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LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses
Graduate School
1971
The Perception and Expression of Metaphor as a
Function of Intellectual Level and Cognitive Style.
Joel Washington Chapman
Louisiana State University and Agricultural & Mechanical College
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Chapman, Joel Washington, "The Perception and Expression of Metaphor as a Function of Intellectual Level and Cognitive Style."
(1971). LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses. 2102.
http://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_disstheses/2102
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I
I
72-1+394
CHAPMAN, Joel Washington, 1944THE PERCEPTION AND EXPRESSION OF METAPHOR AS A
FUNCTION OF INTELLECTUAL LEVEL AND COGNITIVE
STYLE.
Georgia State University - School of Arts
and Sciences, Ph.D., 1971
Psychology, clinical
University Microfilms, A XEROX Company, Ann Arbor, Michigan
THE PERCEPTION AND EXPRESSION OF M E T A P H O R AS A FUNCTION
OF INT ELLECTUAL LEVEL AND C O G N I T I V E STYLE
A DISSERTATION
Presented in Par ti al Fulfillment of R e q u ir em ents for the
Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Division of
Graduate Studies, School of Arts and Sciences,
Georgia State U n i v e r s i t y
1971
By
Joel Washington
Cha pman
Committee
In p r e s e n t i n g this thesis as a p a r t i a l fulfillment of the
requireme nts for an advanced degree from Geo rg ia State Uni­
versity, I agree that the Li br ar y of the University shall
make it available for inspe cti on and ci rcu lat ion in a c c o r ­
dance with its regulations g o v e r n i n g ma ter ials of this type.
I agree that permission to quote from, to copy from, or to
publish this thesis may be g r a n t e d by the autho r or, in his
absence, by the Dean of the G r a d u a t e Division.
Such quoting,
copying, or publicati on must be s o l e l y for scholar ly p u r ­
poses and does not involve p o t e n t i a l financial gain.
It is
under st oo d that any copying from o r pu bl ic a t i o n of this the­
sis which involves pot ential f inan ci al gain will not be al­
lowed w i th ou t written p e r m i s s i o n of the author.
Signature of /yuthor
PLEASE NOTE:
Some Pages have indistinct
print.
Filmed as received.
UNIVERSITY MICROFILMS
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The w r i t e r wishes
to thank Dr. Ray C r add ic k
c o n s t a n t support of the res ea rc h and his v a l u a b l e
cisms of the paper.
Dr.
Joen
criti­
Apprecia tio n is also e x p r e s s e d toward
Fagan and Dr.
B er nhar d Kempler for t h e i r aid in
c o n s t r u c t i n g the study's desi gn and toward Mr.
Mr.
for his
Mike
Jordan,
Finn Bille, and Miss Joan Barnes for t h e i r assista nc e
in o b t a i n i n g inter-judge reliabilities.
iii
TABLE OF CONTEN TS
Ch apt er
I,
INTRODUCTION
Page
............................................
1
II.
M E T H O D ..................................................
30
III.
R E S U L T S ................................................
45
D I S C U S S I O N .................
60
S U M M A R Y ................................................
64
R E F E R E N C E S ....................................................
67
A P P E N D I X E S ....................................................
73
IV.
V.
iv
LIST OF TABLES
Table
Page
1.
Median Ratings o f MPS Items
2.
Mean Age, Range and Dis tribution of Sexes
.....................
in Each Group . . . . . . . . .
42
Mean Es ti mate d WA I S Verbal IQ Scores for
Low and High Gro up s and Cognitive
Styles I and I I I ......................................
43
4.
Mean Scores on the MPS
............
46
5.
Summary of A n a l y s i s of Variance of the
MPS Scores (C og ni t i v e Style X IQ) . . . . . . . . .
47
Pearson C o e f f i c i e n t s of Co rrelation Between
IQ and MPS S c o r e s .......................
48
Mean MPS Score for Each Peak Experience
R a t i n g ...............................................
50
Frequencies of Ratings on Essays for Each
Cognitive Leve l Group ................. . . . . . . .
51
Correlation Ratio s (Nyx) Between S s 1 MPS
and Peak E x p e r i e n c e Essay Scores
52
3.
6.
7.
8.
9.
. . . . . .
. . . . . .
10.
Median Ratings
11.
Means and S t a n d a r d Deviations of Shipley
Vocabulary, A n a l o g y and Total Raw Scores
for Each G r o u p ...................
56
Pearson Co ef f i c i e n t s of Co rre lat ion Between
MPS Scores and Shipley Voc abulary, Anal ogy
and Total Raw Scores for Each G r o u p ................
57
12.
on Peak Expe rie nce Essays
..........
34
54
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
The pre se nt study is an initial step in the
search for
c l e a r e r un de rstan di ng of m e t a p h o r format io n- -i ts
und er ly in g
p s y c h o l o g i c a l processes.
The creation of m e t a p h o r is c o nc ep ­
t u a l i z e d as a cognitive activity which b o t h
fil te rs p erc eptual
and c o n c e p t u a l stimuli and creates, thro ug h
the m e d i u m of
langua ge ,
a different interpretation of one's
cogn it iv e world.
It is h y p o t h e s i z e d that perception and e x p r e s s i o n of m e t a p h o r
relate
to certain
types of cognitive fun ct ioni ng .
It is a singula rly human activity to pu t t h o u g h t into
words.
by
We communicate not only by signs and g e sture s but also
a h i g h l y complicated symbolic system w h i c h
periences
ti o n a l ,
into li nguistic
since
necessary
forms.
Language is h i g h l y con ve n­
convention al usage of m e a n i n g s
for the communication of p r a g m a t i c
the ot h e r hand,
transfo rms e x ­
an d syn tax is
information.
language has its u n c o n v e n t i o n a l side
On
as well--
its g r o w i n g edge.
Gendlin
(1962) states that while
lan guag e
is logical,
human exp e r i e n c i n g is not
always equally logical.
He speaks
o f human thought as being
"supralogical
Whereas
conventional
(p.
29)."
language tends to dichotomize e x p e r i e n c e
g o o d vs. bad or right vs.
(e.g.,
wrong), p h e n o m e n a l e x p e r i e n c i n g
m i g h t best be translated into language as " r i g h t but not
w r o n g " or "good and bad."
In other word s,
it does appear
2
that
linguistic forms can less en
the impact of unique exp er i­
encing, making language a l i m i t a t i o n of the sensitive
and
aware individual.
But there are also i n d i v i d u a l s who seem capable of ta i­
loring language to fit their n e e d s rat he r than b ec om in g en­
ca psul at ed by words and s e n t e n c e s wh i c h are pr ef ab ricat ed and
only l o os el y express p e rs on al meaning.
person may say,
"I am most h a p p y
Why is it that one
and content right now,"
while a n o t h e r might express
a similar
feeling by exclaiming,
"I ov er flow with a sensuous
joy in living"?
Both individuals
have pu t words to per sonal e x p e r i e n c e but in quite different
styles.
The latter i nd ividu al ha s e xp re ss ed h i mse lf m e t a ­
phoric al ly ,
and, in so doing, ha s
kind of meaning.
co mmunicate d a different
It would s e e m there fo re ,
guistic and phenomenal h o ri zo n
that o n e ’s lin­
is b r o a d e n e d or na r r o w e d by
his abi lity to capture his s u p r a - l o g i c a l exp er ien ce s
in a
p e r s o n a l i z e d and yet hi gh l y c o m m u n i c a t i v e
The m e t ­
language.
aphor is one way of f a c i l i t a t i n g this per sonal iz ed language.
The present study wil l e x a m i n e m et ap hori c percep tio n and
expression
as a process by w h i c h man attempts to know and
unders t a n d his world.
pressed in language
B r oa dly
con cei ved,
all thought ex­
is m e t a p h o r i c in that certain perceptions
and cognitions are selected in lieu o f others.
pret experience
and present
People inter­
l i n g u i s t i c a l l y a filteri ng and
construi ng of what they c o n s i d e r to be salient information.
One mu st attend to and i n t e r p r e t
experi ences se lec tiv ely as
3
it is m a n i f e s t l y i mp os sibl e to report all degrees
and v a r i e ­
ties of s t i m u l a t i o n — both sensory and cortical.
Co n s i de ri ng m e t a p h o r not only as a p o e t ’s tool bu t also
as part of the proc ess of language and thought, it makes
sense to ask wha t p s y c h o l o g i c a l functions facilitate or i n h i b ­
it m eta ph or ic s e l f - e x p r e s s i o n and perception.
ence
is always
Since e x p e r i ­
i n t e r pr et ed to one degree or ano th er,
what determin es
then
if the rep re s e n t a t i o n is stated m e t a p h o r i c a l ­
ly or not?
Review of the
The very
Li ter atu re
fact that so man y people from vari ous d i s c i ­
plines have show n
that metaphor
an interest in m e ta ph or is an i n d i c a t i o n
is an in tr i g u i n g phe nomenon, but the d e f i n i ­
tion of m e t a p h o r rem ai ns
unclear.
Attempts to d e f i n e m e t a ­
phor have p r i m a r i l y come from the areas of p h i l o s o p h y ,
lin­
guistics, and cl i n i c a l psychology.
From the g r a m m a r i a n ' s view po in t
of E n g l i s h , 1960),
(The MacMil lan Ha n d b o o k
a m e t a p h o r is "a device for t a l k i n g about
one thing as if it were som ething else
likeness, whi le
. . . .
To su ggest
a
at the same time defining the limit o f that
likeness, is the del icate pro cess of making a m e t a p h o r
(p.
366)."
It is sug ge st ed that all figurative
be referr ed to as metaphor.
Turbayne
l an gu ag e can
In the field of li te ra ture ,
(1962) states that the m e t a p h o r combines two c a t e ­
gories of m e a n i n g and thus creates a ne w perspe cti ve.
He
4
concludes that metaphor is a p s y c h o l o g i c a l
(1966)
defines me taphor r a ther br o a d l y .
creation.
Emb ler
Met a p h o r is a v e h i ­
cle with which one organizes an d sorts his perceptions,
it is thr ou gh met aphor that l a n g u a g e
and
is adapted to a c h a n g ­
ing world.
Unlike
the
grammarian or s t u d e n t of literature,
linguists do not technically r e c o g n i z e
the te rm "metaphor."
They pref e r to speak of n o n - l i t e r a l lang ua ge created by s e ­
ma nt ic anomaly.
ment.
To say "man
is a hum an"
To say "man is a bear"
man a bear involves
is n o n - l i t e r a l since calling
crossing c o n c e p t u a l categories.
truth, man is not a member of the be a r
anomalies bec om e
figures of s p e e c h
ferential Technique
literal phrase;
lous);
is a literal s t a t e ­
demonstrates.
family.
as Osgood's
ceived as nonsense
Not all
Se mantic D i f ­
Thus, a "hot day" is a
a "hot issue" is m e t a p h o r i c a l
and the phrase "hot flux"
In
is more
(and a n o m a ­
likely to be p e r ­
(also anomal ous) .
On the oth er hand, a n u m b e r of ph il o s o p h e r s
see m e t a ­
p h o r as a rea l process and have e x a m i n e d its role in the
c om mun ic ati on of meaning.
For exam pl e
Black
(1962) speaks
of the m e t a p h o r as the i n t e r a c t i o n of two ideas, each in­
fl ue nci ng the other.
"It is two syst em s
ble nd ed with a metaphor acting
as a fil te r- - e m p h a s i z i n g
certain rel atio n aspects thr ough
cognitions
(p.
39)."
Thus,
of ideas which are
the e xc lusio n of other
in the m e t a p h o r "man is a bear,"
certain likenesses between men
and bears
are emphasized:
5
roan can be brutish, d a n g e r o u s , viciou s and instinct driven.
The metaphor, however,
of men,
does not imply chara cte ristics untrue
such as seeing m a n
ing a lo ng snout.
as furry, having claws, or as h a v ­
Such d i f f e r e n t i a l p e r c e p t u a l ability is
an in teres ti ng human cap ac it y.
beca us e
some
the met ap ho r a c t s
Black says it is possible
as a filte r or screen through which
comparisons pass a n d others
do not.
Cassirer (1970) e x c e e d s Black in scope w h e n he states
that
"language is, by its
phorical.
very n a ture and ess ence , m e t a ­
Unable to d e s c r i b e
things
to indirec t modes of d e s c r i p t i o n ,
v o c a l terms (p. 120)."
also the creation o f
s u r p a s s i n g the limits o f
to ambiguo us
W o r d s are on ly shadows
exper i e n c e they r e p r e s e n t .
but
directly,
Not only
it resorts
and e q u i ­
of the actual
are all words metaphors,
fresh m eta phors
is one meth od for
cat eg or ies of t h ou ght
and their
lingui s t i c repr ese ntation.
Royce (1970), b u i l d i n g on Cassirer*s
of "knowing"
into three e p i s t e m i c categories:
empiri ci sm , and m e t a p h o r i s m .
trends
views, divides ways
Re sp ectiv el y the se three
in ps yc hol ogical s t u d i e s
p e r c e i v i n g and sy mb oliz in g.
rationalism,
are r e p r e s e n t e d as thinking,
Royce sees me ta p h o r i c int er­
p r e t a t i o n of events as a c o n c e p t u a l i z i n g pr o c e s s separate
from r a ti on al and e m p i r i c a l mode s of communication.
Among ps yc ho logi st s
of var yin g d is ci pl ines, there has
been p e r i o d i c interest in m e t a p h o r - - m o s t l y fr om a theo re t­
ical perspective.
Stern
(1931)
state d that the
function
6
of m e t a p h o r is to de emp hasi ze
hig hli ght ot he rs,
phor acts
therefore
certain compari son s a n d to
agreeing with Black
as a p e r c e p t u a l filter.
that m e t a ­
Stern c o n c e p t u a l i z e d
me t a p h o r as the as s o c i a t i o n of two common e l e m e n t s
inhibition
of o t h e r dis parate
characteristics.
an d the
Su pp os e d l y ,
in t h e m e t a p h o r "man is a bear," man*s b r u t i s h n e s s b e c o m e s
a s s o c i a t e d wi t h that ch ar ac teris ti c in the b e a r w h i l e i r r e l ­
evant
comparisons
are suppressed.
How such a s e l e c t i v e
process m i g h t operate in rel at io n to other p s y c h o l o g i c a l
functions
is not e xpl ai ne d,
cia t i o n i s t i c e x p l a n a t i o n
and it would s e e m th at
is too simple to a c c o u n t
complex a l i n g u i s t i c event.
(p.
fo r so
How ever, Stern does say that
"the m e t a p h o r gives the emot io n directly,
of it;
an asso-
i n s t e a d o f talking
it does n o t des cribe, bu t makes us e x p e r i e n c e
307)."
In s u m m a r y ,
it w o u l d appear that me t a p h o r is n o t only
someth in g w h i c h sorts
something which
and organizes p e r c e pt io ns but
can m o b i l i z e e m ot io na l responses.
also
Brow n
(1958) has s u g g e s t e d that ult im ately context de te rm i n e s
w h e t h e r or n o t a m e t a p h o r has a p er ce pt ual
and e m o t i o n a l
effect.
In a t ho rough r e v i e w of literature on and r e la te d to
the t o p i c of metaph or, And erson
(1964) a t te mpts to explain
the p s y c h o l o g y o f m e t a p h o r through the a p p l i c a t i o n
ous c o g n i t i v e
i n d i v idua ls
and p h y s i o l o g i c a l models.
of v a r i ­
He s u g g e s t s that
use me t a p h o r in the process o f b o t h co g n i t i v e l y
7
s t r u c t u r i n g the i r wo r l d and r e d u c i n g a high
t i o n a l arousal.
people
He cites B r une r
level of e m o ­
(1957) wh o states that
are able to go beyond the d a t a at h a n d by the unique
co m b i n a t i o n s of per cepti on s mad e p o s s i b l e b y meta p h o r i c
thought.
Berlyne
(1960) is c i t e d in r e f e r e n c e to the o r g a n ­
ism's need for arousal- re du ct ion.
organism s
gests
B e r l y n e emp ha si ze s that
are m o t i v a t e d by t e n s i o n - r e d u c t i o n .
that organis ms seek both r e d u c t i o n
and increase of ten­
sion, pr ov ided the increase is m o d e r a t e .
h u m a n s , the dual functions of a r o u s a l
is a chara c t e r i s t i c of metap hor .
a p p e a l induces
arousal, while
Anderson s u g ­
He states that, in
incre as e and reducti on
The m et ap ho r's n o v e l t y and
its c r e a t i o n bri dge s
the gap
b e t w e e n two di spar ate ideas an d this r e du ce s tension.
And er ­
so n points out that, in Freudian ter m s , m e t a p h o r i c language
pr ov id es an accepta ble outlet
for l i b i d i n a l discharge.
Review of M e t a p h o r Research
Relatively little res ea rc h
ducted, and, of the available
only in a p e r i p h e r a l fashion.
(1956) found that relatively
on m e t a p h o r has been c o n ­
studies,
s e ve ral treat me t a p h o r
For ex a m p l e , Smith and Raygor
a n xi ou s
indi vid uals
tend to
verbalize more uncommon w o r d - a s s o c i a t i o n res po ns es than do
control subjects.
Miller and Is ar d
(1963)
semantic ano maly, utilized g r a m m a t i c a l l y
("Gadgets
p as se ngers
corre ct sentenc es
sim plif y work aroun d the h o us e")
alous but syn tacti ca ll y correct s e n t e n c e s
in a study of
s e m a n ti call y anom­
("Gadgets
dri ll
from the eyes") an d r a n d o m strings of words
8
("Between gadgets h i g h w a y s p a s s e n g e r s the steal")
(p. 220),
S u bje ct s perceived s e m a n t i c a l l y anomalous sentences through
"white noise" more e a s i l y than they p e r c e i v e d ran do m strings
of words*
Weinreich
(1965)
speaks of eith er increasing or
decre a s i n g ambiguity of m e a n i n g through the combinations of
grammatical structures.
Thus, some am bi gu ities would seem
m e t a p h o r i c a l and p o e t i c w h i l e others wo u l d be perceived as
nonsense.
Several studies h a v e u t i l i z e d m e t a p h o r or metaphorical
dev ic es
in in ve st igati ng o t h e r pr ob lem s,
but these
studies
have coi ncidentally s h e d some light on the natu r e of the m e t a ­
phor.
Davitz (1969) a s k e d Ss to describe va rious emotional
states.
From their r e s p o n s e s , he d e rive d a listing of 556
e mo ti onal expr essions w h i c h
Fagan
includes n u me rous metaphors.
(1970) has i n v e s t i g a t e d various modes o f communication
of emotion al messages
an d suggests that
i nt el le ctual i n tac t­
ness or integration is r e l a t e d to the abi lity to understand
v e r b a l metaphor as a c o m m u n i c a t i o n of feeling.
such as Miller (1970), ha v e
Other s tudies,
used m e t a p h o r i c a l projective
d e v i c e s to elicit the S_*s self-image.
A growing nu mb e r o f s t udie s have i n v e s ti gated metaphor
more directly.
Sterzinger
(1913) a d m i n i s t e r e d
lists of
me ta ph o r i c expressions to sub jects and in f e r r e d from his
re su lt s that the p l e a s u r e in m e ta phor comes
of a new concept.
meta p h o r s
M a war di
from the forging
(1961) e n c o u r a g e d the use of
in the r e s o l u t i o n of cognitive impasses.
She h a d
9
group lead ers
facilitate
the evocation of f e el in g states by
p r o m p t i n g i n d i v i d u a l s to express themselves in "feeling
words."
which,
She co ncluded that this procedure e v o k e d metaphors
in turn,
suggest ed creative solutions
to group p r o ­
cess pro bl em s.
A s t ud y by Knapp (1960) provides some i n f o r m a t i o n on
the b e h a v i o r of sub jects when their task is to ind icate m e t ­
aph or p r e f e r en ce .
He found that on a pr efe r e n c e
1 to 7, Ss de monstr at ed
pr e f e re nc e.
erature
scale
from
fairly close agr e e m e n t on met aphor
Most metapho rs
in his sample, drawn
from lit­
and books o f famous quotations, r e c e i v e d mid-sca le
ratings w i t h s t a n d a r d deviation s ranging t y p i c a l l y no more
than one scale point eith er way.
n i f i c a n t se x differences.
There were
also no s i g ­
In a factor an a l y s i s
it was r e ­
v e a l e d th at Ss tend ed to p r e f e r met apho rs w h i c h r e fle ct
dy n a m i c a c tivi ty rather than passive and o c e a n i c expressions.
Koen
verbal
(1965)
approac hed m e t a p h o r using m e t h o d o l o g y
l e ar ning studies.
senten ce
from
He concluded that the contex t of a
d et er mines w h eth er the reader wi ll
p h o r i c a l or lite ra l word to fill a slot.
cho o s e a m e t a ­
For e x a m p l e :
"The
s a n d p i p e r ran along the bea ch leaving a row o f tiny
(marks**6 8 )
tence
five
san<*»"
s °n>e Ss were given w i t h the
literal associ ate s to the wor d " m a r k s , " and
an o t h e r group was given m e t a p ho rical associa te s
"stitches."
sen­
to the word
Ss given me ta p h o r i c a l as sociat es chose the
m e t a p h o r i c a l response "stitches"
8.8 times out of 12 trials.
10
Of course, Koen's design seems
this
conclusion.
to a u t o m a t i c a l l y call for
An even more i n t e r es ti ng
see whi ch word Ss choose un d e r var yi ng
v e r b a l associ ate s present.
However,
study wo u l d be to
condi tio ns wit ho ut
a study by Michael
(1970), on ano ther level of i n q ui ry , e s s e n t i a l l y supports
Koen in s t a t i n g that certain condi t i o n s or contexts must be
present
in o r de r for Ss to p e r c e i v e
in an utterance.
a m e t a p h o r i c a l m e an in g
In general, he stat es,
m e t a p h o r is possib le
the per ce pt io n of
if it is capable of b e i n g t r a n s l a t e d by
a lit e ra l equivalent.
M e t a p h o r has also been a p p r o a c h e d from a devel o p m e n t a l
st andpoint.
Asch and Nerlove
(1960)
s t ud ie d the language
de v e l o p m e n t of children and found that
childr en
first
learn
the literal m e a n i n g of a w o r d and then se pa ratel y learn to
apply its m e t a p h o r i c a l meaning.
is wel l lea rne d by age nine,
While the m e t a p h o r i c usage
the u n d e r s t a n d i n g of the r e l a ­
ti on shi p b e t w e e n the ph y s i c a l term and its m e t a p h o r i c use
contin ues to develop until af t e r age eleven.
For example,
ch ildren begin to un de r s t a n d that the wo r d "sweet" can also
r ef e r to a pe r s o n a l attribu te
as we ll as a ph y s i c a l
acteristic.
call such word s
Asch and Nerlove
char­
"double­
fun cti on terms."
S y s t e m a t i c clinical o b s e r v a t i o n s have also off er ed
in t e r e s t i n g information on m et ap hor.
Ehrenwald
(1966)
co ncl udes that a client's use of m e t a p h o r is an indication
of r e p r e s s e d feelin g- -c on tent of the m e t a p h o r is in itself
11
unimportant.
In fact, he states that symptoms themselves
are me tap h o r i c c o m m u n i c a t i o n s o f a problem.
suggests
Len row (1966)
that the c r e at iv e use of m e t a p h o r by therapists
can unlock grow th p ot entia l.
his view of life
and his
schem e of things.
A c l i e n t ’s me ta p h o r s reveal
ass um pt io ns on his role
In this
regard,
Laff al
in the
(1965) analyzes
the dominant m e t a p h o r s e x p r e s s e d by therapy clients.
kinson
(1970),
currently
Sim-
c o m p l e t i n g his dis se rt at ion on the
o ccur re nc e of m e t a p h o r in p s y c h o t h e r a p y , has no t e d that m e t ­
a p h o r created b e twe en t h e r a p i s t and client is a way of sh a r ­
ing.
He sees m e t a p h o r i c ut tera n c e s
early in therapy as a
d i s t a n c i n g mea sur e on the pa rt of the
client, but
in later
stages of therap y, t h e r a p i s t and clien t share a set of c o m ­
mon experiences wh i c h m a y beco m e e x p r e s s e d more intimately
and humanly in metaph or .
Finally, E k st ei n
(1966), too, sees
the metaphor o f s c h i z o p h r e n i c co mm unicat io n as allo wi ng d i s ­
tance from intense
communication.
f e e li ng while
still all owin g a type of
The m e t a p h o r is g en erat ed by p r i m a r y thought
p r oce ss while t h e r a p y helps the client to int egrate
ings
into se co nda ry
levels
Overall, studies
the feel­
of thought.
of m e t a p h o r indicate that the m e t a ­
p h ori c image not only a r ou se s emo ti on
(Lenrow,
1966;
Sterzi nge r, 1913) but is also a product of e m o t i o n a l a r o u ­
sal
(Davitz, 1969; E h r e n w a l d ,
6 Miller,
1966; Stern, 1931).
studies
(Craddick
1970;
Miller,
1970) have us e d me taphor s
Davitz,
1969;
Several
Fagan, 1970;
to study the express io n
12
and c om mu n i c a t i o n of emot ion and self-concept .
by Koen
(1965)
and M i ch ae l (1970)
But s t ud ies
su gge st that m e t a p h o r s
are
not e vo ca ti ve u n less the m e t a p h o r is p er ceiv ed as such.
Thus,
c o n t e x t u a l v a ri ab le s, such as word as so ci atio ns
or
awareness of the l i te ra l ant ec eden t to a m e t a p h o r i c usag e,
are important.
A n o t h e r co nt ex t u a l var iable may be that m e t ­
aphor is n o t p e r c e i v e d unless the situ a t i o n in w h i c h
it oc ­
curs in an e m o t i o n a l l y in vo l v i n g one.
Studies by Knapp
(1960)
scriptive data on m e t a p h o r ,
and Koen
(1965) off e r some d e ­
in di c a t i n g that m et ap ho rs evoke
widely d i f f e r i n g i n d i v i d u a l re sp o n s e s
and that it is p o s s i ­
ble to c at alogu e va rio us types of metaphor.
Koen n a m e s
five
conditions w h i c h pro du ce metaphor:
(1) A p h y s i c a l term used
to describe p s y c h o l o g i c a l p h e n o m e n a
("a green r e c r u i t . ” ),
(2) t r a n s p o s e d p s y c h o l o g i c a l terms
("I'll buy that
idea."),
(3) a p s y c h o l o g i c a l term used to desc rib e p h y s i c a l p h e n o m e n a
("The dark
clouds p r o m i s e d a sto rm ." ),
(^) p h y s i c a l terms
wi th in a gi ve n sense m o d a l i t y t r a n s p o s e d
("The m e a d o w h a d a
hem o f da i s i e s . " ) ,
(5) use o f s y n e s t h e t i c p hy s i c a l terms
wore a loud tie.")
(p.
131).
Thus,
aphor invo lves the tr an s p o s i t i o n
mode or d i m e n s i o n to another.
what Asch and N e rl ove
Researc h
(1958)
("He
Koen em pha sizes that met­
of m e a n i n g from one s e n s o r y
This process
is e s s e n t i a l l y
called the " d o u b l e - f u n c t i o n term."
on m e t a p h o r consists o f a r e l a t i v e l y s m a l l n u m ­
ber of s tudie s,
and, at this point,
nature of m e t a p h o r are available.
only sugges ti ons of the
T h e o r et ical d i s c u s s i o n s
13
of m et ap ho r, how ev er, may offer some hints
tion a study of m e t a p h o r mig h t take.
(1958), E m b l e r
(1966)
and Stern
m e t a p h o r is a dyn amic process
tual filter or as a vehicle
ing needs.
Black
(1931)
which
(1962), Brown
g en eral ly agree that
functions
as a p e r c e p ­
Cas si re r (1970) em pha si ze s
the m e t a p h o r i c a l natu re of la ngu ag e,
experience.
direc­
for a d j u s t i n g language to c h a n g ­
In a b r oa de r scope,
to m e t a p h o r i z e
as to what
say in g that
it is human
That is, we in ter pr et and give
form to e n v i ro nm ental stimulation.
A nde rson's t h e o r e t i c a l article
tially supports
(1964)
on m e t a p h o r ess en ­
C as si re r and others bu t lends added clarity
by di sc us s i n g m e t a p h o r in terms of e x i s t i n g knowled ge of
psychological
functions.
As s t at ed e ar li er , Ande rs on
concep­
tu ali zes m e t a p h o r as a cognitive o p e r a t i o n which serves
to
both arouse em otion and reduce
of
m e t a p h o r is evidence
tension.
The produ c t i o n
of cogni tiv e s t r u c t u r i n g activity.
What And ers on has r e aliz ed is that, whe n those in p s y c h o l o g ­
ical di scipline s
speak of m e t a p h o r as the p u t t i n g t o get he r
of two ideas to create a new con cept ,
they are t a l k i n g about a cogniti ve
ph oric al ly ,
St er zinge r
Overall,
b r o a d groups:
like?
activity.
Stat ed m e t a ­
(1913) r e f e r r e d to the cogniti ve
t i v i t y as "forging" a n e w concept.
of a concept
in p s y c h o l o g i c a l terms,
ac­
But what is this fo rging
What is the cogniti ve act ivi ty involved?
studies of m e t a p h o r seem to fall into two
those which stud y the con dit ions
f a c i li ta ti ng
or in hi b i t i n g pe rce pt ion of m e t a p h o r and those whi ch
focus
1H
on the concept ual process
u n d e r l y i n g ex pre s s i o n of metaphor.
The r e m a i n d e r of this c h a p t e r is dev ote d to for mi ng a th e o ­
r e tic al explanation of m e t a p h o r in an attempt to unite p e r ­
ceptual and expressive a s p e c t s
of m e t a p h o r in terms of a
cognitive model.
Sta te d once again,
it is
ing a m e t a p h o r involves
ge ne r a l l y m a i n t a i n e d tha t form­
a c o n c e p t u a l process
two or m or e ideas in such a w a y
titude o r impression.
pose,
in a similar m a nn er ,
pe r s o n a l impasse.
saying,
as to suggest
Fo r e x a m p l e , Mawardi
meta ph or s useful in r e s o l u t i o n
of synt h e s i z i n g
a cert ain at­
(1961)
found
o f cognitive impasses.
Sup­
an in di vi dual was part of an inter­
He m i g h t tr y to v erb alize the conf lic t by
"It seems to me t h a t w e * r e b u i l d i n g a wall of resent­
ment betw ee n us."
Foll o w i n g Koen *s
(1965) c a t e g o r i z a t i o n of
m e t a p h o r s , the physical p r o p e r t y o f a wall, ap p l i e d to the
realm of a psycho lo gical p h e n o m e n o n ,
the conflict
p h as iz es
in a certain manner.
That is, the m e t a p h o r e m ­
the physical and p s y c h o l o g i c a l s epara ti on
lack of resolution b e t w e e n
m e t a p h o r is saying that,
flict.
leads one to perceiv e
the two people
sel ec ti on
The
so does con­
i n vo lved seems to be one of
of certain p h y s i c a l and p s y c h o l o g i c a l pr oper tie s
and one o f integration o f t h ese pro pe r t i e s
which
in conflict.
just as a wall divides,
The cognitive a c t i v i t y
and the
captures how the p e r s o n
felt about the conflict.
Of what might the i n t e g r a t i o n process
tive functions have be en
into an image
consist?
Cogn i­
c o n c e p t u a l i z e d in a n u m b e r o f ways,
15
includi ng the p e r c e p t u a l I n t e r p r e t a t i o n of W i t k i n (1962) or
as co gnitiv e controls
Guilford*s
( G ar de r 6 Moriarity,
1968).
One of
(1967) c o n t r i b u t i o n to the study o f cognitive
a ct iv ity has been to s e p a r a t e
cog nit ive skills
w h i c h are divergent or co nverg en t.
into those
A cc ordi ng to Guilford,
conve rg en t int el le ct ual s k i l l s involve the s y n t h es izin g of
stimulus information and c a t a l og ui ng o f input into con ce p­
tual cat ego ries--su ch as tests o f abst raction.
thinking is that whi c h
Divergent
is i n vo lv ed in creative thinking,
w h ere ability to be aware
of a l t e r nati ve in p r o b le m- so lv ing
is desirable.
The creation of a m e t a p h o r ma y involve b o t h divergent
and convergent skills.
T o create the m e t a p h o r i c image, the
individual must first be
able to select from alternative
percep t i o n s certain p e r s o n a l l y r el ev ant d i m e n s i o n s and then
be able to integrate t h e s e p e r c e p t s into an image.
m e t a p h o r would seem to be
a h i g h l y com plex function.
Thus,
The
selection of percepts m a y be said to arouse emotion in that
a state of ambiguity roust be t o l e r a t e d until the image is
m a d e comprehensible,
at w h i c h point,
a sense of pleasure or
completion is felt c o n c o m i t a n t with the r e d u c t i o n of tension
and the formation of a p e r s o n a l l y m e a n i n g f u l
image.
Other specific i n t e l l e c t u a l skills w o u l d seem rele va nt
to metaph or ic thought as well.
For instance a person's
vocabula ry might i n f l u e n c e the qua lit y of m e ta ph or , or a
p e r s o n with a hi gh l y d i f f e r e n t i a t e d voc ab u l a r y might use
16
less m e t a p h o r since he p os se ss es nu mer ous
concepts
scribing feel in gs and for e nc od in g experience.
for d e ­
Per ce ptu al
openness and awar en es s wou ld also seem re la ted to m e t a p h o r i c
thinking.
Given that
cognitive dev elop me nt may be a m a t t e r of
moving from c o n c e p t u a l un dif f e r e n t i a t i o n to co nc ep t u a l d i f ­
ferentiati on and i n t e g rat io n or the devel op me nt
of c o nv er ­
gent and d i v e r g e n t skills or the a cq ui sitio n of cog ni tive
controls,
there sti ll remains
which the i n d i v i d u a l makes
con sid er at ion of the way in
use of such
cognitive functions.
In terms of a stud y of m et ap ho r, it might be asked,
cognitive styl es
"Which
f ac ilitate me ta p h o r i c thought and e x p r e s ­
sion and wh ic h styles of co ncep tu a l i z i n g tend to ma k e a p e r ­
son speak
in h i g h l y
c o n v e nti on al or s t e r e otyp ic m o d e s ? "
m e t a p h o r is a cog nitive
act iv it y o f selecting
ting p e rce pt s,
and emo tio nal exper ie nc es ,
concepts
If
and i n t e g r a ­
then
what factors w o u l d e n g e n d e r such complex ity and c on ce p t u a l
flexibility in a person?
And e r s o n
(1964) took the
phor a c ogniti ve
function.
initial step of c a l l i n g m e t a ­
Although not p a r t i c u l a r l y
cerned wit h meta ph or, the work of Harvey
area of co gni tive
style offers
(1961, 1966)
mental stimuli
in the
further p os s i b i l i t i e s of ex ­
pl ic a t i n g the cognitive nat ur e of metaphor.
refers to the way in which
con­
Cog ni ti ve
style
individuals inte rpret e n v i r o n ­
and, since m e t a p h o r has been h y p o t h e s i z e d as
a cognitive and interp retive activity,
theories of cognitive
17
co n s i s t e n c y will be b r i e f l y discussed while p a r t i c u l a r e m ­
phasis
is given to Harvey's investigations.
B e g i n n i n g with Kelly (1955), theories o f cognitive style,
in part,
are an outgrow th of cognitive
c o n s i s t e n c y theories.
Kell y p o s i t e d that people give structure an d m e an in g to their
ex p e r i e n c e s
uals
(perceptual, kine st he ti c and cognitive).
org ani ze
and se le ctive ly interpret s t im ul i
iad of pos si bl e
needs.
constructs.
or per s o n a l h y p o t h e s e s
He
of functioning.
relationships
Test,
and, wi th the Role Constru ct
Re pe r t o r y
(REP)
found that some peo pl e possess many con st r u c t s
about
construe
t i o n s h i p s with few and global constructs
are good or bad").
com plexity.
There have been nu merous
(1966)
p l e x i t y or Fes tinger's
(e.g.,
with
(1961,
inv est igations o f cogniti ve com­
(1966) dissonance
theory.
1963, 1966) in his C o n c e p t u a l
Harve y attempts
comprehensively
Systems
to interrelate c o g n i t i v e
a theory of motiv ati on,
processes,
"all people
e l a b o r a t i o n s on K e l l y 's
Cognitive style has been elab or a t e d m o s t
by Ha rv e y
personal rela­
Thus people vary in t er m s of cognitive
such as Bieri's
(CST).
in certain
Kelly c on ce nt rated on i n t e r p e r s o n a l
o t h e r people while some individuals
work,
are
further s t a t e d t h a t individ­
uals vary in degree of cognitive d i f f e r e n t i a t i o n
areas
from a m y r ­
interpr et at io ns and in a c c o r d a n c e with their
These in te rp retat io ns
ca ll e d co gnitive
Individ­
Theory
functions
a theory of affect, p e r c e p t u a l
and studies o f value orientation.
Base d on the
c onte nt io n that it is human to give st ru c t u r e to exp er ience ,
18
Harvey
goes on to define the se lf as that
structs which are
integra tio n of c o n ­
in the service of m a i n t a i n i n g the i n d i v i d ­
ual's n e c e s s a r y level of emotional activation.
Not only do
individuals seek to avoid exc essi ve s ti m u l a t i o n , th ey also
p o s i t i v e l y seek to avoid too m u c h bor edo m.
Har ve y concludes
that people who h a v e low levels of a c t i v a t i o n develop c o g ­
nitive styles which help the pe rs on avoid ex ces sive s t i m u ­
lation or ambiguity.
Ho wever,
Mai ntaining the s tatus -q uo is necessary.
indivi du als requ iri ng h i g h e r levels of s ti mulation
mus t m a in tain a more open cognitive
system in o rd e r to allow
ambigui ty, new awarenesses, and cha nge
Harvey's m o d e l
in the status-quo.
(1966) is also d e v e l o p m e n t a l l y oriented.
He states that one determinant of an indiv id ua l' s act iv ati on
level is childh ood,
familial ex per ien ces.
In brief, he finds
that childre n ra is e d in strict, e m o t i o n a l l y re str ict ive
and
p unit iv e homes te nd to be more c o n f o r m i n g and abs olu ti st ic
than children fr om permissive e n v i r o nm en ts .
Children in p e r ­
m i ss iv e homes are freer to explore the i r wo r l d and thus tend
to be more cre ative and cogni tiv ely
likely to noti ce
complex.
They are more
the unusual and to i nc or po ra te it into an
ever g r o w i n g and changing cognitive st ructure.
In usi ng the term "c o m p l e x i t y ," Harvey means more than
the n u m b e r of cognitive
given issue.
Harvey
constructs
a person maintai ns
on a
(1966) wri te s o f con ce pt ua l systems
in
terms of c om pl exit y of structure and by "structure," he means
"the r e l a t i o n s h i p amongst the var iou s parts of a system
19
(p. HO)."
These p a r t s
are in t e r r e l a t e d funct ionall y, and
change, r e o r g a n i z a t i o n or a r t i c ul at ion of the parts or s y s ­
tem pro ce ss es depends upon re so l u t i o n of "co nf lict between
in tr a - s y s t e m t e n d e n c i e s
(p.
41)."
How the person meets
fli cting cognit ive inpu ts, t e nd en ci es or attitud es
con­
is d e t e r ­
mi n e d by the level of c o m p l e x i t y of his co nc ept ual system.
Har vey states tha t the co mp le x i t y of a cognitive s y stem
is b a s e d on a p r o c e s s of d i f f e r e n t i a t i o n and integra tio n of
s y s t e m parts.
By "par t, " it appears he mea ns somethi ng like
a co ns te ll ation of a t t i t u d e s or p e r s o n a l constr uct s on a t o p ­
ic such as "the A m e r i c a n wa y of Life" or "sex" or "marri age."
When a p e rson e n c o u n t e r s
deviant a t t i t u d i n a l input, he ma y
e i t h e r ignore it or in te g r a t e it into his cognitive structure.
For example, s u pp os e an i n d i v i d u a l m a in ta ins a set of c o g n i ­
tive constructs on the conc ept of race.
Very gross d i f f e r ­
ent ia tio n of the conc ep t mi gh t be r e v e a l e d by the per so n' s
statemen t, "All bl a c k p e op le are lazy," or "All black p e o p l e
are eithe r fai t hf ul or uppi ty."
The concept is of low d i f ­
fe rentiat ion and c o m p l e x i t y b e cau se it involves only b i f u r ­
cated evaluation.
A more
comp lex concept of race might state
that "Some blac ks are n o t t r u s t wo rt hy when life exper ie nc es
have taught them to be dishone st, but others may become i n ­
dividuals of h i g h s c r u p l e s b e ca us e they wis h to change a po o r
past."
This concept
fine dif f e r e n t i a t i o n s
is more complex b e ca use it involves
in si tu ation s, mo ti v a t i o n and intent.
20
Ha rv ey d i m ensi on al iz es
c o g n i t i v e •c o m p l e x i t y •in terms of
c on cr e t e n e s s - - a b s t r a c t n e s s .
The i n d i v i d u a l who makes b i f u r ­
cated,
he
a b s o l u t i s t i c value
forms
judgements
is c o n c r e t i s t i c in that
global, u n d i f f e r e n t i a t e d cog niti ve
constructs.
The
a b s o l u t i s m is a way of a v oi di ng the c o n fl ic t which wou l d be
e x p e r i e n c e d from awarene ss of input d e v i a n t to his rat her
inflex i b l e ,
s i m p l i s t i c view o f an issue.
c e p t u a l systems
because
the
are flexible and can t ol erate
ind iv id ua l relies on n u m e r o u s
or in t e r p r e t a t i o n s
devi an t input
co gni ti ve
constructs
of experience w h i c h t r a n s c e n d the fl uc ­
tuat io n o f daily events.
dr a s t i c change
More abs trac t c o n ­
Deviant input does not threat en a
in his wo r l d view as it w o u l d thr eat en the
i n d i v i d u a l who makes sense out of the e n v i r o n m e n t with only
a few concrete beliefs.
Harvey also delineate s several p r o p e r t i e s
of the d i ­
me n s i o n of c o n c r e t e n e s s - - a b s t r a c t n e s s :
(1)
degree
Clarity--ambiguity:
This p r o p e r t y refers to the
of stimulus di sc rimin at io n in a c og ni ti ve
"All blacks
are lazy" is indicative
since it ignores
erality,
(2)
construct.
of p o o r d i s c r i m i n a t i o n
i nd iv idua l differences.
Bec ause
of its gen­
the s ta te ment is ambiguous.
Compartmentalization--interrelatedness:
A concept
may be clea rly di ff er e n t i a t e d but n o t i n t e r c o n n e c t e d with
o t h e r con cep ts in the conceptual system.
enous
tion.
Man y older i n d i g ­
Sou the rn Americ an s rem ember a black n a n n y with a f f e c ­
They knew her as a person w h o cou ld sometimes sco ld and
21
sometimes be ver y loving.
Yet, t h e y ma y equ a ll y hate and
m i str us t b l a c k s in general.
(3)
Centrality— peripherality:
Cognitive st ru ctu res
which hinge on one or two m a i n c o n s t r u c t s are rigid.
are rigid b e c a u s e the i n d i v i d u a l ' s
They
s e l f e s teem is ea si l y
t h r e a t e n e d if devi ant input is allo wed.
A decentralized
cognitive sys t em , with the s y s t e m parts
car rying equ al i m ­
po rta nc e,
Sel f- es teem is based
is more flexible and stab le.
on ma ny c ogn it iv e int e r p r e t a t i o n s o f ex perience.
As st at e d earlier, the d e g r e e o f co mp l e x i t y of a cog ni ­
tive syst em is largely d e t e r m i n e d b y c h i l d h o o d exp eriences.
Harv ey sees cog nitive d e v e l o p m e n t n a t u r a l l y p r o g r e s s i n g
from
a diffuse, g l o b a l and c o n c r e t i s t i c st ru c t u r e to one w h i c h is
more d i f f e r e n t i a t e d and f lexib le
and less centralized.
How­
ever, d e v e l o p m e n t can be a r r e s t e d by e n v i r o n m e n t a l influence,
and Harvey prop os es
four b a s i c c o g n i t i v e
styles to r ep r e s e n t
levels of d e v e l o pm en t in a c o n c e p t u a l system.
Cognitive
level I f u n c t i o n i n g is equiv a l e n t to the most
s im pl istic cognitive style.
The
l e vel I in di vi dual tends to
be concrete in his beliefs and a b s o l u t i s t i c
in his judgement.
He is so r i g i d because his s e l f e s t e e m hinges on seve ra l
h i g h l y ce ntra li ze d and u n d i f f e r e n t i a t e d cognitive constructs.
In sup port, H a rve y (1966) finds
score the lo we s t on Kelly's
t h a t level I ind ivi du al s
REP Test , i n d i c a t i n g they m a i n ­
tain fewer cog nitive con str ucts
th an other s y st em types.
This means they have fewer i n t e r p r e t a t i o n s and expla na tio ns
22
of other peo ple*s beh av ior*
Level 1 In div idu als also are
found to score h i g h e s t on meas ur es of dogmatism, a u t h o r i t a ­
rian is m and rigidity.
Per ce p t u a l l y , th ey score the low est
on the Emb edded Figu re s Test and also score lowest on test s
o f creativity.
The lev el X indi vi du al tends to say, "All
people should ha v e a r e l i g i o n " or "Ma rriage is a sa cr e d vow
sanctioned by God, an d sex sh ou l d be sav ed ti ll m a r r i a g e . "
The level I i n d i v i d u a l comes from a home where d iv er sity of
opinion is n o t t olera te d.
Dev ianc y is sev erely p u n i s h e d and
the child is r e w a r d e d for b e l i e v i n g as he is told to be l i e v e .
The level II i n d i v i d u a l
I-type values.
is in r ebe llion against lev el
He is equa ll y a b s o l u t i s t i c and j u d g e m e n t a l
bu t in the o p p o s i t e d i r e c t i o n of the level I person.
level I and II i n d i v i d u a l s
Both
come from re stric ti ve home e n ­
vironments wi th th e e x c e p t i o n that leve l II indivi dua ls have
experi enc ed e r r a t i c and in c o n s i s t e n t p are nt al
vey finds that le v e l
Test.
Whereas
guidance.
Har­
II*s score seco nd lowest on the REP
level I*s d e m o n s t r a t e d high concern with r e ­
ligion, level II*s show little concern.
They also score ve ry
low on measures of a u t h o r i t a r i a n i s m yet are n ea r l y as d o g m a ­
tic and rigid as level I*s.
On the Embedded
level I I 1s scor ed s e co nd lowest.
Figures Test,
The level II pe rs on m i g h t
complain, "All A m e r i c a n in stitutio ns
are corrupt."
The level III i n d i v idua l, i n st ea d of b e i n g e x c e s s i v e l y
m ora listic or stern,
acquiescent.
tends to be quite r e l a t i vi st ic and
Yet, he is aware of diverg ent viewp oi nt s
and
23
does no t judge one as n e c e s s a r i l y best.
Thus, he is more
c og ni tively c o mp le x because o f g r e a t e r d i f f e r e n t i a t i o n and
d e c e n t r a l i z a t i o n of his conceptual system.
might be heard saying,
The level III
"Some peop le n e e d or ga n i z e d rel igion
and other*s d o n ’t— i t ’s probably an i n d i v i d u a l mat te r. "
level III p e r s o n comes
The
from a more p e r m i s s i v e home but one
m a i n l y permi ss iv e in the area of i n t e r p e r s o n a l rel ati onships.
The level III pers on
is im pre ssed more by dem on s t r a t i o n s of
e x per ti se while le ve l I and II in d i v i d u a l s e i t h e r subscri be
to or rebel agai nst inst i t u t i o n a l authority.
are dependent
on rel atio ns hips whi le
Level Ill's
level I indivi du als
see
friendship as a com modity to possess.
Harvey finds th at level I l l ’s score
the REP Test.
wi th religion
highest.
thi rd hig hest on
While level I's s c or ed h i g h e s t
and a u th or it arian is m,
However,
lev el I l l ’s scord second
level Ill's also score
m a t i s m and rigidity.
Percep tu ally ,
on the Em b e d d e d Figures
Test than
in concern
fairly low on d o g ­
level I l l ’s score highe r
level I's or II*s.
Level
Ill's also score slightly h i g h e r on tests of creativi ty than
do level I's.
Level IV in div idua ls are the m o s t
and mo st i nt eg ra te d cognitive type.
c ognit iv el y com p le x
Not only are they aware
of and accepta nt of divergent o p i n i o n s , they are also w i l l ­
ing to state their own beliefs.
They tend to be the c o g n i ­
tive level most open to new i n f o r m a t i o n
b e i n g led by aut hori ty or e xp er tise
and, instead of
solely,
they are able to
2H
guide their actions by
ti on a l practic es
value system.
i n t e r p r e t i n g and e v a l u a t i n g c o n v e n ­
in lig ht
These
of the ir own p e r s o n a l l y d eterm in ed
in di vi d u a l s
come from homes which e n ­
courage exp lor at io n of the en v i r o n m e n t so that fine d i f f e r ­
e n tia ti on of c ogn it iv e str uc tu re s
is allowed.
The level
IV
p e rs on mig ht say, "The Ame ri ca n way of life is something not
to crow about but to e n j o y q u iet ly and imp rove slowly whe re
p os si b l e . "
Harv ey finds that the level
h i ghe st on the REP Test.
He scores
dogmatism, a u t h o r i t a r i a n i s m ,
est on the E m b e d d e d
Figures
IV person scores
lowest on mea sures
and rigidity.
of
He scores h i g h ­
Test and on tests of creativity.
At least one c r i t i c i s m o f H a r v e y ’s system is also a
c r i t i c i s m of all c og niti ve
has
theories.
almost as many m e a n i n g s
to measure
cognitiv e
as there are rese ar ch devices
activity.
Pe rce p t u a l studies of c o g ­
ni ti on speak of field d ep en de nce
O t h e r studies speak
The t e r m " c o g n i t i o n ”
(e.g.,
Fiebert, 1967).
of c on ce pt ua l d i f f e r e n t i a t i o n - - i n t e g r a -
tion (Gardner 6 M oria ri ty ,
1968).
Cog niti ve consistency
theories are ba s e d on co mp le xity or dissona nce ,
so that there
\
is no unified t h eory of cognition.
pl ic it y of c on structs,
C o n s i de ri ng the m u l t i ­
it is to H a r v e y ’s credit that he has
formulated a c o m p r e h e n s i v e model of cognitive
functions and
cognitive style w h i c h has the he ur i s t i c value of s u g g e s t i n g
many research p o s s ib il itie s.
Returning to the area of metaphor,
there are a n u m b e r
of instances where H a rv ey 's t h e o r i z i n g shares close conceptual
25
p r o x i m i t y to pr e v i o u s
found that
the
di scussi ons of metaphor.
the cogniti vel y
complex person is more open to
a m b i g ui ti es of human experiencing.
con fr ont the
grate these
Harv ey has
He is more
co ntradic tio ns o f life and att em pt
into a cognitive structure.
likely to
to i n t e ­
The s i m p l e x person
i g n o r e s - - p e r c e p t u a l l y and c o g n i t i v e l y - - c o n t r a d i c t i o n s
and
fits his e x p e r i e n c e s into few er and less d i f f e r e n t i a t e d c o g ­
ni ti ve
constructs.
He tends
towards e x p r e s s i o n of g e n e r a l ­
ities and superfic ial ities.
Ea rl ier ,
m e t a p h o r was
de fi ned as a pro ce ss
of sele cti on
of p e r s o n a l l y rel e v a n t p er ce pts and in t e g r a t i o n o f these
into an image.
In a cognitive syst em of r e l a t i v e l y
gross
d i f f e r e n t i a t i o n and i n t e g ra ti on of stimuli, m e t a p h o r
wo u l d s e e m un l i k e l y to occur.
would no t be nee ded, since
In the first place , m e t a p h o r
the individ ua l rel ies
on s i m ­
p l i s t i c and n a rr ow ca te gor i z a t i o n s of exp erien ce .
Subtle­
ties of ex pe r i e n c e are i g nore d and thus the i n d i v i d u a l would
not n e e d a creative
Fu rt he rmore,
language
to encode such in for mation.
it has been s ug ge st ed that m e t a p h o r creates a m ­
b i g u i t y in its attempt to create a co nc eptua l category.
the m e t a p h o r ,
ambiguous
and b e a r s ,
’’man is a bear , " the e xp re s s i o n
in that it both suggests
vidual,
is som ewhat
likenesses b e twe en men
and yet the re ad e r knows that the st at e m e n t
to be taken w h oll y literally.
such as a level
In
is not
The c og ni ti vely simplex i n d i ­
I type, should be i n t o l e r a n t
a m b i g u i t y beca use of his r i gid cognitive s tr uctur e
of such
and
26
because of his t e nde nc y to cat eg or ize a b s o l u t i s t i c a l l y .
To
the level I, ma n cannot bo t h be like a bear and unlike
bear.
Probably, this
the level
last sta te ment
is an exagge ra tion of
I me ntalit y, bu t it is made to exp ress a ste reo ty pe ,
which is what each of H a rv ey's
four co gnitive styles is.
In a complex c o n c e p t u a l syst em with g r ea ter d i f f e r e n t i a ­
tion and integra tio n o f pa rt s
and more flexib ili ty, st imulus
a mb ig uity is more e a si ly t o l e r a t e d and more often encountered.
For example,
the level IV ind iv i d u a l more often will e n c o u n t e r
ex per iences whi ch do no t n e a t l y fit ex i s t i n g concept ual c a t e ­
gories.
To account
for de v i a n t input, he must
categories and create new con st ruc ts
into his cognitive structu re.
transcend
to in tegrat e
in for mat ion
To say that "man is a bear"
is
a c om pl icate d e x p r e ss io n, bu t it is likely an expressive tool
available
to the level IV p e r s o n
its ambiguity.
since he can bet te r tol erate
The level IV is more likely to use me t a p h o r
because he has more
c o gnit iv e
co nstructs which he can j u x t a ­
pose and integrate into an image which suggest s
a new i n t e r ­
pr et a t i o n of experience.
The present stud y is an attem pt to test several h y p o ­
theses to determine h o w c o g n i t i v e skills
cognitive style
(intelligence) and
(via CST) are rel at ed to pe rce p t u a l and e x ­
pressive prefer enc e
for metaphor.
Intelligence
level was
mea s u r e d by use of the S h i p l e y - H a r t f o r d Scale, and cognitive
style was det er min ed by use of Harvey's TIB.
c ogn itive styles for the study's groups,
In choosing
cognitive level Ill's
^
27
were us e d i n st ea d of the level IV type.
As di sc u s s e d
in more
d e t a i l in C h a p t e r II, level IV*s occur quite i n f r e q u e n t l y
the p o p u l a t i o n , but
sample.
level Ill's
To investi ga te pe rc eptua l preference
a M e t a p h o r P r e f e r e n c e Schedule
MPS
comprise rou gh ly
in
20% of the
for m e t a p h o r ,
(MPS) was const ruc ted.
The
is a p a p e r - a n d - p e n c i l task in which a £ choo ses wh a t he
con siders to be the b e s t expre ssi on of f e e l i n g - - e i t h e r a
m e t a p h o r or a lit er al item.
for m e t a p h o r ,
Essay.
To explore e x p r e s s i v e pr ef e r e n c e
Ss were also asked to write a Peak E xp er ience
Both the MPS and the Peak Experience Essay
are e x ­
p l a i n e d in d e tail in C h ap te r II.
The
fo ll o w i n g h y p o t h e s e s are proposed.
1.
Co gn iti ve
leve l III Ss will score h i g h e r on the
Me t a p h o r P r ef er en ce S c he du le than will cogniti ve
level
I Ss.
It has been stat ed that the more complex a p er s o n ' s
co gn iti ve style, the more he should prefer m e t a p h o r i c a l e x ­
pressions.
Harvey has stated that cognitive style III i n ­
d ivid ua ls have
c on stru ct systems which are more h i gh ly d i f ­
f e r e n t i a t e d and int eg rate d than those of cog niti ve
indiv idu als.
That is,
n u m b e r of constructs
be lie fs,
I
level III persons uti lize a gre at er
in ex pl ai ning situations or m a i n t a i n i n g
and their s e l f - c o n c e p t and s e l f - es te em do n o t hinge
on m a i n t a i n i n g a few key concepts.
c on st ru ct s y s t e m or ambiguity
b e ca use
style
Deviant input
to their
in constructs can be tole ra ted
the se lf is c o mp os ed of many constructs.
Level Ill's
not only can tolerate the am big uity of m e t a p h o r but they also
28
should more ofte n require m e t a p h o r as a means of res olv ing
conflict among constructs than w o u l d level I individuals.
2.
H i g h e r IQ Ss will score h i g h e r on the MPS than will
lower IQ Ss.
The possibl e
role of inte l l i g e n c e
pr ef er e n c e has been presented.
level in m e t a p h o r
In general ,
i n d i v i d u a l ’s level of in te lli gence,
p r e f e r me t a p h o r i c a l expressions.
the h i g h e r an
the more likely he is to
Whil e cognitive style d e ­
pends upon the exte nsiveness o f co nc ep t u a l differe nt ia ti on
and in tegration
in m a i n t ai ning a s e l f -s yste m,
d i f f e r e n t i a t e and integrate s t i m u l u s
function.
The more p ro ficie nt
input is an intel lectual
an in di vi d u a l
ti a t i n g and in teg ra ti ng sti mulus
inform ation ,
is at r e c o g n i z i n g complex v e r b a l sti mul i
is at d i f f e r e n ­
the bett e r he
such as metaphor.
The MPS asks Ss to choose the e x p r e s s i o n most
of em ot i o n a l meaning
the ability to
communicative
and, a s s u m i n g that me t a p h o r is the best
co mm unicat ion of feeling, b r i g h t Ss s h ould choose m e t a p h o r
mor e than Ss of lower i nt e l l e c t u a l level.
3.
There will be an i n t e r a c t i o n b e t w e e n IQ and cog n i ­
tive style
in S. per formance on the M P S .
Hypothes es
1 and 2 imply that co gni tive
IQ Ss will score the highes t on the
**•
— 3 scores on the MPS wi l l
level III, high
MPS.
cor relate po si t i v e l y with
their scores on the Peak E x p e r i e n c e E s s a y .
Expl orin g the re lati on sh ip o f p e r c e p t i o n and exp res sion
of me t a p h o r involves two d e p e n d e n t m ea su res o f met aph or
29
preference.
As a sta rting point for ex pl or ati on,
it is
ass um ed that there will be a p o siti ve cor relation b e t w e e n £
p er fo rmance on the MPS and £ pe r f o r m a n c e on the Peak
ence Essay.
That is, if a S per cei ves met ap hor s
Experi­
as the best
expre s s i o n of feelings, he should also use m e t a p h o r in de­
s c rib in g the e m o t i o n a l natur e of his peak experience.
5.
Higher
IQ, cogniti ve level III Ss wil l d e m o n s t r a t e
the high es t p o s i t i v e c o r r e latio n betwee n MPS scores
Peak Expe r i e n c e
Since
and
Essay r a t i n g s .
it is suggeste d in hy po t h e s e s 1 and 2 that high
IQ, cogniti ve
level III Ss will score the highest
on the MPS,
they s ho u l d also score the h i g h e s t on the Peak Ex pe r i e n c e
Essay.
CHAPTER II
METHOD
The first step in the study i n v o l v e d co n s t r u c t i n g the
MPS, in order to de termin e w h et he r or n o t
p er ce pt ion of
m e t a p h o r s , as m e asure d by a p a p e r - a n d - p e n c i l task, is m e a n ­
ingf ul ly r e la te d to the independent var ia bl es.
Initially, £
c ol le cted a n u m b e r of phrases or sent e n c e s thou gh t to be
e i t h e r examples of m e t a p h o r i c a l or n o n - m e t a p h o r i c a l e mo ti on al
expressions.
Davitz's
The majo ri ty of items were s e l e c t e d from
(1969) re s e a r c h on the c o m m u n i c a t i o n of em ot i o n a l
me aning.
For exa mple, a r e p r e s e n t a t i v e m e t a p h o r i c a l e x p r e s ­
sion was "I feel sure, acco mp lish ed , h a p p y . ”
items were
cluded.
c o ll ec te d by E_, with o b vious
Ad ditional
cliches being e x ­
A l i s t i n g of cliche and n o n - c l i c h e phr ase s pr o v i d e d
by Li nda uer
(1968) served as a guide
for ex cl u d i n g such well-
kno wn expressions.
Ten graduate
students
in E n gl is h we r e given a list of
80 items--40 of whi ch £ had p r e v i o u s l y
judg ed as me ta p h o r s
and 40 of which he judged as literal ex pressions.
w e r e inst ru ct ed to define m e t a p h o r b r o a d l y ,
Judges
in clud ing any
e xp re s s i o n which they thought sho ul d not be i n te rp re ted at
face value.
The judges'
p h o r i c a l or literal.
ment among the judges.
lished as a reason ab le
task was to judge each item as m e t a ­
Of the 80 items,
Eighty p e r c e n t
cut-off poi nt ,
59 rec e i v e d 80% a g r e e ­
agr e e m e n t was e s t a b ­
in that lower
31
percentage s of agreement w o u l d be too close to chance.
the 59 items r ece iving 80% or b e t t e r agreement,
sions ob t a i n e d 100% consensus
metaphors
30 items,
14 were metaphors.
From the 59 items, £ s e l e c t e d 19 metaphors
and 19 l i t ­
to construct a pr e l i m i n a r y MPS.
items were disca rde d for vari ou s reasons:
judgement,
30 e x p r e s ­
as to w h e t h e r or not they were
or literals; of those
eral ex pr ess ions
Of
Twenty-one
acc or ding to IE's
some expressio ns c o n t a i n e d very n e g a t i v e
content
("My brain is just a jungle o f junk.") while others were
sidered by E to be too close to soun di ng cliche.
a lump in my throat.")
In s e l e c t i n g the
con­
("There's
38 items, £ at ­
tempted to roughly match m e t a p h o r i c a l expressi ons wi th li t­
eral equivalents.
Thus,
one meta p h o r ,
warm glow," had a literal c o u n t e rp ar t,
intense well-b eing. "
There was
"There is an inner,
"There's
a sense of
also an attempt to maintain
a bala nce between e m o t i o n a l l y pos itive and n egat iv e e x p r e s ­
sions •
Each of twelve posi ti ve me ta p h o r s was p a ir ed with each
o f twelve pos it ive literal items,
givi n g 144 pai r ed c o m p a r ­
isons of pos itive emotion ex pressio ns.
In a separate section
of the MPS, each of seven ne g a t i v e me tap hors was pai re d with
each of seven negative
parisons
lite ra l items, y i el di ng 49 paire d co m­
of negative emotion ex pre ssions.
These 193 items
were collected into b o ok le t form.
Seventeen females
tory Psychology
and 10 males
in a sophomore
Intr od uc ­
class were ask ed to choose the express io n
in
32
each pair of items which they p r e f e r r e d as a way of e x p r e s ­
sing oneself.
One we ek later, the Ss were retested.
bility c o e f f ic ients were
calcu la te d for each item on the
schedule.
Mo derate
phor seems
to be r e l a t e d to em ot iona l arousal,
corr el atio ns were e x pec te d since m e t a ­
va r i a b i l i t y w o u l d seem reasonable.
rang ed from .
the
and thus some
In fact, coe ffi ci en ts
to .92 (see A p p e n d i x 1), all s i g n i f i c a n t
.05 leve l of confidence.
for the t o t a l scores was
The tes t-retest
.71.
Upon retest,
n u mbe r of f o r c e d - c h o i c e
items
first testing.
at
c o e f f ic ient
Ss were asked to
indicate ho w much b o r e d o m they e x p e r i e n c e d with
memory of the
R e lia­
the large
and how much they re li e d on
On a sev en -poin t
scale, S_s
ind icated low to m o de ra te b o r e d o m and moderate recall.
Thus, the r e l i a b i l i t y coe ff ic ie nts seem to be r e a s o n a b l y
ref le cti ve
of the stabi li ty of test items.
A n o t h e r class
of In tr od ucto ry Psy ch ology stud ents was
given the p r e l i m i n a r y
MPS items
the f o l l o w i n g dim ensions:
e f f e ctive ne ss
in c o m m u n i c a t i n g m ea ni ng,
for the item,
and degree
item p e r s o n a l l y d e s c r i b e d the rater.
rated on a five- poi nt
on
o r i g i n a l i t y of the e x p r e s s i o n ,
of the e xpre ss io n
p e rso na l pr ef e r e n c e
and asked to rate each
to whic h the
All d i m e n s i o n s were
scale, " o n e ” m e ani ng a low ra ti n g and
"five" m e a n i n g a high rating.
Responses were
g r o u p e d by age
in order to control for the possible effects o f age i n ­
creases on m e t a p h o r pr efe rence patterns.
The 26 raters
33
r an g e d in age from 18 to 50 years
(Mean Age = 27.5).
gives the median rati ngs for the items.
Table 1
Upon inspect ion of
Table 1, it can be seen that there is little d if ference b e ­
twe en age groups in reg ard to medi an rati ngs
In the final r e vi si on of the MPS
met ap ho rs
for the items.
(see Ap p e n d i x 2), eight
and eigh t literal ex pre ss ion s were
r o u g h l y m a tc hed in terms of the d im ensi on s
sel ect ed and
d i s c u s s e d above.
Only po s i t i v e me tap hors were paired with pos itiv e
items
literal
and only neg ative metaphors were p a i r e d with nega ti ve
l i ter al items, but negati ve pairings were no t pla ce d in a
separate
section.
All pairs were r a nd om ly dis tributed.
r e v i s e d MPS thus consists of 32 p a i r e d - c o m p a r i s o n s .
The
The £
is asked to choose the expression in each p a i r which he
thinks best
communicates
feelings.
An MPS example pair,
"(a.) want to ho l d ba ck time and capture
the mom e nt or (b.)
I feel sure,
accomplis hed , happy," was p r e s e n t e d in the i n ­
structions.
Since the items are those w h i c h judges c o n s i d ­
ere d n e i t h e r pa rt i c u l a r l y trite nor u n u s u a l l y original, the
S*s choice betw ee n a meta ph or or li teral items should be
lar gel y d et er m i n e d by the personal app ea l o f the expre ssi on
itself.
In view of the
p re fe re nce
32 p a i r e d - c o m p a r i s o n s ,
score of 0 to 32 is p os si ble,
a metaphor
a score of 32 i n d i ­
cat ing stro ng m e t a p h o r preference.
The secon d dep endent measure, used to generate m et aphor
in Ss, is the Peak Experience Essay
(see App e n d i x
3).
were asked to write a br i e f par agra ph d es cr i b i n g an
Ss
34
TABLE
1
Median Ratings of MPS
Items
Dimensions
Age
Group
Origi­
nali ty
Effectiveness
Preference
Positive
Descrip­
tiveness
N
Items
Over 30
3
4
3
3
7
23-30
3
3
3
2
10
18-22
3
3
3
3
9
Negative
Items
Over 30
3
3
3
1
7
23-30
3
3
2
2
10
18-22
2
3
3
2
9
35
em o t i o n a l l y si gni fica nt e v e n t in their life,
thus in dic atin g
in a w r i t t e n task their e x p r e s s i v e p re feren ce
The peak experie nce was
for metaphor.
taken as an index of the S^'s
ability to express h i m s e l f m e t a p h o r i c a l l y , ba se d on Maslow's
d is cu ssion of the nature of peak experiences.
stated that the peak e x p e r i e n c e
Maslo w
is a cognitive process,
the genuine peak exp er ie nce ev id e n c e s wha t he calls
nition.
(1956)
and
B-cog-
B-c og ni ti on is a p e r c e p t u a l - c o n c e p t u a l process
in
which the usual modes of c o n c e p t u a l i z i n g obje cts are set
aside
and persons, even ts ,
spective.
or plac es
In B-c ognit io n,
In B-cognitio n,
are seen in a new p e r ­
an obje ct is valued
the t y pical di ch ot om ies
for itself.
of lan gua ge and
thought are tr an sc ende d and the per so n percei ve s
one with his world.
M a sl ow
fur th er contrasts B - c o g ni ti on
D-cognition, which is the i n s t r u m e n t a l
D-cognitio n catalogues e x p e r i e n c e
mat i c categories of meaning.
B -c og ni tion
unusual in life, much
to pe rceive
like
of perceiving.
c o nc ep tu al process.
into the usual and p r a g ­
and class
and are perc e i v e d
leads one to see the fresh and
a drug ex pe rienc e may
and cognize events
are co nceptually flexible
to
Objects are not value d for
themselves but are given a lab el
only as such.
h i ms el f at
in no v e l ways.
and e m o t i o n a l l y
They are s i m u l t a n e o u s l y
cause one
B-cogn ize rs
open to new ways
able to abstract
wi t h o u t giving up conc reteness.
M a s l o w ’s de scr iption
of B - c o g nit io n is st ri king ly s i m ­
ilar to the definition of m e t a p h o r as a cognitive activity.
36
Both B-cognition
and m e t a p h o r are comp lex cognitive processes
requir in g ability to both
into a commu nicable
abstrac t and integra te percepts
image.
Both B- cogn it io n and met a ph or
lead one to d i s c o v e r n o v e l ways of in t e r p r e t i n g events.
Thus, the rated level of a £3's peak ex pe rie nce was used as
an indicato r of his
abil ity to express
ically, since to exp res s
t ra nsc en den t
a tr anscende nt e xperi en ce requires
language.
To assess
in tel l i g e n c e ,
usi ng a qu ic k - s c o r i n g i n te ll i­
gence test, the S h i p l e y - H a r t f ord Scale
The Shipley was o r i g i n a l l y
(19 *+0 ) was chosen.
dev e l o p e d as a meas ur e of c o gni­
tive i n e f f icie nc y due to the effects
disorders:
himself metaphor­
of various b eha vi or
p s y c h o s e s , ne ur o s e s , b r a i n - d a m a g e .
of a multiple
It consists
choice v o c a b u l a r y test and an abstra ctio n test.
On the abstractio n test, £s must de te rmin e the logic in a
series of num ber s,
logical res ponse
letters, or words
in the sequence.
timed with as much as ten minutes
and prov id e the next
Each subt est is loosely
allowed
for each test.
Although or ig i n a l l y dev is ed to detect i n t e l le ctua l im pa ir ­
ment, it also yield s
lectual fu nctio ni ng
Paulson and Lin
an est imate of p r e se nt level of i n t e l ­
(Wright,
19H6).
(1970) report
tween the Shi pl ey and the WAIS,
of the Shipley's
ures.
a cor rel at io n of .78 b e ­
thus s u p p o r t i n g other studies
c o r r e la ti on with oth er int elligence m e a s ­
They also s u pp or t the general
finding that the
Shipley is a good e s t i m a t o r of intell igenc e level for Ss
37
with average and above average
intelligence
intelligence.
In more extreme
levels, Shi ple y scores beco me unreliable.
The second i n d e p e n d e n t
factor h y p o t h e s i z e d to be rela ted
to metaph or b e h a v i o r is cognitive style.
The measure of c o g ­
nitive style
in the p r es en t study was H a r v e y ’s This I Believe
(TIB) Test.
It con sist s o f a page of inst ruc tions,
by nine pages in b o o k l e t form.
caption, "This
one of nine
I bel i ev e
topics:
sub stituted
Each page begins with the
about ________ " which
is followed by
pe o p l e , the Am eri can way of life, r e l i ­
gion, ma rria ge, m y s e l f ,
compromise.
fol lo we d
sin,
In the p r e s e n t
friend ship,
immor tal ity and
study, the top ic of "sex" was
for " c o m pr om is e. "
The TIB ins tructions are as
follows:
In the f o l l o w i n g pages y o u will be asked to
write you r op ini ons or belief s about several t o p ­
ics.
Please write at least two (2) sentences
about each topic.
Yo u wil l be time d on each t o p ­
ic at a pace that w i l l make it nece s s a r y for y ou
to work rapidly.
Be sure to write wha t you gen­
uinely bel ieve.
Y o u must write on the topics in
the order of t h e i r appearance.
Wait to turn each
page until the e x p e r i m e n t e r gives the signal.
And once y o u have t u r ne d a page, do NOT turn back
to it.
PLEASE DO NOT OPEN THIS B O OKL ET UNTIL YOU
ARE I N S T R U C T E D TO BEGIN.
The TIB inc lu de s e xt en si ve scor ing criteria and sample
responses.
The
S_'s resp on se
to each topic is judged on the
basis of w h e t h e r it is a cognitive level I, II, III, or IV
type statement.
If six out of nine topics
rep res en ti ng one
level, then the pers on
cognitive style.
are scored as
is classed as that
In cases where no cogn itive
level dominates
38
a S's r e s p o n s e s ,
the p r o t o c o l is s c ored as a mixed type.
Common m i x e d types
are I-II or I-III mixes.
E x t e n s i v e r e se ar ch with the TIB, as surv ey ed and r e ­
ported by Greaves
feren ti at e
(1970),
i ndi vi du al s
that the TIB does d i f ­
along various dimensions such as d e ­
gree of a u t h o r i t a r i a n i s m ,
and rigidity.
indicates
dogmat is m,
cognitive c om pl e x i t y
Alt ho ug h s c o r i n g cri te ri a are com ple x and
difficult to appl y at times, high i nt er -s corer r e l i a b i l i t y
is not d i f f i c u l t
to achieve.
Aft e r s e l e c t i o n
and c o n s t r uc ti on of the various i n d e ­
pe n d e n t and de pe n d e n t m e a s u r e s ,
veloped.
Initiall y,
incl u d i n g the
192 Ss were given a batt er y of items
inst rum ents
of the p r ese nt study.
tes te d in grou ps r a n g i n g in size
te st in g p r o c e d u r e
age
and sex,
lowing order:
tests was
traneous
smoothly,
tasks.
The
Each
id en ti f i e d only by soci al secu rity
and tests were ad min iste re d in the
I Believe
fol­
Test and finally the Peak E x p e r ­
In addition, the A-B Scale was added to the
ba tt er y as a dummy measure
the r at i o n a l e
from 4 to 25 persons.
the M e t a p h o r P re ference Schedule, the Ship ley
Scale, the This
ience Essay.
Sjs were
generall y r e q u i r e d 60 to 75 minutes.
item in a S*s b a t t e r y was
numb er ,
a te st ing procedu re was d e ­
to insure that Ss did no t guess
beh i nd the test measures.
The sequ en ce of
a rr an ge d to avoid any orde r effects or o t h e r e x ­
factors.
Testing in large numbers p r o g r e s s e d
and most Sjs seemed to rea so nabl y enjoy the sev er al
39
In the p r esen t study,
Shipley total raw scores were
c o n v e r t e d to es ti m a t e d WAIS verbal
IQ's by means of the r e ­
gre ssi on e quati on , Y' = (verbal + ab st ra ct ion
(1.0586)
+ 61.176U
(Smith,
1971).
p r o t o c o l s were next scor ed by E.
All the
score)
This I Believe
An i n t e r - s c o r e r r e l i a b i l ­
ity e s t i m a t e was o b ta ined by s ub mi tt ing a sample
of 25 TIB's
(randoml y select ed) to ano the r graduate student wi t h e x p e r ­
ience in s c o r i n g the measure.
have p r i o r know le dg e
levels
The seco nd s c ore r did no t
of the d i s t r ib ut io n of c og niti ve
in the sample of 25 protocols.
parison
style
In an i n i t i a l c o m ­
of agre em ent b e t w e e n the two sets of s co r i n g s ,
a g r e e m e n t was achieved.
w e r e due to simple
Of the five d i s a g r e e m e n t s ,
80%
three
arit hm e t i c or s c or ing errors,* thus r a i s ­
in g a g r e e m e n t to 92%.
On the r e m a i n i n g two di sa gr e e m e n t s ,
E and the sec on d judge r e v i e w e d s c or ing c r i t e r i a for TIB*s.
It was d i s c o v e r e d that these two were prot o c o l s s c or ed when
E^ was s t il l lea rnin g the cri t er ia and had m i s t a k e n l y not
been r e s c o r e d at a later time.
Thus, r e l i a b i l i t y was rais ed
to 100%.
All Peak Experie nce Essays were also rat ed first by
Essays r e c e i v e d a score
trit e
from one to five, with
and "five" m e a n i n g a genuine peak exp erie nc e.
c r i t e r i a wer e dev e lo pe d at Ge org ia State
Bree d
"one" m e a n i n g
(196U)
U n i v e r s i t y by
and are rep o r t e d in A p pendi x
E r a t e d the essays with ou t kno wle dg e of the
tive style.
Sc o r i n g
S s ' cogni­
However, to insure against any possibl e
40
e x p e r i m e n t e r bias and to est ab lis h
in te r - s c o r e r reli ab il it y,
a r a n d o m sample of 20 peak exp eri en ce s were s e l e c t e d and
given to an English
graduate student
ch o l o g i c a l aspects of language.
given ten pra cti ce essays,
di s c u s s e d any amb iguit ie s
scoring
criteria.
the r e s e a r c h
i nt er es ted in the p s y ­
The English s t u d e n t was
and both E_ and the s e c o n d judge
con ce rning the peak e x p e r i e n c e
A l th ough the
graduate s t u d e n t k n e w the
con cer ned me ta p h o r , he was not aware of the r e ­
l a t i o n s h i p of the essays
to the total study.
c o r r e l a t i o n b e t w e e n £ and the
.68 (signif ic an t
at the
The degree of
second j u d g e ’s rati ngs was
.001 level with t = 4.73,
df = 26).
From the pool of 192 S s , the test results of 60 Ss
were s e l e c t e d to sati sf y the req uir em en ts
design.
tical
Sel ect ion of the 60 Ss was guided by s e v e r a l p r a c ­
con side ration s
and some
limitations
imp ose d by the
First,
even though
192 Ss were
i n d e p e n d e n t measures.
ed, only 29 Ss were
(15%).
found to r ep re sent cogniti ve
There were also 100 cognitive level I's
three
level I I ’s (2%),
types
(30%).
stud y' s
one level
level
III
(52%),
levels
in the
sample is som ewha t d if fe re nt from the d i s t r ib ut ion
(1966).
Out of 1400 Sjs t e s t e d at the
U n i v e r s i t y of Colorado, he repo rt s
level
30% were level
II's, 20% were level Ill's, 7% were
and 28% were mixed types.
State
test­
IV (1%) and 59 m i x e d level
The di s t r i b u t i o n of cognitive
r e p o r t e d by Harvey
we re
of the study's
Uni ve rs ity students
I's,
level
15%
IV's
How ever, in a sa mp le of G e o r g i a
in Introductory P s y c h o l o g y
m
classes, Gre ave s
(1970) rep ort s
a distr ibution r o u g h l y e q u i v ­
alent to that of the pres ent sample.
students
seem to be p r e d o m i n a n t l y level I or m i x e d types.
Since the group of cognitive
d i vid ed b e t w e e n two int el li ge nc e
group was set at 15.
levels, the N_ for each
group.
For the sample of c o g n i ­
level I S s , high and low IQ scores were
the two
mean
level III Ss ha d to be
The one cognitive level IV S_ was added
to the co gnit ive level III
tive
Thus, G e o r g i a State
IQ groups o f cognitive
IQ scores.
chosen to match
level Ill's on the bas is
of
Tables 2 and 3 pres ent a furt her d e s c r i p ­
tion of the sample.
The sample
of 60 S s , 32 females and 28 males,
po se d of stu den ts
West
from classes
G e o r g i a College
and Oxford College.
T h i r t y - f o u r Ss
and 9 Ss from i n t r o ­
and uppe r div ision p h i l o s o p h y courses
Ge o r g i a State.
Fourteen Ss came
some of w h o m were
com­
at Geor gia State U ni ve rs ity,
from I n t r o du ct or y P s yc ho lo gy classes
duc to ry
was
came
from
from West G e o r g i a College,
in Intr od uc to ry Psy cho logy and some of
w h o m we re
in adv anced courses.
College.
In addition to m e e t i n g the re qu ireme nt s of the
i n d e p ende nt
Three Ss came
from Oxf or d
varia bl es , an attempt was made to equ al ly r e p ­
re se n t both sexes
and to r o u g h l y match mean ages
across
groups.
The study's design is as follows:
h y po th es is
1, 2 and
3 were t e s t e d by means of a 2 x 2 factorial analysis
iance,
fixed effects mod el
(Edwards, 1966), with
of v a r ­
IQ scores
42
TABLE 2
Mean Age, Range
Cognitive
Style
and Distribution of Sexes
Males
Low IQ High
IQ
Females
Low IQ High
IQ
in Each Group
Males & Females
Low IQ High IQ
I
Mean Age
Range
N
III
Mean
Range
N
24.4
19-32
8
22.9
18-31
8
18.4
18-20
7
18.3
17-19
7
21.4
18-32
15
20.6
17-31
15
25.1
19-37
8
28.0
18-42
4
19.6
18-22
7
22.0
18-30
11
22.4
18-37
15
25.0
18-42
15
24.8
19-37
16
25.5
18-42
12
19.0
18-22
14
20.2
17-30
18
22.1
18-37
30
22.2
17-42
30
I and III
Mean
Range
N
43
TABLE 3
Mean Estima te d WAIS Verbal IQ Scor es for Low and High
Groups and Cognitive Styles I and III
Cognitiv e
Style
Low
Males
IQ High
IQ
Females
Low IQ High IQ
Males 6 Females
Low IQ High IQ
I
Mean
SD
105.63
3.60
114.50
1.87
108.14
1.46
115.57
.73
106.80
3.08
115.00
1.55
Mean
SD
108.00
4.21
115.75
. 83
110.29
1.67
114.02
1.47
109.10
3.47
115.10
1.39
106.81
4.10
114.92
1.71
109.21
1.90
115.11
1.29
107.93
3.47
115.03
1.47
III
I and III
Mean
SD
e st im ated from the S h ipl ey test scores and cognitive style
level as the i n d e p en de nt
factors.
The two levels of each
factor were low and h i g h e s t i m a t e d IQ scores
factor and cognitive
levels
I and III for the
for the first
second factor.
The depend ent variable was MPS scores.
Hypotheses
4 and 5 were t e s te d by use o f the c o r r e l a ­
tion ratio (Bruning 6 Kin tz ,
1968)
in whi ch MPS scores were
correlated with Peak E x p e r i e n c e Essay scores.
For all h y ­
potheses, the null h y p o t h e s i s was r e je cted at the
of confidence
(one-tailed).
.05 level
C H APT ER III
RESULTS
The m e a n MPS scores
for the low and high TQ groups of
cognitiv e level I and level
III Ss and of the low and high
IQ groups
for bo th cognitive
Table
To i nv es ti gate the first three h y p o t h e s e s p o s t u ­
*♦,
levels comb in ed is p r e s e n t e d in
lated in this study, a 2 x 2 (level x IQ) ana lysi s of v a r i ­
ance was
computed.
This analysis, shown in Table 5, shows
i n t e ll ig en ce as the only s ig nificant main f a ctor with no
i n t e r acti on effect.
tive
level III
Thus, hypothesis 1, s t a t i n g that c o g n i ­
£3s wou ld score higher on the MPS than cognitive
level I Ss, was not supported.
High IQ Ss s c o r e d s i g n i f i ­
cantly h i g h e r on the MPS than did low IQ S s , thus suppo rti ng
hypothesis
2 at the
.05 lev el of confidence.
H ypo th es is
that there w o ul d be an intera ction between i n t e l ligen ce
3,
level
and c og ni ti ve style, was not supported.
Since int elligence
level was found to be s i g n ifica nt ly
r e l a t e d to mean MPS s c o r e s , the extent of this relat io ns hi p
was more th or ou g h l y e x pl or ed by c or re lati ng IQ and MPS scores
for each group and for the total N.
various
cant.
Table
6 p r es en ts the
coeffi ci en ts which were all found to be n o n - s i g n i f i ­
Thus, while high IQ Ss scored s i g n i f i c a n t l y hig h er on
the MPS than did low IQ Sjs, it cannot be said that the hig he r
a S's level of int ell ig en ce, the greate r his p re fe renc e
MPS metaphor.
for
TABLE 4
Mean Scores on the MPS
Cognitive
Style
Low IQ
High IQ
Low and
High IQ
Mean
SD
14.27
5.25
17.53
3.63
15.90
4. 80
Mean
SD
14.93
5. 72
16.67
4.98
15. 80
5.43
14. 60
5. 50
17.10
4.38
15. 85
5.12
I
III
I and III
Mean
SD
Note.--The
variances were tested and found homogeneous.
47
TABLE 5
S u mm ar y of Analysis of Variance of the MPS Scores
(Cognitive Style X IQ)
Source
df
MS
1
.150
IQ
1
94.350
Style X IQ
1
8.216
56
1472.933
Cogni ti ve
Style
Er r o r
*p < . 0 5
F
.006
4.356*
. 379
TABLE 6
Pea rson Coeff icients of Cor rel ation B e tw een
IQ and MPS Scores
Leve 1 I
Low IQ
High IQ
(N = 15) (N = 15)
•
14
.02
Leve 1 III
Low IQ
High IQ
(N = 15) (N = 15)
.12
.13
Level I and III
Low and High IQ
(N s 60)
.20
49
The mean MPS score for Ss under eac h Peak Ex per ien ce
Essay rati ng is p r e s e n t e d in Table 7 by gro up
total N.
and for the
It is note d by inspec tio n o f the means
that the re l a t i o n s h i p bet wee n MPS scores
ence ratings
and peak e x p e r i ­
of the low IQ cognitive level
appears
I group.
In this
to be no r e l a t i o n s h i p b e t w e e n p e r f o r m ­
ances on the two dep ende nt measures.
clear trend b e t w e e n groups
tel li gen ce
7
appears to be n o n - l i n e a r in each group, with
the exc e p t i o n
group, there
in Table
and cognitive
H o we ve r, there is a
for essay rat in gs
levels
to rise as in­
increase.
This trend is seen more clearly in Table
8, which p r e ­
sents the
fre quencies of each essay r a t i n g o b t a i n e d by each
cogniti ve
level group.
tendenc y
for cognitive
As seen in Table
level III Ss to score
u pp e r end of the rating scale
to score tow ard the scale's
that cognitive
8, there is a
towa rd the
and for cog n i t i v e level
lower end.
I Ss
It is su gg e s t e d
level III Ss re p o r t e d more ex pe rien ce s
of a
tr a n s c e n d e n t natu re and uti l i z e d more m e t a p h o r i c a l imagery
than did cognitive level I Ss.
Level
I's t e n d e d to report
common or trite e xp er ie nces and thus e x p r e s s e d the ms elves
c on ve nt iona l language
To i nve stigate
in
and dead metaphor.
the fourth h y p o t h e s i s ,
that MPS scores
w o uld be a r an over all pos itive r e l a t i o n s h i p to peak e x p e r i ­
ence essay scores,
correl ati on ratios
and are p r e s e n t e d in Table 9.
ratios
in Table 9 rea che d the
(Nyx) were calcu lat ed
None of the
corre lat ion
.05 level of significance.
50
TABLE 7
Mean MPS Score
for Each Peak Ex pe r i e n c e
Rating
Mean MPS Score
P .E .
Rating
Level III Level III
Low IQ
High IQ
N
X
N
X
Total
N
X
Le ve 1 I
Low IQ
N
X
Level I
High IQ
N
X
1
2
14.5
2
14. 5
0
-
0
2
14
17.6
5
14.6
7
19. 6
2
20.5
0
3
32
15.1
7
14. 7
6
15. 5
8
13.0
11
17.6
4
8
16.6
0
-
1
15.0
4
18. 3
3
11.7
5
1
12.0
0
-
0
1
12.0
-
0
mm
-
0
51
TABLE 8
Frequencies of Ratings on Essays for Each
Cognitive Level Group
Essay Rating
Cognitive
Style
1
2
3
U
5
I (N = 28)
2
12
13
1
0
III
0
2
19
7
1
(N = 29)
N o t e *- -T hr ee Ss did not write scor ab le essays.
52
TABLE 9
Correlation Ratios (Nyx) Between S s * MPS and
Peak Ex pe rien ce Essay Scores
Cognitive
Style
Low IQ
High
I
.10
.49
III
. 57
.32
I and III
IQ
Low and
High IQ
.26
53
Thus, h yp ot he sis
«+ is not supported.
5, which states that cogniti ve
achieve the highest positive
level
Similarly, h yp ot hesis
III high
IQ Ss w o u l d
co rr elati on , is also not s u p ­
ported.
The lack of r e l a ti on ship b e t w e e n MPS p re fe re nce
and
essay rat in gs raises the qu e s t i o n of how Ss p e r f o r m e d on the
essay task differentl y from th e i r perf or ma nc e on the MPS.
To answer this question, the m e d i a n essay r a ti ng for each
group was
computed and is p r e s e n t e d in Table 10.
Tests
for
si g n i f i c a n t differences were p e r f o r m e d by use of the Median
Test
(Siegle,
1956).
For N/s un d e r 20, the Median Test must
be comp le ted by use of Fi scher's
a group,
(mdn.
cognitive level
Exact Pr obab il it y Test.
III Ss a c hi ev ed a m e d i a n r a ti ng
= 2) dem onstrated by c o gn it iv e
level I S^s.
There were,
however, no me dia n d if fe re nces b e t w e e n the low and high
groups.
Although intel ligence was
MPS p re fe rence,
As
IQ
the si gn if ic ant factor in
cognitive style became the dom in ant factor
in ess ay performance.
It became apparent at this point in the study that the
e s t i m a t e d IQ scores may be too
crude a measure of i n t e l l i ­
gence, esp ec ially since m e t a p h o r s are complex expressions.
Subsequently,
to further ex pl ore possib le re aso ns
for the
lack of correlation between i n t e l l i g e n c e and m e t a p h o r p r e f ­
erence,
MPS scores were c o r r e l a t e d with raw scores
Shipley's
scores
from the
Vocabulary Test, A n al og ie s Test and the total raw
for each cognitive style and in tel lig ence level.
5U
TABLE 10
Median Ratings on Peak Exp er ience Essays
Cognitive
Style
Low IQ
High
IQ
Low and
High IQ
I
2
2
2
III
3
3
3
I and III
3
3
3
N ot e. - - M e d i a n test on rati ng s b e t w e e n levels
yiel ded p = .01.
I and III
55
Separ a t i n g the Shipley total score
into its two
parts s h o u l d perm it the in ve st igati on of a
erence
componen t
s metaphor pref­
in re l a t i o n to not only extent of v o c a b u l a r y but also
extent of a n a l o g i c a l - c o n c e p t u a l ability.
solution of analogies measures
tion-integration
A s s u m i n g that
the more c o mp lex dif fe re nt ia-
aspects of int elligence,
a n a l o g i c a l abil ity
ma y be a more d i s c r i m i n a t i n g variable for the hyp ot heses
g e n e r a t e d in this study than simply the total raw score or
v o c a b u l a r y scores
Means
only.
and standard deviatio ns
for the S h ip le y subtests
and total raw scores are p r e s e n t e d in Table 11.
c o mpu te d b e t w e e n these raw scores
Table
12.
As seen in Table
of in te l l i g e n c e
significantly
gies di d not.
Co rre lat ions
and MPS sco re s are shown in
12, among level
I Sjs , re ga rd l e s s
level, v o c a b u l a r y c o rr el at ed p o s i t i v e l y and
(p <£ .01) with m e t a p h o r p r e f e r e n c e but a n a l o ­
Conversely,
among level III S s , it was
analo­
gical a b ility which c or re lated si gn if ican tl y but ne ga t i v e l y
with MPS sco res , and there was no s ig ni fican t r e l a t i o n s h i p
b e t w e e n v o c a b u l a r y and m e t a p h o r preference.
analysis
indi ca tes that h yp ot he sis
supported.
In fact,
support
1 again f a i l e d to be
level III analogical ski ll was n e g a t i v e ­
ly r e l a t e d to MPS scores.
the
Thus, the above
of hypothesis
Also, in view of the above results,
2, which stated that high IQ Ss
w o u l d score si gn i f i c a n t l y h i g h e r on the MPS than
cannot be c onside re d conclusive.
low IQ Ss,
Finally, a lt hough there was
a lack of interact ion bet ween intelligence
level and cognitive
TABLE 11
Means and Standard Deviations of Shipley Vocabu lary,
An alogy and Total Raw Scores for Each Group
Cognitive
Style
V
Low IQ
A
T
V
High IQ
A
T
V
Low and
High IQ
A
T
I
Me an
SD
N
27.40
2.39
15
27.87
3.90
15
55.27
3.53
15
32.93
1.88
15
34.80
2.29
15
67.73
1.57
15
30.17
3.50
30
31.33
4.71
30
61.50
6.81
30
Mean
SD
N
29.60
2.68
15
29.33
4.54
15
58.93
5.20
15
35.00
2.61
15
34.13
2.58
15
67.73
1.57
15
32.30
3.78
30
31.73
4.45
30
64.03
6.51
30
28.50
2.77
30
28.60
4.29
30
57.10
4.81
30
33.97
2.50
30
34.47
2.46
30
68.43
2.15
30
31.23
3.80
60
31.53
4.57
60
62.77
6.78
60
III
I and III
Mean
SD
N
CJl
cn
TABLE 12
Pea rs on Coefficients of Correlation Betw een HPS Scores and Shipley
Vocabulary, Anal og y and Total Raw Scores for Each Group
Cognitive
Style
V
Low IQ
A
T
V
High IQ
A
T
V
Low and
High IQ
A
T
I
r
N
.32
15
.50*
15
.39
15
-.10
15
.32
15
.47**
30
r
N
.17
15
-.67** -.50*
15
15
• 04
15
-.44
15
.32
15
.19
30
.24
30
-.25
30
.10
30
-.29
30
-.21
30
.26
15
.35
30
.48**
30
III
-.40*
30
-.16
30
I and III
r
N
*p <
**p <
-.08
30
. 30** -.03
60
60
.15
60
.05
.01
cn
58
style, the correlations
in Table
action of the type of cognitive
12 suggest a possible
inter­
skill wi t h the SJ s cognitive
style in r el at io n to MPS pr efe re nc e.
The use of a global
intellige nc e measure may have o b s c u r e d sources of variance
which could be p a r t i ti oned out wi t h m e as ur es of spec ifi c
cognitive abilities.
In light of the further analysis of int el ligence
and MPS p re fe re nc e and its c o n s e qu en ce
level
to this study, it was
deci de d that further i n v e s t i g a t i o n of the assump tio n that
the Peak E xp er ie nce Essay is in fact a meas ur e of met a p h o r
expressi on seem ed necessary.
It was assumed e a r l i e r that a
S wi ll n e e d met ap ho r to e x pr es s a peak experience.
Thus, the
more tr an scende nt the p e r s o n fs expe ri en ce , the more he will
use m e t a p h o r i c a l expressions.
the Peak Experience
metaphor.
To explore
this
ass umption,
Essays were rated for poetic q u a l i t y of
A Psychology gra duate
student, who is intere ste d
in poet ry in psy cho the ra py , was aske d to rate each essay on a
scale
from one to five, wi th "one" m e a n i n g a cliche and m u n ­
dane w r it te n style and "five" m e a n i n g an original,
and poe tic writ ten style.
Her rat in gs were correlat ed with
E's o r ig in al ratings on level of peak e xp erience,
Pearson
coefficient of co rr el a t i o n ob t a i n e d was
Inter -ju dge re liabilit y was
imaginative
and the
.52 ( p < .005).
ob t a i n e d by asking an English
gra du at e student, who wri t es poe tr y, to rate a random sample
of 25 essays on their p o e t i c quality.
The int er-judge r e l i ­
ability coe fficient was c o mp ut ed to be
.57 ( p < .005).
A
59
correlation
of .52, as well as the inter- judge coeff ici ent of
.57, is acceptable,
c o n s i deri ng the vaguen ess of rating
"poetic quality" of the m e t a p h o r in the essays.
In summary, the ad di t i o n a l analyses of the s t u d y ’s data
indicate:
1.
that there are differ en ce s
level III Ss view input data,
i.e.,
in the way level I Ss and
the MPS.
That is, the
h i g h e r the level Ill's a b i l i t y to solve analogies, the less
he dem onstrates p r e f e r e n c e
for MPS metaphor.
However,
I Ss appar ent ly pr ef e r MPS m e t a p h o r more as voc ab ul ary
creases.
This suggests that the
is due to a common factor,
level
in­
level I pos iti ve correl ation
such as rea din g skill, bet wee n the
v ocab ul ar y test and the MPS.
2.
that the Peak Ex pe ri e n c e
reflect the expression
assumed.
(output)
Essay task does in fact
of m e t a p h o r as prev io u s l y
Furthermore, the data suggest that rat in g of as
complex a dimension as "po e ti c qual ity of metapho r"
ac hieved at a s ign if ic an t
fin din g that level III
ically than level
level of reliability.
Ss express
can be
The initial
th em sel ves more m e t a p h o r ­
I ’s is supported.
C H A P T E R IV
DIS CU SSI ON
The results of the p r e s e n t
study are more clearl y in­
terpr et ed if dis cu ss ed wi th i n the context of the task r e ­
quirements
of the d ep en de nt measures.
The
first task
r eq ui rement was the MPS, w h i c h asked Ss to choose the e x p r e s ­
sion of feeling which they felt best
The MPS items were d e riv ed
co mm unica te d emotion.
from the st ate ments of individuals
other than those in this stu dy and thus are not per son al ex ­
pres si on s of the Ss.
When S_s chose test items, they were
indica ti ng not so mu c h p e r s o n a l p r e f e re nc es
as they were
subjectiv el y choosing the mo s t ap pr opria te e x p r e s s i o n of
feeling.
The strength of t h e i r p r e f e r e n c e
for the appropriate
expres si on was indicated b y the n u m b e r of times they chose a
m e t a p h o r in lieu of a l i te ra l statement.
Under MPS conditions,
to be the only sig nif ic an t
inte ll igen ce
factor inv olved in a S_* s choice of
m e t a p h o r i c a l or literal items.
signi f i c a n t l y more than the
level was de mo nstra te d
High
IQ Ss p r e f e r r e d met apho r
low IQ S s , s ugg es ti ng that r e c o g ­
n i t i o n of, or percep ti on of, m e t a p h o r as an app ro pr ia te e x ­
pressi on of feeling is a fun ct io n of intelligence.
The
Shipley Scale, it wi l l be r e c a l l e d , is an i nd ic at or of i n ­
tellec t u a l eff ic iency on two covert dimens ion s:
and analogies.
vo cabulary
In the s u b s e q u e n t analysis of MPS scores and
Shipley Vocabulary raw scores ,
it was s ug ge st ed that reading
abil it y is a salient fa ct o r for level
I's but not
for level
61
Ill's.
Instead,
nega ti ve
level III Ss ach ie ved a sig nificant but
co r r e l a t i o n b e t w e e n MPS and analogies scores.
This
result may be i n t e r p r e t e d as ind ic at iv e of the approach of
level III Ss to simple r e a d i n g tasks.
That is, the b e t t e r
their abil ity to solve ana log ies, the less likely they were
to select an MPS met ap hor,
III
su gg estin g that the b e t t e r a level
is at u n d e r s t a n d i n g solutions to analogies, the more
critical he b e c o m e s o f con c e p t u a l l y vague expressions.
Percep ti on
of MPS m e t a p h o r bore no significant r e l a t i o n ­
ship to c og nitive style.
As stated above, a co gn it ively c o m ­
pl ex S does not se em to p r e f e r MPS met ap hor, a lack of p r e f ­
erence whidh may be a function of the MPS items the mselves.
That is, they are n e i t h e r u nus ua ll y commonplace n o r u n u s u a l l y
poetic.
Yet, u n d e r the essay task re quireme nts ,
it was level
III Ss who p r o d u c e d more m e t a p h o r i c a l l y expressed essays.
This
finding sug ges ts
quality of metap h o r s ,
that they do indeed d is cri mina te the
since they are able to create the ir own
metaphor.
Lo ok in g more
closely at the Peak Experience Essa y task,
it can be seen that m e t a p h o r ex pr essio n was qu anti f i e d i n d i ­
rectly by j u d gi ng the level of tr ansce nd en ce of the e x p e r i ­
ence.
In a more dire ct manner, each essay was also rat ed in
terms of its p o e t i c and m e t a p h o r i c qualities.
The h i g h l y
significant c o r r e l a t i o n betw ee n the two sets of ratings
suggests that the same pr oce ss of m e t a p h o r i z a t i o n is bei n g
judged.
Thus,
co gni tive level III Ss are prone towar d
62
more tr a n s c e n d e n t peak e x p e r ie nc es and more m e t a p h o r i c e x ­
p r e s s i o n than are c ogn itive
level I Ss,
T he re fore, e x p r e s ­
sion o f m e t a p h o r appears to be a function,
in gen eral, of the
s t y l i s t i c and p e r s o n a l i t y variabl es which H a rvey has i n t e ­
grated into the cognitive style construct.
In sum mary, the p r esent study suggests that both a c o m ­
pl ex
cogn iti ve
style and high level cognitive ski ll s
as a n a l o g i c a l re as o n i n g ) mi lit ate against p r e f e r e n c e
vague
and im pe rs o n a l metaphor s
o t h e r hand,
created by others.
(such
for
On the
it is c o g n i tivel y complex Ss w h o e x cel at crea ting
th e i r own m e t a p h o r s
in exp re ss io n of a t r a n s c e n d e n t e x p e r i ­
ence.
The results of this study raise i n t e r e st in g con jectu re s
as to the r e l a t i o n s h i p b e tw ee n metaphor e x p r e s s i o n and p e r ­
c e pt io n to di ffe re nt in telle ct ua l skills and levels of c o g ni ­
tive complexity.
Because a S^ can perceive m e t a p h o r as an
e x p r e s s i o n of feeling does no t imply that he can cre at e m e t a ­
p h o r in his
communications.
Likewise, lovers
of mu s i c and
p o e t r y are no t n e c e s s a r i l y skil lfu l at com position.
S p e c if ic al ly, the study suggests that one s h o u l d use
s e v e r a l tests of co gnitiv e skills
in e x p l o r i n g m e t a p h o r
p re fe re nce.
(1967) mo d e l of int ellect
Possibly , Guilfor d's
could be used to relate m e t a p h o r preferen ce to a n u m b e r of
cog ni tiv e operations.
In future researc h,
al ter nat ive in stru me nt s
for o b t a i n ­
ing indices of me t a p h o r p re fe re nce might be consi der ed.
For
63
example,
place
the peak ex per ie nc e is an even t wh i c h has taken
in the past, but metaphor may be more ea si ly elic it ed
by descript io n of one's own immediate,
e m o t i o n a l state.
is also suggest ed that future rese ar ch s h o ul d address
to e xp ressive measures
of me t a p h o r p er ce pt ion,
It
itsel f
of met aph or p r e f e r e n c e since me asu res
such as the MPS, a p pe ar to be c o n ­
fo und ed by the em o t i o n a l l y n o n - i n v o l v i n g na tu r e o f such tasks.
It might also be wise to pursue d i f f e r e n t ways of determi ni ng
levels of cognitive complexity.
For e x a m p l e ,
Ss could be
ca teg or iz ed on the basis of level of c o n c e p t u a l a bs traction
rath er than level of cognitive complexity.
C H APT ER V
SUMMARY
In the present study, p e r c e p t i o n of and express ion of
m e t a p h o r have been s t u d i e d within the framework of cognitive
processes.
Met ap ho r was
which two or more ideas
def ined as a c oncep tu al proc ess
in
are sy n t h e s i z e d in such a way as to
suggest a new concept or image.
It was postu l a t e d that the
syn the si zi ng activity req ui res both skill in cognitive d i f ­
fe rentiat ion and in t e g r a t i o n and a cognitive style which
fa cil itates e x p e r i e n c i n g abs tract events.
In order to c l a r i f y the rel ati on of m e t a p h o r p e r c e p t i o n
and m e t a p h o r exp re ssi on
in the sy nt h e s i z i n g process, two
dep en de nt measures of m e t a p h o r p r e f e r e n c e were devised.
Per­
ception of m e ta ph or as an expr es s i o n of feeling was m e a s u r e d
by the MPS, a p a p e r - a n d - p e n c i l task in wh i c h a £ chooses
literal or meta p h o r i c a l items.
Abil it y to express one s el f
me t a p h o r i c a l l y was i nd ir ectly m e as ured by use of the Peak
Experien ce Essay, a task in which the £ writes
an account of
an emotio na lly s i g n i f ic an t event.
With two in de pe nd ent variables
(intelligence level as
m e a s u r e d by the S h i p l e y - H a r t f o r d Scale and cognitive style as
m e a s u r e d by H a r v e y ’s This
variabl es
I Believe test) and two dependent
(the MPS and the essay task), the following h y p o ­
theses were tested.
1.
Cognitive level III Ss will score higher on the MPS
than w i l l cognitive l e v e l I Ss.
65
2.
H i gh er IQ Ss wil l score hi gh er on the MPS than will
lower IQ Ss.
3.
There will be an in teractio n be tw ee n
IQ and c o g n i ­
tive style in S_ pe rf orma nc e on the MPS.
H.
Ss'
scores on the MPS wi ll correla te p o s i t i v e l y with
th ei r scores on the Peak Ex peri enc e Essay.
5.
H i gh er IQ, cogniti ve level III Ss wi l l d em on strat e
the h i g h e s t posi tive
cor rel at io n between MPS scores
and Peak
E x p e r i e n c e Ess ay ratings.
The res ul ts
expressions
indica ted that pe rc ept ion of meta p h o r s
as
of feeling is p r im aril y an input task, p os si bl y
re l a t e d to size of vocabulary.
commun ic at e
In contrast, the abil it y to
in m e t a p h o r is, within the limits of the sample's
i n t e l l e c t u a l level range, p ri ma ri ly a func ti on of the c o g n i ­
tive style
construct as e x p l i c a t e d in Harvey's
Conceptua l
Systems Theory.
It was d e ci de d that more in form ati on
could be gain ed if
S h i p l e y - H a r t f o r d e st im at ed IQ's were co nv e r t e d back to the
v o c a b u l a r y and analo gy raw scores and cor re l a t e d with MPS
scores.
In resu lt,
it was
found that
scor e d h i g h e r on the MPS as voca bu la ry
c ogn itive level I Ss
in crease d, but there
was no c o r r e latio n bet w ee n their MPS and ana logies
In contrast,
it was found that as level III Ss scored higher
on the an al ogi es
Yet, it was level
essays.
scores.
test, they p re fe rr ed MPS m e t a p h o r less.
III Ss who also wrote the most m e t a p h o r i c a l
It was sug ge st ed that level III Ss d i sl ik ed MPS
66
m e t a p h o r beca us e of greater ability to di s c r i m i n a t e quality
in m e t a p h o r i c expressions.
In concl usi on, results of the study were used to suggest
future research.
In partic ular,
it was
su gg e s t e d that the
proces se s u n d e r l y i n g m e t a p h o r e x p r e s s i o n sho uld be given more
attent io n and that ex ploration of the u n d e r l y i n g processes
might include a n u m b e r of tests
of s p ec if ic cognitive skills
such as those su gg e s t e d in Guilfo rd 's
intelligence.
(1967) mod el of
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AP PENDIXES
Appendix 1
MPS Test-r etes t
Co rre lati on
Coefficients
r
X Rating
SD
"a floating, soaring . . • n
"A wave of warm th . • . • it
"I'm in tune with • . . • •i
"I'm in an ebb and flow . • • • •i
"There's an inner, warm . • • • it
"c ompl et el y w r a p p e d • • . ii
"My mind expands . . . • it
"My anti ci pa ti on stands • • • • it
"I want to h o l d back . . • • ii
"Happiness floods my • • « • ii
"A new feeli ng blossoms • • • • ii
"There's no separa tion . « • • it
.66
.66
.63
. 85
.70
.60
.79
.69
.63
. 83
.44
.62
4.27
5.19
3.81
3. 35
5.96
5.00
2.58
1.96
6.23
4.69
4.50
2.85
3.13
3.61
2.56
3.32
3. 36
2.42
3.08
2.12
3.33
3.37
2.78
3.07
Positive Lite ral
"a general release and . . ."
"I feel p e a c e f u l . . . ."
"There's a sense of . . . ."
"There's a carefree . . . ."
"I feel very ple ase d . . . ."
"I feel e x ci te d and . . . ."
"I feel self-a war e but . . . ."
"sure, acc omplished, happy . . . ."
"There's a le ssening of . . . ."
"I feel more friendly . . . ."
"slowly be c o m i n g aware . . . "
"I'm kee nl y aware of . . • ."
.59
.79
.73
.67
.78
. 65
. 80
. 81
.71
.78
.67
.76
6.15
8. 85
8.27
7.73
7.23
8.42
6.00
8.23
7.00
8.42
7.63
7. 35
2.71
2.81
2.71
2.77
2.29
2.37
3.49
3.14
2.80
3.33
3.21
3.55
.68
.83
.49
.75
.92
. 60
.79
2.96
2. 54
3.62
2.65
2.58
3.31
3.73
2.01
1.89
1.59
2.20
2.10
1.88
1.91
.71
.84
.61
. 80
2.92
3.46
3.73
5.04
2.37
2.56
1.85
2.08
Positive Metaphor
Negative Met aph or
"The world is a vast . . . ."
"I'm adrift . . . ."
"My heart sinks . . . ."
"There's a hot, red . . . ."
"There's an icy . . . ."
" Ev er yt hing inside me . . . ."■
"The feeling seizes me . . . ."
Neg ati ve Literal
"My hands and legs are . • • •"
"I get very, very mad . . . ."
"I hold my breath . . . ."
"I feel dis app ointment . . . ."
"I just look at peo ple . . .
"My hands b e g i n to . • • ."
"physically and e m o t i o n a l l y
76
A p pen di x 2
PR EFERENCE SCHEDULE
Inside are a n u m b e r of ex pr es si ons of e m o t i o n a l e x p e r i ­
ences w h i c h are p a i r e d with each other.
For each pai ring,
plea se in dic ate which item yo u prefe r the most by b l a c k i n g
out the l e t t e r "a'1 or Mb" on y o u r answer sheet.
Let y o u r pr ef er e n c e de ci sio ns be based on the foll ow in g
criterion:
if y o u were trying to express your em o t i o n s to
a close friend, which e xpre ss io n of each pair w o u l d y o u c o n ­
sider the most co mm un ic ative of meaning?
Pl ea se make your judgments on this basis even thou gh
some o f the phra ses or sente nce s may not de scribe you p e r ­
son all y at this time.
EXAMPLE:
1.
a.
b.
wa n t to ho l d back time and capture the mome nt
I feel sure, acc om pl is hed, happy
Of the two exp ress io ns , whi ch one would y o u choose as
the most commu n i c a t i v e of e m o t i o n a l meaning?
When y o u begin, please work steadily, w i t h o u t t a k i n g
too m u c h time on any one pa ir of items.
Preference Schedule
c omp letely wra pp ed up in the m o men t
I feel self-aware but not se lf -cons ci ou s.
My hands and legs are cold and yet I sweat.
The world is a vast p a n o r a m a I ’m v i e wi ng from out
side.
A wave of warm th travels my body,
a general release and le ss e n i n g of tension
I just look at people w i th ou t sayin g anything.
The w o r l d is a vast p a n o r a m a I ’m v i ew in g from out
side.
A ne w feeling blossoms in m y mind.
There's a carefree feeling.
My hands and legs are cold and yet
There's an icy burning inside.
I sweat.
c om pl et ely w r a pp ed up in the mom en t
There's a les sening of inner conflict.
I hold my breath and listen intently.
The feeling seizes me, takes over.
There's a carefree feeling,
co mpl et el y wra ppe d up in the momen t
The wor ld is a vast p a n o r a m a I'm v i ew ing from out
side.
I hold my bre ath and listen intently.
I feel self-aware but not self -c on sc ious.
A wave of warmth travels my body.
The feeling seizes me, takes over.
I just look at people w i th ou t s a y i n g anything.
There's a carefree feeling.
There is an
inner warm glow.
My hands and legs are cold and yet
The feeling seizes me, takes over.
I sweat.
There is an
inner war m glow.
I feel self-aware but not se lf -cons ci ou s.
78
16.
a.
b.
Ever yt hi ng inside me has stopped.
I hold my b r e a t h and listen intently.
17.
a.
b.
a gen er al r e leas e and less en in g of tension
complet el y w r a p p e d up in the moment
18.
a.
b.
Every t h i n g inside me has stopped,
I just look at peopl e w i t ho ut saying anything.
19.
a.
b.
T h e r e ’s a l e s s e n i n g of
There is an i n n e r warm
20.
a.
b.
The f e eling seizes me, takes over.
My hands begin to shake and my stomach trembles.
21.
a.
b.
T h e r e ’s a l e s s e n i n g of inner conflict,
A ne w f e e l i n g blos so ms in my mind,
22.
a.
b.
My hands begin to shake and my stomach trembles,
The w o r l d is a vast p a n o r a m a I ’m view ing from o u t ­
side .
23.
a.
b.
A new f e e l i n g b l o s s o m s in my mind.
I feel s e l f - a w a r e but not self-conscious.
24.
a.
b.
My hands and legs are cold and yet
E v er yt hi ng inside me has stopped.
25.
a.
b.
There is an inn er wa rm glow.
a gene ral r e l e a s e and les se ni ng of tension
26.
a.
b.
T h e r e ’s an icy b u r n i n g inside.
I just look at p e o p l e w i t h o u t saying anything.
27.
a.
b.
There's a care fr ee feeling.
A wave of w a r m t h travels my body.
28.
a.
b.
There's an icy b u r n i n g inside.
My hands b e g i n to shake and my stomach trembles.
29.
a.
b.
T h e r e ’s a les se ni ng of inner conflict,
A wave of w a r m t h travels my body.
30.
a.
b.
There's an icy b u r n i n g inside.
I hold my b r ea th and listen intently.
31.
a.
b.
a gener al re l e a s e and lessening of tension
A new feeling blo sso ms in my mind.
32.
a.
b.
E v e r y t h i n g inside me has stopped.
My hands b eg i n to shake and my stomach trembles.
inner conflict,
glow.
I sweat,
79
App e n d i x 3
EXPERIEN CE SURVEY
In the space below, I would like you to write a br i e f
paragraph about an exper i e n c e in y o u r life which you c o n ­
sider to have been very signif ic an t for you.
See if y o u can recall the most won de rf ul (meani ngf ul,
stirring, th ri ll i n g , deeply moving, ecstatic, o v e r wh el mi ng)
experi enc e of y o u r life; w h e n you were deeply touched,
t ra ns po rted , o ve rj oy ed, e nr ap tu red, transfixed.
After y o u have re c a l l e d the experien ce and t h o ug ht about
what yo u want to say, plea se describe the e xp erien ce as
though yo u w a n t e d to c om municate to a friend the e x p e r i e n c e d
impact on you:
ho w did it make you feel?
A p pen di x 4
Peak Experience Essay Scoring Criteri a
Nature of the Exp er ie nce
A genuine peak experience.
A very important, m e a n i n g f u l bu t not quite peak
experience.
An obv iously spe ci al event but one which is ex­
per ie nce d by many people.
An event of spe cial me ani ng, but of pe des tr ia n
or routine quality.
A trite, banal, o rd i n a r y experience.
EX AMP LES
"I first let m y s e l f ex pe rie nce m y s e l f as I
real ly was.
This c on si sted of letti ng m y s e l f be
held as a little child is he l d and treated on a
complet ely childlike level.
The feelings ass oci­
ated cannot a d e q u a t e l y be put into words.
Close­
ness, onenessj tr ansc e n d e n c e , and most of all the
ambiguous a l l - e n c o m p a s s i n g love.
It is an ex­
perience I have t r e a s u r e d always and n e v e r have
been able to rec apt ure in quite .the same way."
"I was hiking in the mo un t a i n s and became
lost.
While sear ch ing for my way back, I came
across a ridge and s u dd en ly bef ore me lay the
most b eau ti fu l val le y I have ev e r seen.
A stream
with falls lay just b e l o w me.
Birds were singing
everywhere, and no signs of human exi st enc e were
in evi dence for miles around.
The anxiety over
b e i n g lost escaped me and was r e pl ac ed by the
et her eal quality of h a v i n g been t r a n s po rt ed from
a wo rl d of greed and avarice back to a Garden of
Eden."
"The same type of e xper ie nc e has occu rr ed
seve ral times and I cannot separate them.
They
were all concerned w i t h music.
Both h e ar in g a
large symphony and sing ing wi t h a huge group
brought about these exp eri en ce s, so the size of
the group seems important.
I felt lifted up and
81
a part of the whol e group.
My only thou ght was
that we were doing s o meth in g great together, and
no t h i n g else ma t t e r e d in the world.
When the
s y mph on y was pla ying, the music has always been
loud and big.
Then I want e d very much to e i t h e r
play with t h e m or active ly res pon d in some way ."
’'I knew the mean ing of the wo r d love vers us
respect.
I felt love in a strong but gentle,
complete sense.
I found love to mean o n e ’s
entire self."
3
"I was a stude nt nurse of pedia tri c a f f i l i a ­
tion.
A baby, app ro xi ma te ly sixteen mon th s old,
had been cri ti cally ill for several days.
I
asked p e r m i s s i o n to take the child from the bed
and ho l d h e r and this p er miss io n was granted.
I
held and r o cked the child for several minu tes
befo re she responded.
After a while she beg an to
stir and open he r eyes and the next day she was
almost well.
It gave me a w on derfu l fee ling to
think p e rhap s these few minutes of love and warmth
to this sick child h e l p e d her to get w e l l . ”
"The e x pe ri en ce that stands out most clearly
in my mind w o u l d have to be term ed m e a n i n g f u l and
deeply m o vi ng r a t he r than exciting.
The e x p e r i ­
ence came at the age of nine when I deci de d to
follow Christ.
That decision has given my life
m e a n i n g and despite doubts and search ings , I have
never regretted it.”
2
"I left for Paris, France.
I was so e x c it ed
that I slept very little the last few days b ef o r e
leaving.
It was a drea m- li ke period.
It was
spe cia l be ca us e it was a chance to live and study
abroad and be ca use it o f fere d a chance to travel.
This was to be a Junior year abroad.
It was a
chance to move into the adult world and m e e t
d i ffe re nt people."
"I graduated from high school.
My m o t h e r
had to quit school early and go to work, but she
always im pressed upon me the value of an e du ca ti on
and the social atmosp her e that would help in
maturing.
Gra du a t i o n was a mi le st o n e - - t h o u g h
many other e x p e r ien ce s rate along with it, perhaps
it is the most e n d u r i n g . ”
82
1
’’Once when I was playing lit tle league b a s e ­
ball, my single in the last inning won the game.
Everyone was happy about it and it made me feel
good to know that I had won the g a m e . ”
” 1 was about ten years old and my pare nts
I went to the beach for a v a c a t i o n . ”
and
"The shar pe st guy I knew asked me out.
All
the othe r guys I have dated were about a v e r a g e . ”
"I joined the Baptist Church.
At the time I
was nine years old and was p l e a s e d to r e alize that
I could take an active, r e s p o ns ib le part in a
wo rth w h i l e o r g a n i z a t i o n . ”