Field-Dependence, Judgment of Weights by Females and an Appeal for a More Complex Approach to the Study of Individual Differences

摘要

Fine (1972a) has presented evidence of a strong, nonlinear relationship between field-dependence-independence introversion-extraversion. In the context of that relationship, he suggested that differences between individuals in field dependence might be conceptualized profitably as at least partially genetically based differences in 'sensitivity', as contrasted with 'strength' of the nervous system. Differences in 'sensitivity' were assumed to depend upon the extent to which the nervous system becomes 'differentiated' as an individual develops. 'Differentiation' differed from the use of the term by Witkin et al. (1962) in that it was considered in its biological sense as being referrable to physical characteristics of components of the nervous system or of the nervous system as a whole, e.g., size, number and/or distribution of specific types of receptors, elaborateness or complexity of neural networks, quality or quantity of neural transmitter substances, with these ultimately reducible to differences in the molecular structure of enzymes and proteins. (sdw)