided. Due to the sampling procedure, many of the
better students may not have been included as subjects be-
cause their class load or activities kept them from being
in a study hall.

Limitations concerning the measures were also pres-
ent. First, pencil-and-paper tests depend upon the sub-
ject's ability, as well as his willingness, to reveal his
feelings. In addition, the degree of test-taking defensive-
ness and response set were not determined. Moreover, con-
tent of the Body Characteristics and Importance of Clothing
instruments was judged by face validity; and other aspects
of stability of self concept, overall feeling about the

body, and clothing may exist which were not covered by the

measures used in this study.

46

Limitations were also present in the statistical
analysis of the data. Since level of self concept and sta-
bility of self concept were highly negatively related, mul-
tiple correlations including both level and stability as
the independent variables were not possible. Therefore,
partial correlations between the aspects of clothing and
either level or stability, eliminating the effect of the

other, were computed to indicate the existence of a rela—

tionship.

CHAPTER V
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The data from the investigation will be discussed
in four sections: (1) description of subjects, (2) cloth—
ing, (3) stability of self concept, and (4) overall feeling

about the body.

Description of the Subjects
The data for the 521 subjects were separated by
sex for analysis since girls and boys may use clothing dif-
ferently. Of the total group 270 were females and 251 were

males.

Transfer Status

Seven of the males, or 2.8 per cent, and 13 of the
girls, or 4.8 per cent, had transferred from another school
during the one month of the school year which had elapsed
before the data collection period. Since the subjects were
asked to use the school situation as a reference point in
both the Importance of Clothing and Self Rating Inventory
measures, their short acquaintance with the school may have
caused a difficulty in answering the questionnaire. How-
ever, since the percentage of transfers was so small, it

was felt that they would have no appreciable effect upon

47

48

the relationships determined from data for the entire group.
For this reason, the transfer students were left in the

sample.

Age

The ages of the subjects are given in Table l.
The range of ages for both male and female subjects was
broad in this sample. However, 84 per cent of the males
and 90 per cent of the females were in the middle, or 15
to 17 year-old range. Moreover, grade in school, which
closely parallels age for a high school group, was consid-
ered as a variable to determine whether the stability of
self concept and clothing relationship would differ with
grade in school. Grade was chosen over age of the partic-
ipants since it was assumed that identity of students would
be more influenced by year in school than age because of
the similarity of stimuli which they would receive in the
school situation. Subjects were in tenth, eleventh, and
twelfth grades in the school. Actual distribution of males

and females in the three grades is given in Table 2.

Social Class

The distribution of students by social class and
grade is also given in Table 2. Social class was used in
this study as a variable since other research suggested

that adolescent girls' opinions on dress tended to be similar

Table 1.

Distribution of students by age

 

 

Age in Years No. % Total Number
13
Boys 4 1.6 5
Girls 1 .4
14
Boys 18 7.2 40
Girls 22 8.2
15
Boys 76 30.3
Girls 106 39.3 182
16
Boys 71 28.3
Girls 72 26.7 143
17
Boys 64 25.5
Girls 64 23.7 128
18
Boys 11 4.4 15
Girls 4 1.5
19
Boys 2 .8 2
Girls 0 0
Unknown
Boys 5 2.0 6
Girls 1 .4
Total
Boys 251
Girls 270 " 521

 

50

 

 

 

Table 2. Distribution by grade of students in each social
class
10th 11th 12th Grade Total in each
Grade Grade Grade Unknown social class
Social Class No. % No. % No. % No. % No. %
I (highest)
Boys 4 4.4 2 3.3 2 3.6 0 O 8 3.2
Girls 5 4.7 l 1.5 l 1.7 O 0 7 2.6
II
Boys 3 3.3 4 6.7 3 5.4 0 O 10 4.0
Girls 3 2.8 2 3.0 l 1.7 0 0 6 2.2
III
Boys 12 13.2 12 20.0 6 10.7 2 4.7 32 12.7
Girls 16 15.1 10 14.9 10 16.7 3 8.1 39 14.4
IV
Boys 47 51.7 24 40.0 27 48.2 4 9.3 102 40.6
Girls 60 56.6 35 52.2 39 65.0 2 5.6 136 50.4
V
Boys 14 15.4 14 23.3 14 25.0 2 4.7 44 17.5
Girls 19 17.9 15 23.4 8 13.3 2 5.6 44 16.3
Social Class
Unknown
Boys 11 12.1 4 6.7 4 7.1 36 81.8 55 21.9
Girls 3 2.8 4 6.0 l 1.7 30 83.3 38 14.1
Total in
each grade
Boys 91 60 56 44 251
Girls 106 67 60 37 270

 

51

within a social class but varied between classes.1 Cloth-
ing may have somewhat different value in different social
classes and in this way enter into the stability of self
concept and clothing relationship. Unfortunately, data
on either social class or grade, or both, were missing on
a considerable proportion of the subjects. Some of these
subjects filled out the questionnaire during only one of
the two data collection periods. Most of those who filled
out only one portion were absent during the second period.
For some, the biographical data were inadequate to deter-
mine social class, and for still others it was obvious that
the subject had not answered the questions in a serious
manner. Other portions of data were usable, however, and
therefore the subject was not dropped from the sample.

Hollingshead's Two Factor Index of Social Position,
including occupation and education of the main wage earner,
was used to determine the social class status of each sub-
ject.2

According to occupation, the main wage earners
in 60 per cent of the subjects' families were in the fourth
or fifth social classes. These two levels consisted of
the following occupations: clerical workers, salesmen and

technicians, skilled, semiskilled or unskilled workers,

 

lBjorngaard, pp. 64-108.

2Hollingshead and Redlich.

52

and owners of small businesses. Moreover, 18 per cent of
the main wage earners had attended but not completed high
school, 26 per cent completed high school and 3 per cent

completed college.

Honor Roll

Honor roll status by grade in school is given in
Table 3. Data were obtained from the listing of honor stu-
dents for the first six weeks of the fall term in which
the data were collected or the last six weeks of the spring
preceding it. As might have been expected for this age

group, more females than males were honor roll students.

Table 3. Distribution by grade of students on the honor

 

 

 

roll
10th 11th 12th Grade
Grade Grade Grade Unknown Total
No. % No. % No. % No. % No. %
On the
honor roll
Boys 18 19.8 5 8.3 12 21.4 6 14.0 41 16.3
Girls 30 28.3 14 20.9 18 30.0 9 25.0 71 26.3
Not on the
honor roll
Boys 71 78.0 55 91.7 43 76.8 38 86.4 207 82.5
Girls 71 67.0 53 79.1 40 66.7 26 70.3 190 70.4
Honor roll
status
unknown
Total
Boys 91 60 56 44 251

Girls 106 67 60 37 270

 

53

Clothing

Correlation coefficients which reached the .05 or
higher level of confidence were accepted as indicating the
existence of a relationship between the variables. How-
ever, it is important to remember that the sample from which
the data were obtained was not chosen randomly and, there-
fore, cannot be assumed to be representative of all teen-
agers in the school.

Means, actual ranges, standard deviations, ranking
of the mean scores on the aspects of clothing, and simple
correlations among the aspects were computed to describe

the scores on the Importance of Clothing measure.

Distribution of Scores

Table 4 shows the means, standard deviations,and
ranges for males and females on the aspects of clothing.
On all clothing aspects the mean was significantly higher
for females than for males. This consistent difference
between sexes may have indicated that the girls in this
sample had more overall interest in clothing than did the
boys. Other studies have found a difference between high
school girls and boys in interest in clothing. The find-
ings of this study then agreed with the findings of Ryan
that for this age group girls were more interested in

clothing than were boys and with Vener's discovery that

54

Table 4. Distribution of the scores on the eight clothing

 

 

aspects
Actual Standard

Clothing Range Mean Rank Deviation
Aesthetic

Boys 19-50 36.1 (1) 5.9

Girls 29-53 42.2 (1) 4.2
Comfort

Boys 15-47 31.8 (3) 5.6

Girls 21-51 35.6 (6) 5.1
Interest

Boys 11-49 25.0 (8) 7.5

Girls 19-54 38.9 (2) 6.6
Management

Boys 17-48 32.4 (2) 5.8

Girls 21-52 38.6 (3) 5.5
Modesty

Boys 15-45 28.8 (6) 6.0
Psychological

Dependence

Boys 15-46 30.6 (5) 6.7
Social Approval

BOYS 11-49 3009 (4) 601
Special Attention

Boys 13-46 26.9 (7) 6.9

Girls 14-48 31.0 (8) 6.2

 

55

girls were more aware of clothing than were boys.l However,
items in the measure may have applied more often to girls

than to boys, causing the girls to have higher scores.

Ranking of the Means

A ranking of the means for males and females on
the clothing aspects showed considerable difference between
the sexes. These ranks are given in the following list

with the highest value at the tOp.

Males Females

Aesthetic Aesthetic
Management Interest

Comfort Management

Social Approval Modesty

Special Attention Social Approval
Interest Special Attention

Creekmore,2 Brady,3 and Lapitsky4 also measured aspects

of clothing although their samples consisted of college
women students or college teachers. Moreover, their cloth-
ing categories did not exactly parallel the aspects of
clothing defined in this study. However, a comparison
of the rank in this study with the ranks of means for their

studies showed interesting results. Creekmore's study

 

lRyan, "Psychological Effects of Clothing--Part

II. . . ," pp. 7-8; Vener,.pp. 77-78.

2Creekmore, "Clothing Behaviors and Their Relation
to General Values. . . ."

3Brady.

4Lapitsky.

56

encompassed two clothing behaviors not included as separate
aspects in the present research. Use of clothing to gain
or indicate status was a separate aspect in her research
but was included under seeking special attention in the
present study. The other behavior not included here as
a separate aspect was theoretical concern for clothing which
was included as part of each of the other aspects. If the
two behaviors for which there was no comparable aspect in
the present study were eliminated from Creekmore's ranking,
the boys' ranking paralleled that of Creekmore's population
with one exception. The position of conformity, or the
use of clothing to gain social approval in the present
study, was higher for her population than concern with
comfort; that is, on these two aspects the position in the
ranking is simply reversed. Also, the use of clothing for
status in Creekmore's measure was included under seeking
special attention with the present measure. Thus, for
boys the ranking of special attention aspect of clothing
was neither entirely paralleled nor contradicted by Creek-
more's ranking.

For both males and females in the present study,
as well as the studies by Lapitsky, Brady,and Creekmore,
aesthetic was highest in ranking. That aesthetic concern
should be consistently high may have been due to high so-
cial desirability of this facet, or it may have reflected

a generally high concern with the aesthetic. The girls'

57

ranking of conformity, or social approval, in the present
sample was near the bottom as in Brady's findings. The
rank of other clothing means for the girls was not similar
to the Creekmore, Brady,or Lapitsky studies. It is inter-
esting that the boys' ranking so closely paralleled that
of Creekmore's population, who were girls, while the girls'
ranking was unlike any other. This was especially unusual
since Creekmore's measure was oriented toward girls. It
is possible that the present measure was oriented toward
boys, but an analysis of the statements comprising it sug-
gested that the measure may really have been more applicable
to girls. Another possible explanation is that the rela-
tive importance of aspects of clothing is the same for both
male and female adults, but varies with age. If this were
true, girls may experiment longer or to a greater extent
with the possible uses of clothing while the boys may have
already decided upon the clothing patterns they will have
in maturity. However, Alexander's findings, which indi-
cated differences in attitudes toward clothing between the
sexes in adulthood as well as differences with age, tended
to refute this explanation.1 It is important to remember
that Creekmore's subjects were almost a total population,
and the subjects for the present study were not chosen as

a random sample. Therefore, the results of the rankings

 

lAlexander, pp. 34-36.

58‘

may have been due simply to chance, to biased samples, or

to the fact that the measure for the present study further
refined the aspects of clothing measured in Creekmore's
study. The difference between rankings of the interest
aspect of clothing was understandable in reviewing the items
comprising the measurement of that aspect. Since interest
aspect dealt with experimentation with the putting together
of parts of a costume as well as browsing in clothing stores,
the measure seemed to be more applicable to girls than to
boys.

The use of clothing to seek social approval, pri-
marily through conformity, was low for both males and fe—
males. This was an unexpected finding since Alexander found
that high school boys and girls most frequently stated that
social acceptance was the most important reason for being
well dressed.1 Perhaps students in the present sample felt
no excessive pressure to be unusually well dressed. A
casual observation of the subjects during the data collec-
tion periods revealed a consistently neat and conservative
appearance. Few were dressed in an extreme manner either
better or worse than the average, and no clothing fads were
noticeable. Perhaps researchers have overstressed the im-
portance of conformity for teenagers. It is also possible

that the adolescents in the sample may have used some means

 

1Ibid., p. 36.

59

other than clothing for gaining peer approval. Coleman

has pointed out that the relative importance of criteria
for status within the peer group varies from school to school.
In some, more importance may be placed on clothing, while
in others the emphasis may be on scholarship, athletics,

or family background.1 Perhaps in the sample for the pres-
ent research clothing played a negligible role in determin-
ing status within the peer group or acceptance into it.

For this reason the students would not have been too con-
cerned with peer approval of their clothing. On the other
hand, a neat and conservative appearance may have been the
standard to which these students conformed; that is, al-
though they did not admit to strictly conforming to one
another, they may have stressed a very subtle means of con-
formity which was not revealed by the measure used in this

study.

Correlations between Aspects of Clothigg,

From Table 5 it is apparent that all aspects of
clothing correlated with all other aspects of clothing for
the male portion of the sample. There are several possible
explanations for these correlations. First the measure
was pretested primarily on college-age female subjects.
Items which were meaningful to the pretest sample, there-

fore, may not have been appropriate for adolescent boys,

 

lColeman, pp. 231-35.

60

 

 

Table 5. Simple correlations between clothing aspects
H
m
U
D rim
0 c on)
".4 4J (1) O C H
-P P In E m ~10 m
m u m w .u 013 ri>
r o n cu m .n a m<3
u m m «u 0 L50 van
8 S t; 6 '8 5?3‘ 8:5
4 L) H 2: z n.n 014
Comfort c
Boys .31c
Girls .36
Interest c a
Boys .39C .18b
Girls .38 .24
Management c c c
Girls .48 .29 .29
Modesty
Boys .31: .34: .28: .34:
Girls .36 .38 .28 .20
Psychological
Dependence
Boys .23: .22: .49: .27: .23:
Girls .28 .24 .25 .15 .23
Social
Approval
Boys .30C .22: .36: .30c .30: .49:
Girls .02 .18 .15 .05 .27 .31
Special
Attention
Boys .33: .16a .66: .31: .16: .51: .41C
Girls .27 .05 .44 .20 .18 .33 .14

 

aSignificant at .05 level of confidence.

1:)Significant at .01 level of confidence.

CHighly significant.

61

causing difficulty in answering and possibly a resultant
response set. Several aspects may have overlapped, thus
actually measuring, at least partially, the same variable
while purporting to measure different ones. However, a
third possibility also exists. Adolescent boys may not
be selective to any great extent in the different uses of
clothing. If they are interested in clothing in general,
they may have high scores on all aspects.

The correlation among aspects of clothing for girls
is also given in Table 5. For the females the correlation
differed from the males primarily on the aspect of seeking
social approval through the use of clothing. One might
assume that use of clothing to gain social approval would
be more widespread among girls than boys, and therefore
the social approval aspect would not vary much among girls.
However, a comparison of the means and standard deviations
of the clothing aspects for both boys and girls showed that
girls did not score especially high on the average on the
social approval aspect and the variation of scores from
high to low was approximately the same as for other aspects.
Therefore, the lack of correlation between other aspects

and social approval for girls cannot be explained.

Stability of Self Concept
Information about the stability of self concept
is given in six sections. The first section simply describes

the distribution of scores. The second section deals with

62

the simple correlations between parts of the self concept
measure, which includes the affective and temporal discrep-
ancies and the level of self concept. The third section
covers the general relationship between self concept and
the aspects of clothing, while the fourth and fifth sec-
tions are more specific. In section four the relationship
between the affective discrepancy, or the stability of self
concept at one point in time, and the aspects of clothing
is discussed; and the fifth section deals with the temporal
discrepancy, or stability of self concept over a period of
time, and its relationship to clothing. The sixth, and
last, section shows the effects of grade and social class
on the relationship between both affective and temporal

stability of self concept and the aspects of clothing.

Distribution of Scores

Means, standard deviations, and actual ranges on
the three parts of the self concept measure are given in
Table 6. These parts include the level of self concept,
the affective discrepancy (difference between positive and
negative self ratings for the first administration), and
the temporal discrepancy (difference between the negative
ratings for the two administrations).

Clearly,there was a variation between the means
of the scores of the two discrepancy measures of stability
for both males and females. However, the affective discrep-

ancy and temporal discrepancy had correlation coefficients

63

of .25 for the males and .26 for the females. Both of these
coefficients were highly significant; thus, although the
mean of the affective discrepancy was considerably greater
than the mean of the temporal discrepancy, the two seem

to covary. This finding agreed with the theoretical struc-
ture set down by McGehee in that those less sure of them-
selves would be less certain of how positively or negatively
they rated on a personality characteristic in relation to
their peers and would vary more from time to time in the
manner in which they see themselves.1

Table 6. Distribution of scores on level and stability
of self concept

 

 

Actual Standard

Self Concept Range Mean Deviation
Affective Discrepancy

Boys 0-160 25.3 28.5

Girls 0-126 22.5 22.3
Temporal Discrepancy

Girls 0-58 12.4 11.4
Level

Boys ' 30-187 129.2 31.6

Girls 56-193 133.6 28.7

 

Simple Correlations between Parts of the
Self Concept Measure

 

Correlations computed for both sexes between the

level of self concept and affective and also temporal

 

lMcGehee, p. 3.

64

discrepancies gave interesting results. The correlation
coefficient for the relationship between affective discrep-
ancy (the difference between positive and negative ratings
for the first administration) and the level of self concept
was -.76 for the boys and -.69 for the girls. Since the
measure of affective stability was a discrepancy score,

a high score indicated great instability while a high level
of self concept score indicated very positive self evalua-
tion. Thus, there was a very close relationship between
how positively the individual felt about himself and how
sure he was about his self definition at a specific time.
Brownfain has theorized that the individual with a high
level of self concept has an internalized evaluation of
himself which he can accept while the individual with low
level of self concept may not have internalized his self
feelings as greatly and therefore is more dependent upon
the situation to define who he is.1 Two other possibili-
ties exist for explaining the inverse correlation of the
scores. First the person with a low level of self concept
may have had a high positive self feeling simply as a com-
pensation. On the other hand, a person with a very high
negative rating, or level of self concept, may have been

so close to the upper limit of the range on the scale that

his positive self rating could not be too much higher than

 

lBrownfain, p. 605.

65

the negative rating.

The correlation coefficients between temporal dis-
crepancy (negative rating minus negative rating for the
two administrations) and level of self concept for males
was -.19 and for females -.27. Although the correlation
coefficients were certainly not as high as those relating
affective discrepancy to level, they were significant at
the .01 level of confidence in the expected direction.

Katz found that temporal discrepancy was a more
potent measure than affective discrepancy.l Perhaps the
difference in the size of correlation coefficients for level
of self concept and the two discrepancy measures could mean
that affective discrepancy is actually laden with defensive-
ness while the temporal discrepancy is a truer measure of
stability of self concept.

General Relationship bgtween Clothing
and Stability of Self Concept

Multiple correlations between clothing, level, and
either the affective or the temporal measure of stability
of self concept are given in Table 7. Since a large dis-
crepancy score indicates a large amount of instability,
the positive correlation coefficients indicate inverse re-
lationships between stability of self concept and clothing.

A strong inverse relationship was apparent, however,

 

lKatz, p. 39.

Table 7.

66

Multiple correlations between clothing aspects

and level and stability of self concept

 

Clothing Aspects

Affective
Discrepancy
and Level of
Self Concept

Temporal

Discrepancy
and Level of
Self Concept

 

Aesthetic
Boys
Girls

Comfort
Boys
Girls

Interest
’ Boys
Girls

Management
Boys
Girls

Modesty
Boys
Girls

Psychological
Boys
Girls

Dependence

Social Approval

Boys
Girls

Special Attention

Boys
Girls

.35:
.25

.16b

.07

.14
.24

.18b

.31C

.14
.08

.05
.10

.04
.06

.18:
.21

.25:
.23

.03

.17b

.11

.17b

.08c
.24

.11
.09

.05
.05

.09
.12

.17

b
.16b

 

aSince the discrepancy score is an inverse measure
a positive correlation coefficient indicates
a negative relationship between stability and clothing.

of stability,

bSignificant at the .05 level of confidence.

CSignificant at the .01 level of confidence.

67

between level and instability, especially the affective
discrepancy; that is, for the individuals whose self con-
cepts were more unstable, resulting in greater discrepancy
scores, the level of self concept was lower, resulting in
smaller level of self concept scores. Table 8 gives the
partial correlations between clothing and level or stabil-
ity of self concept for each set of variables, eliminating
the effect of the other portion of the self concept meas-
ure. The partial correlations were included to indicate
whether it was the stability (measured by the discrepancy
scores) or the level which had the greater effect in the
clothing and self concept relationship. In four of the
six cases in which aspects of clothing related to the sta-
bility of self concept, clothing related positively not
only to one of the discrepancy scores, but also to the
level of self concept. However, since such a high nega-
tive relationship existed between the discrepancy scores
and level of self concept, the parts of the self concept
measure worked in opposition to each other in relation to
clothing. For this reason the multiple correlations, in-
cluding clothing, level of self concept, and the discrep-
ancy scores, will be noted; but conclusions were drawn from
the partial correlations relating clothing to the discrep-

ancy scores.

 

 

 

 

 

Table 8. Partial correlations between clothing aspects
and level and stability of self concept
Affective Discrepancy Temporal Discrepancy
and Level of Self and Level of Self
Concept Concept
Eliminating Eliminating Eliminating Eliminating
Cloth- the Effect the Effect the Effect the Effect
ing of of of of a
Aspects Discrepancy Level Discrepancy Level
Aesthetic
Boys .35: .26c .25: .05
Girls .25 .12 .22 .03
Comfort b
Boys .11 .16 .01 .03b
Girls .06 .02 .ll .16
Interest
Girls .23 .16 .17 .03
Management b b
Boys .17c .17C .06c .04
Girls .31 .20 .23 .01
Modesty
Boys .14 .10 .08 .05
Girls .06 .00 .07 .03
Psychological
Dependence
Boys .05 .01 .05 .01
Girls .09 .09 .05 .00
Social Approval
Boys .04 .02 .05 .08
Girls -006 ‘005 -007 "oll
Special Attention b
‘Boys .16b .06 .17b .04
Girls .21C .14 .16 -.01
aSince the discrepancy score is an inverse measure
of stability, a positive correlation coefficient indicates

a negative relationship between stability and clothing.

b

Significant at the .05 level of confidence.

cSignificant at the .01 level of confidence.

69

Relationship between Affective Discrepancy
and Aspects of Clothing
Aesthetic Aspect of Clothing

Multiple correlations between concern for the aes-
thetic aspect of clothing and level and affective discrep-
ancy (the positive minus negative ratings for the first
administration) indicated significant correlations for both
males and females (see Table 7). The partial correlations,
however, indicated that while level of self concept was
positively related to the aesthetic aspect, affective dis-
crepancy was also significantly related in a positive direc-
tion to concern with the aesthetic aspect of clothing for
the boys and approached significance for the girls (see
Table 8). Findings of other research also seem to contra—
dict each other in relation to the aesthetic aspect. Lapit-
sky found that the more secure subjects rated higher in
the aesthetic value,1 but appearance was rated higher by
insecure than secure subjects in Brady's sample.2 Creek—
more's explanation regarding the difference between coping
and expressive behavior3 may explain the difference in the
previous findings as well as the findings of the present

investigation. She stated that those individuals who were

 

lLapitsky, p. 76.
2Brady, p. 52.

3Creekmore, "Clothing Behaviors and Their Relation
to General Values . . . ," p. 126.

70

striving for the satisfaction of a need, in this case the
aesthetic need, may have used the aesthetic aspect of cloth-
ing as a means of coping with the situation. On the other
hand, individuals whose need or needs were relatively sat-
isfied may have used the aspect of clothing as a means of
self expression.1 In this way, individuals with different
psychological characteristics may use the same aspect of
clothing in different ways.

The level of self concept was positively related
to concern with the aesthetic in clothing. This relation-
ship may indicate that those students who were high in self
concept used clothing for aesthetic expression. On the
other hand, those with large discrepancy scores, especially
the boys, may have sought a pleasing appearance as a means
of coping with the social situation. That is, high self
concept subjects may have enjoyed beauty for beauty's sake
while the effectively less stable subjects may have been
striving for a pleasing appearance in order to evoke favor-
able responses from other people; thus, concern with beauty

could serve two functions.

Comfort in Clothing

Comfort in clothing related significantly in the

 

1The concept of the difference between coping and
expressive behavior in relation to need satisfaction came
originally from Abraham Maslow, Toward a Psychology of Be-
igg_§Princeton, New Jersey: D. Van Nostrand Company, Inc.,
1962 .

71

multiple and partial correlations to affective discrepancy
for the males only (see Tables 7 and 8). This finding
agreed with Creekmore's conclusion that comfort is a cop-
ing behavior for certain types of people but did not sup-
port her conclusion that comfort may also be an expressive
behavior for other types.1 Moreover, these results dis-
agreed with Lapitsky's findings which showed that the se-
cure women teachers in her sample rated higher on the eco-
nomic clothing value than did the insecure group. However,
the economic clothing value included concern with economy
in relation to clothing as well as concern with comfort.2
Concern with comfort appeared to be characteristic
of the affectively less stable males in the present sample,
but did not relate to affective stability for the females.
Perhaps those boys who felt less sure of themselves may
have sought physical comfort. Self concept theory suggests
that the less stable individuals may depend more upon the
social situation to define who they are, and may feel more
psychologically uncomfortable than the more stable subjects.3
Physical discomfort might add to an already tense state,

therefore, being less tolerated by the more unstable subjects.

 

lCreekmore, "Clothing Behaviors and Their Relation
to General Values . . . ," pp. 118-20..

2Lapitsky, pp. 77, 4.

3Brownfain, p. 605.

72

Interest in Clothing

Multiple correlations relating interest in clothing
to level of self concept and affective discrepancy indicated
a significant relationship for the girls, while the corre-
lation for the boys only approached significance (see Table
7). The partial correlations indicated that for the boys
neither level of self concept nor affective discrepancy
correlated significantly with interest in clothing although
the positive relationship with level did approach signif-
icance (see Table 8). For the girls, however, partial cor-
relations showed a significantly positive relationship be-
tween interest in clothing and both level of self concept
and affective discrepancy. Brady found that the more so-
cially insecure subjects rated higher on the experimental
value,1 and Creekmore found that the experimental clothing
behavior was a means of coping for those subjects who were
striving for self esteem.2 Thus, for females the relation-
ship of affective stability of self concept and interest
in clothing seemed to agree with previous studies. Again
the results might be interpreted to mean that those with
a high level of self concept were interested in clothing

as a means of self expression while the affectively more

 

lBrady, p. 52.

2Creekmore, "Clothing Behaviors and Their Relation
to General Values . . . ," p. 121. °

73

unstable subjects were interested in clothing as a coping

device.

Management of Clothing

The multiple correlations indicated that affective
discrepancy and level of self concept were related to man-
agement of clothing (see Table 7). Partial correlations
also showed that the management aspect was positively re-
lated to both the level of self concept and affective dis-
crepancy (see Table 8). Lapitsky found a positive relation-
ship for teachers between the economic clothing value, which
included management, and social insecurity.l Brady found
that insecure subjects scored higher on the management of
clothing,2 and Creekmore's findings indicated that the man-
agement clothing behavior related negatively to the rela-
tive satisfaction of the self esteem and belongingness
needs.3 Thus, the finding that affectively less stable
subjects emphasized the management of clothing was in agree-
ment with the findings of Brady and Creekmore. However,
that persons high in level of self concept should be high
in concern with the management of clothing was in agreement

with Lapitsky but in direct opposition to Creekmore's

 

lLapitsky, p. 77.

2Brady, p. 52.

3Creekmore, "Clothing Behaviors and Their Relation
to General Values . . . ," p. 94.

74

findings. The differences might be due to the variation
in ages of the subjects, accidental samples from different
populations, or differences between the measures. Thus,
it appeared that concern with the management of clothing,
for the present sample, might be both a coping behavior
for the affectively less stable subjects and an expressive
behavior for those with a higher level of self concept.
Modesty and Social Approval
Aspects of Clothing

The social approval aspect of clothing, like the
modesty aspect, did not relate to the affective discrepancy
in either the multiple or the partial correlations (see
Tables 7 and 8). The finding involving the use of cloth-
ing to gain social approval was unexpected since Creekmore
found that conformity, which was a large part of the social
approval category, related positively to striving for set-
isfaction of the belongingness need.l Lapitsky's finding,
which indicated that the socially insecure subjects valued
the use of clothing to gain social approval more than did
the secure subjects, was in agreement with Creekmore's re-
sult.2 Why then was there no relationship between the so-
cial approval aspect of clothing and affective stability

of self concept for these subjects? Coleman has suggested

 

lIbid.

2Lapitsky, p. 77.

75

that other facets of personal interaction may be the pri-
mary means of gaining status within the peer group or gain-

1 The low ranking of the mean of

ing acceptance into it.
the social approval aspect might indicate that the subjects
in this sample used some means other than clothing for their
conformity. It is also possible that the items in the cloth-
ing measure may not have been refined enough to get at the
subtle differences in a very conforming sample or that the
subjects were defensive in admitting to conformity. On

the other hand, Hendricks questioned the common belief that
teenagers conformed in their clothing to a high degree.2
Thus, an alternate explanation for the lack of a relation-

ship might be that the teens in this study were not overly

concerned with conformity to their peers' clothing.

Special Attention Aspect of Clothing

The multiple correlations between the affective
discrepancy, the level of self concept, and the seeking
of special attention through the use of clothing were sig-
nificant (see Table 7). However, in the partial correla-
tions only the level of self concept related positively
to the special attention aspect (see Table 8). Although

there was an indication of a positive relationship between

 

lColeman, pp. 231-35.

2Hendricks, p. 122.

76

affective discrepancy and special attention, this aspect
of clothing did not relate significantly to the affective
discrepancy score.

Lapitsky found that the socially secure and inse-
cure groups of subjects did not differ significantly in
their valuation of clothing for prestige purposes,1 which
would agree with the findings of the present study. More-
over, Creekmore found that relative satisfaction of the
belongingness need was related to use of clothing as a
status symbol and concern with high fashion, two parts
of the special attention aspect in the present research.2
If relative satisfaction of the belongingness need and high
level of self concept are parallel dimensions, the findings
of this study agreed with both Lapitsky and Creekmore.
Gates, however, found that aspirationally mobile women
were more concerned with prestige use of clothing than
were concomitantly mobile women.3 Although aspirational
mobility might create feelings of insecurity which could
be reflected as instability of self concept, the two char-
acteristics are not parallel. Thus, Gates' findings may

not actually have contradicted the findings of the present

investigation.

 

lLapitsky, p. 77.

2Creekmore, “Clothing Behaviors and Their Relation
to General Values . . . ," pp. 123-25, 135-36.

3Gates, pp. 93-133.

77

The results of this study indicated that using
clothing to gain special attention may be an expressive
behavior, related to a high level of self concept. Per-
haps for adolescents those who have a high level of self
concept wished to attract attention to themselves through
their clothing. There was also some indication that for
males use of clothing to seek special attention might be
a coping behavior to help define an affectively unstable

self concept.

Summary

Affective discrepancy was related to the use of
clothing for the aesthetic, comfort, interest, management,
and special attention aspects. All of the aspects of cloth-
ing which related significantly to affective discrepancy
correlated in the same direction. This was also true of
the correlations between aspects of clothing and level of
self concept. Some of these correlations could be explained
and others could not. Perhaps, as the intercorrelations
among aspects of clothing would suggest, the teenagers in
this sample did not clearly differentiate between aspects
of clothing but instead tended to treat the major portion
of clothing usage as a means of coping or adjusting to the
social situation or as a means of self expression.

Katz has suggested that a measure of self concept
taking into account both level and stability, or the dis-

crepancy scores, would be a more accurate picture of how

78

certain the individual feels about who he is.1 Unfortu-
nately,mu1tiple correlations between level of self concept
and stability as the two independent variables and aspects
of clothing as the dependent variable did not give an ac-
curate picture of the relationship between clothing and
self concept. A highly negative relationship existed be-
tween level of self concept and affective discrepancy but
in general both of these variables related positively to
clothing.

If a large affective discrepancy, indicating a
highly unstable self concept at one point in time, is in
fact a result of compensation for low self concept as
Brownfain suggested,2 the actual relationship between
the clothing aspects and self concept lies between cloth-
ing and the level of self concept rather than clothing and
stability. With only one exception level correlated more
highly with the clothing aspects in the partial correlations
than did the affective discrepancy. Whether or not affec-
tive discrepancy is really only a compensatory product of
level of self concept cannot be definitely concluded from
this study. However, clothing did relate more closely to

level of self concept than to affective stability.

 

lKatz, p. 51.

2Brownfain, p. 606.

79
Relationship between Tempgral Discrepancy
and Aspects of Clothing

Multiple correlations relating aspects of clothing
to both level of self concept and temporal discrepancy gave
approximately the same pattern of significance as the mul-
tiple correlations relating clothing, level of self concept,
and affective discrepancy. However, the partial correla-
tions were quite different (see Tables 7 and 8). Signif-
icant correlations between level of self concept and the
aspects of clothing paralleled the partial correlations
of level of self concept, eliminating the affective dis-
crepancy, with only one exception. This parallel is large-
ly due, of course, to the fact that the level of self con-
cept is defined as the first negative self rating with both
affective and temporal measures of stability.

Temporal discrepancy, in contrast to the affective
discrepancy, correlated only with concern for comfort in
clothing for females; that is, the girls who changed their
self concept more over a period of time were more concerned
with comfort in clothing. As with the males in the affec-
tive discrepancy, level of self concept did not correlate
significantly with the aspect of clothing. Thus, it would
seem that concern for comfort may be primarily a coping
behavior for both males and females.

Only one other partial correlation coefficient be-
tween clothing and temporal discrepancy approached signif-

icance. The social approval aspect of clothing related

80

negatively to temporal discrepancy for females; that is,
the more stable subject over time rated higher in the seek-
ing of social approval through clothing. Although this
correlation was not significant, it was not in the expected
direction. The social approval aspect dealt largely with
conformity, which other research has found to be related

to social insecurity.l The directional trend did not hold
true for boys in the sample, and particularly since the
correlation for females did not reach significance, the
relationship may be due to chance.

Self concept researchers have found that the tem-
poral discrepancy is a more potent measure of stability,2
correlating more highly with other self concept variables
in the expected direction. If the temporal discrepancy
is indeed the better measure, stability of self concept
relates to use of clothing only for the comfort aspect for
females.

Effect of Grade and Social Class on the
Relationship between Stability of Self
Concept and Aspects of Clothing
Simple correlations relating the stability and level

of self concept to grade and social class are given in Table

9. The simple correlations relating aspects of clothing

 

lLapitsky, p. 77.

2Katz, p. 39.

81

Table 9. Simple correlations relating level and stability
of self concept to grade and social class

 

Self Concept Grade Social Class

 

Affective Discrepancy

Temporal Discrepancy
Boys .04 -.13
Level a
Boys .00 .14
Girls .13 - -.03

 

aSignificant at the .05 level of confidence.

to grade and social class are given in Table 10. Partial
correlations eliminating the effects of social class and
grade from the relationships between clothing, level, and
stability of self concept are given in Tables 11 and 12.

A comparison of these partial correlations with those in
Table 8, relating clothing to each part of the self concept
measure, showed that neither social class nor grade in
school affected the relationship between clothing and sta-

bility of self concept.

Overall Feeling About the Body
The literature has suggested that the individual's
physical appearance and, more important still, his own idea

of his appearance may account for a considerable portion

Table 10.

82

to grade and social class

Simple correlations relating clothing aspects

 

 

Clothing Aspects Grade Social Class
Aesthetic

Boys .07 .01

Girls .09 .01
Comfort

Boys 004 "“007
Interest a

Boys -.15 -.03

Girls .10 .01
Management

Girls -001 013
Modesty

BOYS 000 -011

Girls .04 .07
Psychological Dependence

Girls -.06 .04
Social Approval
Special Attention

Girls .03 .06

 

aSignificant at the

.05 level of confidence.

83

Partial correlations between clothing aspects

 

 

 

 

Table 11.
and stability of self concept eliminating the
effect of social class
Affective Discrepancy Temporal Discrepancy
and Level of Self and Level of Self
Concept Concept
Eliminating Eliminating Eliminating Eliminating
the Effect the Effect the Effect the Effect
of Discrep- of Level of Discrep- of Level
Clothing ancy and and Social ancy and and Social
Aspects Social Class Classa Social Class Classa
Aesthetic
Boys .35: .26C .25: .05
Girls .25 .12 .22 .03
Comfort b
Boys .12 .16 .02 .02b
Girls .07 .03 .10 .16
Interest b
Boys .15C .09b .11b .00
Girls O23 O16 O17 O03
Management b b
Boys .17C .17C .07c .04
Girls .30 .18 .24 .00
Modesty b
Boys .16 .ll .10 .07
Girls .06 .01 .08 .03
Psychological
Dependence
Boys .04 .01 .04 .02
Girls_ .09 .08 .05 .01
Social
Approval
Boys .04 .02 .05 .08
Girls -.06 .05 —.O7 .12
Special
Attention b
Boys .16C .06 .07b .05
Girls .21 .13 .16 .00

 

a O O
Slnce the d1screpancy score is an inverse measure

of stability,

a positive correlation coefficient indicates

a negative relationship between stability and clothing.

bSignificant at the

.05 level of confidence.

CSignificant at the .01 level of confidence.

84

 

 

 

 

Table 12. Partial correlations between clothing aspects
and stability of self concept eliminating the
effect of grade
Affective Discrepancy Temporal Discrepancy

and Level of Self and Level of Self
Concept Concept
Eliminating Eliminating Eliminating Eliminating
the Effect the Effect the Effect the Effect
of Discrep- of Level of Discrep— of Level

Clothing ancy and and Gradea ancy and and Gradea

Aspects Grade Grade

Aesthetic c c c

Boys .35c .26 .25c .05

Girls .24 .12 .21 .03
Comfort b

Boys .11 .16 .01 .03b

Girls .06 .03 .09 .16
Interest b 5

Boys .14C .09b .11b .01

Girls .23 .17 .16 .03
Management b ’ b

Girls 031 020 023 -001
Modesty

BOYS .13 010 .08 -005

Girls .06 .00 .07 -.03
Psychological
Dependence

Boys .05 .02 .05 .01

Girls .10 .08 .06 .01
Social Approval

Boys .04 .02 .05 .08

Girls -006 -005 -007 "oll
Special Attention b b

Boys .16c .06 .17b .04

Girls 021 014 015 -001

—A

a O O
Since the discrepancy score is an inverse measure

of stability,

a positive correlation coefficient indicates

a negative relationship between stability and clothing.

bSignificant at the .05 level of confidence.

CSignificant at the .01 level of confidence.

85

of his overall self feeling.l Since both clothing and the
body may be thought of as highly visible aspects of the
self, the categories of clothing were correlated with a
measure of self feeling about the body as well as the gen-
eral self concept score. The measure of overall feeling
about the body indicated whether the individual was gener-
ally more pleased or more displeased with his body and
showed the intensity of this overall feeling. Since the
score for feeling about the body was obtained by subtract-
ing the intensity of negative feelings from the intensity
of positive feelings, only the overall feeling about the
body was obtained. Very intense positive feelings would
cancel out the very intense negative feelings; thus, the
scores could not show whether the individual felt strongly
about the various parts of his body. If, for example, the
subject were mildly dissatisfied with many parts of his
body, his score might equal the score of another subject
who was intensely dissatisfied with a few parts of his body
and had no particular feelings about the other parts. There-
fore, only the direction and intensity of the overall feel-

ing about the body were shown by the scores.

Distribution of Scores

Table 13 gives the means, standard deviations,and

 

lSherif and Cantril; Shibutani; Snygg and Combs.

86

actual ranges for males and females on the overall feeling

about the body.

Table 13. Distribution of scores on overall feeling about
the body

 

Actual Range Mean Standard Deviation

 

Overall Feeling
about the Body
Boys 90-147 116.9 10.7
Girls 72-151 113.1 11.6

 

Relationship between Stability of Self Concept
and Overall Feeling_about the Body

Jourard and Remy, in a study with male and female
college students, found that subjects tend to cathect, or
have feelings about, the self and body to the same degree'
and in the same direction.1 This finding would support
the theories of Shibutani,2 Sherif and Cantril,3 and Snygg
and Combs,4 who point out that the physical body is impor-
tant in the formation of self conceptions through the inter-
action process. The simple correlations relating the over-
all feeling about the body to the three parts of the self

concept measure are given in Table 14. Level of self

 

lSidney M. Jourard and Richard M. Remy, "Perceived
Parental Attitudes, the Self, and Security," Journal of
Consulting Psychology, IXX (No. 5, 1955), 366.

2Shibutani.

3Sherif and Cantril.

 

4Snygg and Combs.

87

concept related positively for both males and females, as
the literature would suggest; that is, the subjects who
had a higher level of self concept tended to feel more
positively about their bodies than those with a lower self
concept.

Table 14. Simple correlations between parts of the self
concept measure and overall feeling about the

 

 

body
Self Concept Boys Girls
Affective Discrepancy .20b -.09
Temporal Discrepancy -.03 .00
Level .163 . 24b

 

aSignificant at the .05 level of confidence.

bSignificant at the .01 level of confidence.

The affective discrepancy score also related pos-
itively for the boys; that is, the subjects who were more
sure of their self definition felt more negatively about
their bodies. The direction of the relationship was re-
versed for females although the correlation coefficient
did not approach significance. Intensity of feeling about
the body and the self have been found to relate to insecur-
ity.l Whether or not results from the present study con-

tradict previous findings is questionable since Jourard

 

lJourard and Remy, p. 366.

88

and Remy's intensity score and the present overall feeling
about the body score were obtained differently.
Relationship between Agpects of Clothing and
Overall Feelingyabout the Bogy

Correlation coefficients between the overall feel-
ing about the body and the aspects of clothing are given
in Table 15. Only two clothing categories related

Table 15. Simple correlations between clothing aspects
and overall feeling about the body

 

 

Clothing Aspects Boys Girls
Aesthetic .13 .06
Comfort -.01 -.13
Interest .02 .02
Management .11 .08
Modesty -.14a -.15a
Psychological Dependence .03 .02
Social Approval .06 -.09
Special Attention .04 .15a

 

aSignificant at the .05 level of confidence.

significantly to overall feeling about the body. Modesty
in clothing related negatively to a more positive feeling
about the body. No research was found relating clothing

to satisfaction or dissatisfaction with the body; however,

this result seemed to follow logically. Those subjects

89

who felt more dissatisfied with their bodies may have tried
to hide themselves with their clothing. On the other hand,
the students who felt more satisfied with their bodies did
not feel that they needed to make their bodies inconspicu-
ous. Although there was a trend toward a relationship for
males between level of self concept and the modesty aspect
when the effect of affective discrepancy was eliminated,
modesty did not relate significantly to any part of the
measure for self concept (see Table 8). Apparently, then,
concern with modesty in clothing related more closely to
feelings about the body than to general self feelings.

For the females the overall feeling about the body
related positively to seeking special attention through
the use of clothing. However, the relationship was not
significant for the males and was in fact in the opposite
direction. For the females the conclusion may be drawn
that those who felt more satisfied with their bodies tended
to use clothing as a means of seeking special attention.
Thus, the female subjects who had a high level of self
concept or were generally more pleased with their bodies
used clothing to gain prestige.

Two other correlations between the overall feeling
about the body and an aspect of clothing approached signif-
icance. For the males the overall feeling about the body
tended to relate positively to concern with the aesthetic

aspect of clothing. Moreover, both level of self concept

90

and the affective discrepancy related positively to the
aesthetic aspect for both males and females; thus, the males
who felt pleased with their bodies and both males and fe-
males who were less sure of their self definition or had

a high self concept tended to be concerned with the aes-
thetic aspect of clothing.

The females who felt less pleased with their bodies
tended to be more concerned with comfort. It is interest-
ing to observe that comfort for females was the only aspect
of clothinnghich related significantly to temporal dis-
crepancy, which is purported to be the best measure of
stability of self concept. The girls in this sample who
were less stable in their self concept or felt more dis-
pleased about their bodies placed more emphasis upon phys-
ical comfort in clothing.

Again the uses of clothing may be interpreted as
means of self expression or coping with the social situa-
tion. Stone's theory that appearance, including clothing
and the physical body among other facets, plays a major
role in social interaction may serve as a theoretical ex-
planation of the findings.1 Those individuals who felt
more displeased with their physical appearance, according
to these data, played down or hid their bodies more and

the girls also tended to stress a non-visual aspect, comfort.

 

Stone.

91

Thus, it would seem that the modesty and, to some extent,
comfort uses of clothing tended to be more coping behaviors.

On the other hand, feeling pleased with the body
was positively related to seeking special attention for
girls and tended to relate positively to concern with the
aesthetic for the boys. In other words, those who felt
more satisfied with their bodies did not seem to use cloth-
ing to hide themselves but rather used it as a means of
expressing beauty or attracting attention.

Clothing, then, may have served the purpose of
hiding or making comfortable the individual who felt dis-
pleased with his physical appearance, and calling attention
to or serving as a means of expression for the individual

who felt more pleased with his body.

CHAPTER VI
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS

The present investigation, which is part of a
larger project, was undertaken to determine whether vari-
ous uses of clothing relate to the stability of self con-
cept of adolescents.

Subjects for the study were 521 Sophomores, Jun-
iors, and Seniors, including 251 boys and 270 girls, from
a centrally located high school in a small midwestern city.
Since it was the only high school in the county, the stu-
dents came from all the social classes represented in the
community.

The questionnaire included several sections and
was administered during study hall periods in two sessions
one week apart.

Importance of Clothing, an instrument developed
for the larger project, was actually a composite of eight
scales, each containing eleven statements describing con-
crete situations on which the subject rated himself on a
scale from one to five according to whether he “never" or
"always" behaved in the manner described in that item.
Each of the eight categories, including aesthetic, com-

fort, interest, management, modesty, psychological

92

93

dependence, social approval, and special attention, was
designed to measure one aspect of clothing usage. Within
each category questions were designed to measure various
intensities of concern with that particular aspect. In

an effort to avoid bias in the measure, an attempt was made
to balance the intensity of questions between categories.
Scores for each of the aspects of clothing were treated
separately and correlated with other variables.

The measure was pretested three times, twice on
samples of female college students and once on a group of
adolescent boys and girls. After each pretest items were
analyzed using a Likert technique to determine whether they
discriminated between high and low scorers in the particu-
lar category in which they were found. Some of the items
were dropped after each pretest and many were revised.
Since the psychological dependence aspect was added to
the measure after the pretests, it was reported but not
discussed.

A modified version of Brownfain's Self Rating In-
ventory, containing 20 items on which the subject rated
himself in relation to his peers, was used to measure sta-
bility of self concept. During each data collection period
the subject filled out two self rating sheets. The nega-
tive rating, in which the subject denied himself the bene-
fit of every reasonable doubt, was subtracted from the

positive rating, in which the individual gave himself the

94

benefit of every reasonable doubt, to give the affective
discrepancy (amount of instability at one point in time).
Negative rating minus negative rating for the two adminis-
trations gave the temporal discrepancy (amount of instabil-
ity over time), and the first negative was defined as the
level of self concept. In the event of a negative score
for the affective discrepancy, caused by a higher negative
rating than positive rating, the subject was dropped from
the sample. The scores for temporal discrepancy, on the
other hand, were absolute and the sign was disregarded
since the temporal discrepancy score was obtained from
the two negative ratings.

Overall feeling about the body was measured by an
instrument devised by the researchers for the project.
The measure consisted of 23 items, each naming part of the
body, on which the subject rated himself on a scale from
one to seven according to whether he was highly satisfied
or highly dissatisfied with that particular part. The
ratings were weighted so that the more extreme feelings
would have a greater effect upon the total score, and the
difference between the total weighted satisfaction ratings
and total weighted dissatisfaction ratings was considered
to be the overall feeling about the body. For statistical
purposes the number 100 was added to each subject's total
score on overall feeling about the body, so that.the num-

ber would always be positive and direction as well as

95

intensity of the overall feeling could be included in the
correlations.

Biographical variables of year in school, social
class, age, transfer and honor roll status were obtained
to describe the sample; and means, standard deviations,
actual ranges, and intercorrelations of parts of the meas-
ures were computed to describe the distribution of scores.

Multiple correlations between the aspects of cloth-
ing and level and either effective or temporal discrepancy
were computed to determine the relationship between uses
of clothing and the self concept. However, a very high
negative correlation existed between level of self concept
and the discrepancy scores, especially the affective dis-
crepancy. Because the partial correlations indicated that
a positive relationship existed between clothing and both
level of self concept and each of the discrepancy scores
considered separately, the multiple correlation gave an
inaccurate picture of the relationship.

Since the multiple correlations did not give an
accurate picture of the relationship between the clothing
aspects and stability of self concept, confirmation or
rejection of hypotheses could not be based upon these
findings. Therefore, conclusions were based upon partial
correlations between the aspects of clothing and the dis-
crepancy scores, eliminating the effect of the level of

self concept. Since neither one of the two discrepancy

96

scores could be conclusively shown to be a better measure
of stability of self concept and both scores were assumed
to measure the same dimension, hypotheses were considered
confirmed if either discrepancy score related to clothing
tn the predicted manner.

The rationale for hypotheses was based, whenever
possible, upon previous research. However, in some cases
results of different studies have contradicted each other
and in other cases no literature was found relating the
variables in question. Previous studies indicated that
insecurity was related to general interest in clothing,
use of clothing to conform, or gain social approval, and
concern with the management of clothing. Thus, three of
the following hypotheses were formed assuming some parallel
between security and stability of the self concept. Pre-
vious pieces of research contradicted each other on the
relationship between insecurity and the use of clothing
to gain prestige or special attention. Since the motiva-
tion behind using clothing to gain social approval or spec-
ial attention might stem basically from the same source,
that is, the desire to elicit favorable responses from
others, the fourth hypothesis was formulated predicting
a negative relationship between stability of self concept
and the use of clothing to gain special attention.

Hypothesis Ala. Stability of self concept of adolescents
will be negatively related to general interest in clothing.

97

The interest aspect of clothing related to the ef-
fective discrepancy for girls but did not correlate signif-
icantly for the boys for either the affective or the tem-
poral discrepancy. Since a positive correlation coeffici-
ent indicates a negative relationship between stability
of self concept and the aspects of clothing,the hypothesis
was confirmed for the girls only.

Hypothesis Alb. Stability of self concept of adolescents
will be negatively related to concern with management of.
clothing.

The affective discrepancy related negatively to
concern with the management of clothing for both males and
females. The hypothesis, therefore, was confirmed.
Hypothesis Alc. Stability of self concept of adolescents

will be negatively related to the use of clothing to gain
social approval.

 

Use of clothing to gain social approval did not
relate significantly to the affective or temporal discrep-
ancies for either girls or boys. Thus, the hypothesis was
not confirmed.

Hypothesis Ald. Stability of self concept of adolescents

will be negatively related to the use of clothing to gain
special attention.

 

The correlation coefficients between the use of
clothing to gain special attention and the affective dis-
crepancy or the temporal discrepancy were not significant.
Therefore, the hypothesis was not confirmed.

One aspect of clothing usage, concern with modesty

98

in clothing, has not been found to relate to security or
insecurity. Although the subjects for previous studies

were adults and those for the present study were adoles-
cents, the same lack of relationship was expected.

Hypothesis A2. Stability of self concept of adolescents
will not be related to concern with modesty in clothing.

 

Since concern with modesty in clothing did not
relate significantly for males or females to either the
affective or the temporal discrepancy, the hypothesis was
confirmed.

Concern with the aesthetic aspect of clothing has
been found to relate to both security and insecurity. The
first hypothesis in the following group is based upon the
assumption that concern with the aesthetic is an expressive
behavior and more stable subjects will be less dependent
upon the social situation and therefore freer to be con-
cerned with self expression than would the less stable sub-
jects. The second hypothesis is based upon the belief that
stable subjects are less likely to feel that they need to
use clothing to evoke favorable judgments from others and
need not endure physical discomfort to help make an impres-
sion on others. Most other studies relating concern with
comfort in clothing and insecurity have found a positive
relationship between the two.

Hypothesis A38. Stability of self concept of adolescents

will be positively related to the aesthetic aspect of
clothing.

 

99

The correlation between concern with the aesthetic
aspect of clothing and affective discrepancy was signifi-
cant for males but did not relate significantly for females.
However, since the relationship was not in the expected
direction, and the aesthetic aspect did not relate signif-
icantly to temporal discrepancy, the hypothesis was not
confirmed.

Hypothesis A3b. Stability of self concept of adolescents

will be positively related to concern with comfort in cloth—
ing.

 

Although concern with comfort in clothing related
to the affective discrepancy for boys and to the temporal
discrepancy for girls, the correlations were not in the
predicted direction. Therefore, the hypothesis was not
confirmed.

No literature was found relating feelings about
the body to aspects of clothing. Therefore, all hypotheses
were formulated from observation and logical deduction.
Those subjects who were less pleased with their bodies
might have used their physical appearance as a means of
self expression or concern with the aesthetic by the
clothes they wore. From this reasoning the following
hypothesis was written.

Hypothesis 81. Both stability of self concept and over-

all feeling about the body will be positively related to
concern with the aesthetic aspect of clothing.

 

Concern for the aesthetic in clothing did not

100

relate significantly to the overall feeling about the body
or the temporal discrepancy for either males or females
and did not relate in the predicted direction to the affec-
tive discrepancy. Therefore, the hypothesis was not con-
firmed. 5

Those subjects who were less pleased with their
bodies might emphasize certain aspects of clothing as a
camouflage or as a means of attracting favorable attention.
Thus, the following hypotheses were formulated.
Hypothesis 82a. Both stability of self concept and the
overall feeling about the body will be negatively related
to general interest in clothing.

Overall feeling about the body did not relate to
general interest in clothing. Interest in clothing did,
however, relate for girls to the affective discrepancy score
in the expected direction. The hypothesis, therefore, was
partiallyconfirmed.
Hypothesis 82b. Both stability of self concept and over-

all feeling about the body will be negatively related to
the use of clothing to gain social approval.

 

Since the use of clothing to gain social approval
did not relate significantly for males or females to either
of the scores for stability of self concept or to the over-
all feeling about the body, the hypothesis was not confirmed.
Hypothesis B2c. Both stability of self concept and over-
all feeling about the body will be negatively related to

the use of clothing to gain special attention.

The use of clothing to gain special attention did

101

not relate to either score for stability of self concept
and related in the unpredicted direction to the overall
feeling about the body for females. Thus, the hypothesis
was not confirmed.

In some cases an aspect of clothing did not seem
likely to relate to feelings about the body in the same
manner it might relate to stability of self concept. Con-
cern with the management of clothing, which was predicted
to relate inversely to stability, seemed unlikely to relate
to feeling pleased or displeased with the body, primarily
because it was neither a highly visible nor a physical as-
pect of clothing. Comfort, on the other hand, was a phys-
ical aspect of clothing, and it was predicted that those
subjects who were pleased with their bodies would feel less
pressured to endure physical discomfort to achieve a cul-
tural standard of beauty. In this way the subjects who
were more pleased with their bodies might be freer to seek
comfortable clothing. The last hypothesis, dealing with
the modesty aspect of clothing, was based upon the idea
that those individuals who were less pleased with their
bodies might tend to use clothing to hide themselves.
Hypothesis B3. Stability of self concept will relate neg-
atively to concern with the management of clothing while

overall feeling about the body will not relate to the man-
agement aspect.

 

While concern with the management of clothing did

not relate significantly to overall feeling about the body

102

or to the temporal discrepancy score for stability of self
concept, it did relate to the affective discrepancy for
both males and females. Thus, the hypothesis was partially
confirmed.
Hypothesis B4. Stability of self concept will be positively
related to concern with comfort in clothing, but overall
feeling about the body will relate negatively to the com-
fort aspect.

Since concern with comfort in clothing did not re-
late in the predicted direction to either score for stabil-
ity of self concept and did not relate significantly to

overall feeling about the body, the hypothesis was not con-

firmed.

u,‘

Hypothesis B5. Stability of self concept will not be re-
lated to concern with modesty in clothing, but overall
feeling about the body will relate negatively to the mod-
esty aspect.

 

Emphasis on modesty in clothing did not relate to
either of the scores for stability of the self concept,
as predicted, and related negatively to the overall feel-
ing about the body. Thus, the hypothesis was confirmed.

Partial correlations indicated that the interven-
ing variables, grade in school and social class status of
the subject, did not affect the relationship between the
aspects of clothing and stability of self concept.

The partial correlations for affective discrepancy
showed that the aspects of clothing which correlated with

self concept, including the aesthetic, comfort, interest,

103

and management aspects, related more closely to level of
self concept than to stability. Brownfain has suggested
that the affective discrepancy may be a compensatory func-
tion of the level of self concept,1 and this statement seems.
to be supported by the highly significant relationship be-
tween level of self concept and the affective discrepancy
in the present study. Moreover, with temporal discrepancy,
which is purported to be a more sensitive measure than the
affective discrepancy,2 the same four aspects of clothing.
related to level of self concept as before, but only com-
fort for females related to the temporal discrepancy. If
these hypotheses regarding the stability of self concept
are correct, then the true relationship between self con-
cept and clothing is actually the relationship between
level of self concept and clothing.

An alternate interpretation of the findings may
be explained by the difference between coping and expres-
sive behavior. Those subjects with unstable self concepts
may have used clothing as a means of coping with the social
situation while the subjects with a high level of self con-
cept used clothing as a means of expression. All aspects
of clothing correlated with all other aspects for the boys.

For the girls, all correlated except social approval with

 

lBrownfain, p. 605.

2Katz, p. 40.

104

comfort, management, and special attention, and special
attention with comfort. Thus, particularly for the boys
in this sample, the instrument seemed to measure general

interest in clothing.

Recommendations

1. The present investigation built upon theories
of social interaction, the importance clothing plays as
a symbol in this interaction,and the influence of this
interaction on the self concept. The relationship between
uses of clothing and self concept may be greatly influ-
enced by the symbolic meaning of clothing and may vary
with the background of the individual. Studies involving
subjects of an age group or groups other than adolescents
could be carried out. Perhaps older subjects might tend
to differentiate more between various uses of clothing.

Other characteristics besides age may have a marked
effect upon the relationship between self concept and cloth-
ing. Members of certain ethnic groups or the different
social classes may have different meanings and values for
clothing. Thus, studies might be carried out using sub-
jects from specific ethnic groups or social classes.

5 2. Additional work on the clothing measure is
needed, particularly to make it more applicable to boys.
Other aspects or uses of clothing may exist which were not
included in the present measure, and some of the existing

categories may overlap unnecessarily.

105

3. Another study dealing with the relationship
between the self concept and uses of clothing might inves-
tigate the relationship between specific items of the Self
Rating Inventory and their relationship to the uses of
clothing.

4. Studies relating overall feeling about the
body and clothing might be carried out on subjects in a
wide variety of age groups. Moreover, more extensive treat-
ment of overall feeling about the body using both the in-
tensity of feelings and direction of those feelings would
give a more complete picture of the relationship. In ad-
dition, analysis of the relationship of clothing to the

various items of the body measure might be interesting.

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APPENDIX

112

SELF RATING INVENTORY

Every person has a picture of himself or a way he sees him-

self.
possess to a greater or lesser degree.

This inventory consists of 20 traits which all people

These traits are

used by persons in order to paint this picture of themselves.

Only the extremes of each trait are described.

end, "1," describes in approximate terms the students who

The low

stand lowest on a particular trait, while the high end,

"10," describes the
To simplify matters

refer to both girls and boys.
LOW END (1) -versus-
1. INTELLIGENCE

Is among the least bright
of his classmates. Is not
especially quick or alert
in grasping complicated
ideas and tasks.

MATURITY

In many ways is "childish"
and seems younger than
actual age. Simply is not
"grown-up." Is among the
least mature in the group.

AT EASE SOCIALLY

Tends to be awkward and
clumsy in social situations;
seems embarrassed or shy

in mixing with classmates
and adults.

PHYSICAL ATTRACTIVENESS
Is among those in the class
who are physically most
homely or plain-looking.

GENEROSITY

Tends to be selfish with
money and possessions; not
helpful to others; self-
centered and thinks of
self first.

people who stand highest on the trait.
the masculine pronoun (he) is used to

HIGH END (10)

Is among the most bril-
liant of his class. Is
alert, quick, and imagine-
tive in understanding com-
plicated ideas and tasks.

Acts his age and is not

at all childish. Is among
the most grown-up and
mature in his class.

Acts skillfully and smoothly
in social situations; is
confident and at ease in
meeting and mixing with
classmates and adults.

Is among the physically
most attractive in the
class. Could be consid-
ered quite handsome or,
if a girl, beautiful.

Gives generously of pos-
sessions and money; wants
to help other people; usu-
ally thinks first of the
welfare of others.

10.

11.

12.

113

LOW END (1)

CHEERFULNESS

Tends to be gloomy and
"sour" about life; is
something of a "wet-
blanket" in social groups.

SINCERITY

Is insincere: you can't
tell whether or not he is
kidding or means what he
says or does.

INITIATIVE

Is dependent upon others;
has trouble making up his
mind; seems to need reas-
surance and support from
others.

TRUSTFULNESS

Is suspicious of others and
looks for hidden reasons;
might feel mistreated or
disliked without good
reason.

ADAPTABLE

Is among the most stubborn
in the class. Sticks to
own ideas and ways of doing
things even though they may
not be suitable to the sit-
uation.

SPORTSMANSHIP

Can't take a joke; tends to
hold a grudge; is a poor
loser and a boastful winner.

INDIVIDUALITY

Conforms very closely to
what the class expects;
quite conservative and
cautious, and afraid to
be different.

is

-ver 51.1 S '-

HIGH END (10)

Is very cheerful and op-
timistic about things;
tends to spread good will
in a group.

Is sincere in what he says
and does: you can always
tell whether he is being
earnest or is kidding.

Is self-reliant; makes up
own mind without difficulty;
does not lean on others in
situations where he could
act by himself.

Trusts other people with-
out being fooled by them;
gives people the benefit
of the doubt without look-
ing for hidden motives.

Is among the most readily
adjustable to changing
conditions; accepts com-
promises and suggestions
where needed.

Can take a joke and give
one; takes victory and
defeat in stride.

Expresses feelings and
opinions easily and free-
ly; is not a rebel or a
radical but is not afraid
to be different.

13.

14.

15.

16.

17.

18.

19.

114

LOW END (1)

SELF-UNDERSTANDING

Does not understand or
recognize his weak and
strong points. Is uncer-
tain of own abilities and
not aware of personality
handicaps.

INTEREST IN OPPOSITE SEX
Talks very little about
opposite sex. Does not
use opportunities for con—
tact and may avoid associ-
ation with opposite sex.

DEPENDABILITY

Is among the least reliable
in a number of ways. Might
fail to keep promises, ap-
pointments, or to return
borrowed things. Lacks a
sense of responsibility to
others.

UNDERSTANDING OF OTHERS
Tends to be indifferent and
blind to the needs and feel-
ings of others; doesn't
understand what makes other
people "tick."

ACCEPTING ONESELF

Is very dissatisfied to be
the kind of person he is;
wants very much to be a
different kind of person;
doesn't accept self.

POPULARITY

Has very few close friends
and few acquaintances, tends
to be disliked by others.

PERSISTENCE

Does not "stick" to his work;

delays or treats lightly his

assignments and undertakings.

-ver 511 5-

HIGH END (10)

Understands own weak and
strong points especially
well. Is well aware of
his shortcomings and
personality handicaps.

Associates a great deal
and talks a lot about the
opposite sex. Well aware
of the opposite sex and
enjoys being with them.

Is among the most depend-
able; can be relied upon
to meet promises and to
fulfill responsibilities
to others.

Is very aware of the needs
and feelings of other
people and shows good
understanding of their
personality.

Is generally pleased (but
not conceited) about being
the person he is; accepts
himself; feels no need

to be like a different
person.

Has many friends and ac-
quaintances; is among the
best liked in the class.

Works consistently, at-
tentively and industrious-
ly at any task undertaken
or assigned, without
slighting or postponing
the task.

115

LOW END (1) -versus- HIGH END (10)
20. SELF-CONTROL
Loses temper easily; Has very good control of
becomes upset when angered temper and emotions; calm-
or cannot get his way. 1y attempts to find solu-

tions to frustrating events.

116

Rating Sheet No. 1.

Most people are not entirely certain as to exactly
where they stand on these traits as compared to other people.
We want to know HOW YOU SEE YOURSELF, but with this differ-
ence. Rate yourself taking a favorable view of yourself.
Give yourself the benefit of any reasonable doubt you might
have on any trait and rate yourself in the HIGHEST THAT YOU
REALISTICALLY THINK YOU ARE on that trait. Remember, be
realistic in your favorable self-rating. Do not, without
careful consideration, give yourself a high rating on every
trait. NOTE: On some traits, you may see yourself as higher
than any member in the class. In this case, you may use
an ”11" to rate your standing on that trait instead of a "10."

SELF-RATING INVENTORY RATING SCALE

1. INTELLIGENCE

 

10 In the pr 10% of your High

2. MATURITY School Grade

3. AT EASE SOCIALLY

 

 

 

 

 

 

:::::4. PHYSICAL ATTRACTIVE— 9 In the Second 10% from the top
NESS 8 In the Third 10% from the top

____,5. GENEROSITY

.—___ 6. CHEERFULNESS 7 In the Fourth 10% from the top

‘____ 7. SINCERITY 6 In the 10% just above the

_____8. INITIATIVE middle

____ 9. TRUSTFULNESS 5 In the 10% just below the

____10. ADAPTABLE middle

____11. SPORTSMANSHIP 4 In the Fourth 10% from the
bottom

12. INDIVIDUALITY
13. SELF-UNDERSTANDING 3 In the Third 10% from the
14. INTEREST IN OPPOSITE b°tt°m '

 

 

 

SEX 2 In the Second 10% from the
15. DEPENDABILITY bottom
16. UNDERSTANDING OF
-—-—— OTHERS 1 In the Bottom 10% of your

High School Grade

 

 

l7. ACCEPTING ONESELF
l8. POPULARITY

19. PERSISTENCE

20. SELF-CONTROL

117

Rating Sheet No. 2.

This time, when you are uncertain as to exactly
where you stand on each trait as compared to other people
in the group, rate yourself taking an unfavorable view of
yourself. Do not give yourself the benefit of any reason-
able doubt you might have on any trait. But remember to
be realistic. Do not, without careful cOnsideration, give
yourself a low rating on every item.

NOTE: On some items, you may see yourself as lower than
any member in the group. In this case, you may use a zero
(0) to rate your standing on that item instead of a ”l."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

SELF-RATING INVENTORY RATING SCALE
-——-— 1‘ INTELLIGENCE 10 In the Top 10% of your High
2. MATURITY School Grade
-—-—-3° AT EASE SOCIALLY 9 In the Second 10% from the top
4. PHYSICAL ATTRACTIVE-
NESS 8 In the Third 10% from the top
-———- 5' GENEROSITY 7 In the Fourth 10% from the top
6. CHEERFULNESS
6 In the 10% just above the
7. SINCERITY middle
8. INITIATIVE
5 In the 10% just below the
9. TRUSTFULNESS middle
10. ADAPTABLE
4 In the Fourth 10% from the
____}1. SPORTSMANSHIP bottom
12. INDIVIDUALITY
3 In the Third 10% from the
13. SELF-UNDERSTANDING bottom
14. INTEREST IN OPPOSITE
SEX 2 In the Second 10% from the
15. DEPENDABILITY b°tt°m
16. UNDERSTANDING OF 1 In the Bottom 10% of your
OTHERS High School Grade

 

 

17. ACCEPTING ONESELF
l8. POPULARITY

19. PERSISTENCE

20. SELF-CONTROL

 

PLEASE DO NOT REFER BACK TO PREVIOUS RATINGS FOR GUIDANCE.

119

EXPLANATION OF CLOTHING MEASURE

The clothing questionnaire completed by the sub-
jects consisted of preliminary instructions and the eighty—
nine statements. Additional information about the final
pre-test and scoring of the questionnaire are included in
this appendix. Moreover, the statements of the question—
naire have been divided into the clothing aspects that they
measure, but this information did not appear on the form

given to the subjects.

Key for Pre-test and
Scoring Information

 

l. ' Negative statement for which the scoring was reversed.
2. *‘ Wording changed slightly after third pre-test.
3. # New or drastically changed statement.

4. Index of Discrimination determined by Likert Scaling
Technique for Pre-test III (69 subjects).

120

IMPORTANCE OF CLOTHING y.%§

Read the following statements and rate each according to
the scale given below. Place the number corresponding to
your choice in front of each statement. The statements
generally refer to a school situation.

Scale: 5.

Not analyzed

O92‘

.74

.43

1.00

.70'

.78

.78
1.35“l

.21‘

4.
3.
2.
1.

Almost Always--very few exceptions
Usually--majority of the time
Sometimes

Seldom--not very often

Almost Never--very few exceptions

 

1. The way I look in my clothes is impor-
tant to me.

Aesthetic

2. When I am shopping I choose clothes
that I like even if they do not look
best on me.

3. It bothers me when my shirt tail keeps
coming out.

4. I consider the fabric texture with
the line of the garment when choosing
my clothes.

5. I use clothing as a means of disguis-
ing physical problems and imperfections
through skillful use of color, line,
and texture. .

6. I wear clothes which have buttons or
snaps missing.

7. I pay a lot of attention to pleasing
color combinations.

8. I keep my shoes clean and neat.

9. I carefully coordinate the accessories
that I wear with each outfit.

10. I wear the clothing fads that are pop-

ular in our school even though they
may not be as becoming to me.

121

 

5.Almost Always 4.Usually 3.Sometimes 2:S€ldom 1.Almost Never

1.05

Theoretical
1.13

.56

.47

.92

Theoretical
1.39

11. I spend more time than others coordinat-
ing the colors in my clothes.

12. I try to figure out why some people's
clothes look better on them than others.

Modesty

l3. Unlined sheer dresses or blouses reveal
too much of the body.

14. I select clothes that are conservative
in style.

15. I feel uncomfortable when someone has
forgotten to close their zipper.

16. The first time in the season that I
go to a public beach or pool I feel
exposed in my bathing suit.

17. I choose clothing with small prints,
even though a larger design looks
equally well on me.

18. I feel embarrassed when I see someone
in too low cut a dress.

19. I select clothes which do not call
attention to myself in any way.

20. I feel embarrassed when I see someone
in clothes that are too tight.

21. I like dark or muted colors rather
than bright ones for my clothes.

22. I hesitate to associate with those
whose clothes seem to reveal too much
of their body.

23. I wonder why some people wear clothes

that are immodest.

i

122

5.Almost Always 4.Usua11y 3.Sometimes 2.Seldom 1.Almost Never

1.02

1.87"

1.69“

2.35“

1.57

1.44“

Not pretested

.92

Interest

24.
25.

26.

27.

28.

29.

30...

31.

32.

33.

34.

35.

My friends and I try each other's
clothes to see how we look in them.

I enjoy trying shoes of different
styles or colors.

I study collections of accessories
in the stores to see what I might com-
bine attractively.

I try on some of the newest clothes
each season to see how I look in the
styles.

I read magazines and newspapers to
find out what is new in clothing.

It's fun to try on different garments
and accessories to see how they look
together.

I experiment with new or different
"hair do's" to see how I will look.

I like to know what is new in clothing
even if none of my friends care and

I probably would not want to wear it
anyway.

I try on clothes in shops just to see
how I will look in them without really
planning to buy.

When I buy a new garment I try many
different accessories before I wear
it.

I am curious about why people wear
the clothes they do.

Comfort

The way my clothes feel to my body
is important to me.

123

 

5.Almost Alway§_4.Usually 3.Sometimes 2.Seldom l.Almost Never

.93"

.49

1.74“

.69

.43

.68

1.39

Theoretical
1.12

36.

37.

38.

39.

40.

41.

42.

43.

44.

45.

There are certain textures in fabrics
that I like and especially try to buy,
for example, soft, fuzzy, sturdy, smooth.

I am more sensitive to temperature
changes than others and I have diffi-
culty being comfortable in my clothes
as a result.

I wear my pants or slacks with an easy
fit even when tight ones are fashion-
able.

I get rid of garments I like because
they are not comfortable.

I find it difficult to buy clothes
suitable to the temperature.

I would buy a very comfortable bathing
suit even if it were not the current
style.

I avoid garments that bind the upper
arm.

I am irritable if my clothes are un-
comfortable.

I am extremely sensitive to the tex-
ture of the fabrics in my clothing.

I wonder what makes some clothes more
comfortable than others.

Special Attention

46.

47.

48.

When new fashions appear on the mar-
ket, I am one of the first to own them.

I have clothes that I don't wear be-
cause everyone else has them.

I like to be considered an outstand-
ing dresser by my friends.

124

 

51Almost Always 4.Usua11y 3.Sometimes 2.Seldom l.Almost Never

1.46

1.68

Not pretested

1.09

.95

Theoretical
.70

.75"I

1.57“

.52‘

.24

.67

49.

50.

51.

52.

53.

54.

55.

56.

I try to keep my wardrobe in line with
the latest styles.

I go to nearby cities to shop for better
fashions.

I try to buy clothes which are very
unusual.

I avoid wearing certain clothes because
they do not make me feel distinctive.

I enjoy wearing very different cloth-
ing even though I attract attention.
(Two good questions combined.)

I try to buy clothes with the best
labels.

I wear different clothes to impress
people.

I am interested in why some people
choose to wear such unusual clothes.

Management

57.

58.

59.

60.

61.

62.

I plan for and prepare clothes to wear
several days in advance.

I see that my out-of-season clothing
is cleaned and stored.

I look over the clothing in my ward-
robe before each season so that I know
what I have.

I am enticed into buying garments I
like without having anything to go
with them.

I enjoy trying to get the most for
my money in clothing purchases.

I wear a raincoat or carry an umbrella
to protect my clothes in rainy weather.

125

 

ETAlmost Always 4.Usually 3.§ometimes 2.Seldom 1.Almost Never

.37“

1.31“
1.39"
1.28”

Theoretical
.46

1.42"

1.60

1.65

1.38“

63.

64.

65.

66.

67.

I have something to wear for any occa-
sion that occurs.

I have a long-term idea for purchas—
ing more expensive items of clothing
such as coats or suits.

I carefully plan every purchase so
that I know what I need when I get
to a store.

I am more concerned about the care of
my clothing than my friends are about
theirs.

I try to find out how I can save as
much time, energy, and money as pos—
sible with my clothes.

Social Approval

68.

69.

70.

71.

72.

73.

74.

I check my friends about what they
are wearing to a gathering before I
decide what to wear.

I would rather miss something than
wear clothes which are not really
appropriate.

I feel more a part of the group if I
am dressed like my friends.

I wear clothes that everyone is wear—
ing even though they may not look as
good on me.

I am uncomfortable when my clothes
are different from all others at a
party.

I try to dress like others in my group
so that people will know we are friends.

I get new clothes for a special occa—
sion if the clothes I have are not
the type my friends will be wearing.

126

 

5.Almost Always 4.Usually 3.Sometimes 2.Seldom l.Almost Never

.53

.71‘

1.35

Theoretical

Not

Not

Not

Not

Not

Not

Not

Not

Not

Not

.29

pretested

pretested

pretested

pretested

pretested

pretested

pretested

pretested

pretested

pretested

Theoretical

75.

76.

77.

78.

I have gone places and then wished
after I got there that I had not gone
because my clothes were not suitable.

I wear what I like even though some
of my friends do not approve.

When I buy a new article of clothing
I try to buy something similar to what
my friends are wearing.

When someone comes to school dressed
unsuitable, I try to figure out why
he is dressed as he is.

Psychologicalggependence

79.

80.

81.

82.

83.

84.

85.

86.

87.

88.

89.

Certain clothes make me feel more sure
of myself.

I decide on the clothes to wear accord-
ing to the mood I'm in that day.

Days when I feel low I wear my gayest
clothes.

I "dress-up" to make an ordinary occa-
sion seem more exciting.

I am aware of being more friendly and
outgoing when I wear particular clothes.

I feel and act differently according
to whether I am wearing my best school
clothes or not.

I buy clothing to boost my morale.

I get bored with wearing the same kind
of clothes all the time.

I have more self—confidence when I
wear my best school clothes.

When things are not going well I like
to wear brighter colors.

I wonder why some clothes make me feel
better than others.

1.

2.

127

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

Age (at last birthday)

Grade Sex

How many living brothers and sisters do you have?
(Circle the correct number on each line, the 0 if none.)

Brothers 0 l 2 3 4 More

Sisters 0 l 2 3 4 More

Who is the main wage earner where you live?

father
stepfather
mother

other (specify)

 

For example: "my uncle,"
"guardian"

Draw a circle around the one number representing the
highest grade the main wage earner completed in school.
Note: the main wage earner is the person checked in

question number 3.
Grade School
High School
College or University

Graduate School

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
9 10 11 12
l 2 3 4

1

or more years

If the main wage earner is a college graduate, what

is the highest degree he holds?

What kind of work does the main wage earner do? Please
describe his or her work as specifically as you can;
we need to know the type of work done but not the name
of the company or business. FOR EXAMPLE: sawyer in

a lumber mill, teacher in
gineer in chemical plant,

a high school, chemical en-
salesman for a book company,

waitress, operates farm of 160 acres, retired college

professor, unemployed.

 

 

10.

11.

128

Which of the following statements best describes the
working situation of the person you named main wage
earner. (Check the one which applies to your situa-

tion.)

works for someone; does not manage the business

(or farm)

works for someone; does manage the business or a
main part or section of it

owns a business (or farm) but hires someone else
to manage it

owns and manages his or her own business (or farm)

retired

Please estimate the yearly income which the main wage

earner receives.

less than $5999 $10,000-24,999
56000-9999 over $25,000

Does any other person or source contribute to the
financial support of your family? Yes No

If yes, explain who (mother, brother, social security,
pension, etc.).

 

What is the type of work done by this person?

 

Please estimate the income which this person or source
contributes?

less than $5999 $10,000—24,999
56000-9999 over $25,000

129

Body Characteristics

Please place the number which best corresponds to your
feelings (as indicated in the scale) in front of each

characteristic listed below.

(1) Think that others would like to be just like me
(2) Consider myself rather fortunate

(3) Am satisfied

(4) Have no particular feelings one way or the other

(5) Don't like, but can put up with

(6) Have strong feelings about, and would change if
I could (or am changing)

(7) Find it unbearable,

to change
EXAMPLE : _3_ Height
Hair
____;Face shape
__Complexion
____Byes

Ears

 

Nose
____Teeth
____Lips
____Beight
____Weight
____Posture

Muscular co-ordination

and would do almost anything

Muscular development

Bust or chest

Waist

Hips

Legs
Hands

Feet

Speaking voice
Body hair
Birthmarks, moles, etc.

Other (Please specify)

 

MICHIGAN STQTE UNIV. LIBRRRIES

lllll
5

31293100

5955

 

Ill
1