Abstract

This study was designed to systematically investigate personality, psychophysiological, and cognitive appraisal variables in three groups of mothers, i.e., abusive (N = 14), neglectful (N = 13), and low-income control (N = 15). All subjects completed a Mini-Mult, the Repression-Sensitization Scale, the Group Embedded Figures Test, the Multiple Affect Adjective Checklist, and the Socialization scale of the California Psychological Inventory. They listened to an audiotape sequence of white noise, tone, and infant's cry sounds while cardiovascular and skin resistance measures were recorded. The mothers also rated six dimensions of the infant's cry on a semantic differential. The three groups of mothers differed on a variety of personality variables, e.g., on F, Depression (D), Psychopathic Deviate (Pd), Psychasthenia (Pt), and Schizophrenia (Sc) from the Mini-Mult, on their cognitive appraisal of the infant's cry, and on skin resistance measures. A combination of personality, psychophysiological, and cry rating variables was entered in a discriminant analysis that was successful in discriminating 80% of the subjects. The two significant discriminant functions were defined primarily by the Pd scale and a cognitive appraisal measure.