900 Journal of Clinical Psychology, October, 1980, Vol. 36, No. 4. SELLTXZ C. .WRIQHTSMAN, L. S., & COOK, S. W. Research mthals in social r e k t t h . New York:

Hoit, h e h a r t & Winston, 1976. SHAW, M. E. Group dynamks. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1976. STRASSBERQ, D. S., & ANCHOR, K. N. Rating the intimacy of self-disclosure. P8@tubgical Repotts,

TITTLER B. I. A behavioral approach to investigating the factors of openness-to-experience. Un-

TITTLER, B. I. A behavioral approach to the measurement of openness-to-experience. Journal

TITTLER, B. I., WEITZ, L. J., & ANCHOR, K. N. Pretest and change score intercorrelations in the validation of behavioral meaeures of opennees. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 1976, 32, 806808.

TRWAX, C. B. The process of group psychotherapy: Relationships between hypothesized there peutic conditions and intrapersonal exploration. Psychological &fonographs, 1961, 76, 1-35.

WEIQEL, R. G., & WARNATH, C. F. The effects of group therapy on reported self-disclosure. Inter- national Journal of &oup Pwchotherapy, 1968, 18, 31-41.

WEST, L. W., & ZINQLE, H. W. A self-dieclosure inventory for adolescents. Psychologiccrl Reports, 1969, 24, 439-445.

YALOM, I. D. The theory and practice of group psychotherapy. New York: Basic Books, 1970.

1975, 37, 562.

pubfished doctoral dissertation, Pennsylvania State University, 1971.

Of Personality A88&38me?& 1974, 98, 335-341.

THE PHYSICAL CONDITIONING PLATOON : TWO YEARS LATER'

STEVEN BERARD AND ANNE HOIBERG

Naval Health Research Centet Ban Diego, California

Assessed the %year effectiveness of Marines who had been assigned to the Physical Conditioning Platoon during recruit training in 1975 (N = 635). Participankq were asked to corn lete: a background information question- naire, a self-evaluation scale, a darine Corps opinion questjonnaire, and the Comrey Personality Scales. The total sample was divided into a vahdation and cross-validation subsample using the 2-year effectiveness or noneffective- ness criterion as the basis. Results of Pewson product-moment correlation analyses showed that higher levels of education, fewer expulsions and sus- pensions from school favorable attitudes on the Marine Corps Affiliation subscale and favorable self-perceptions on the three Comrey Personality Scales of Trust vs. Defensiveness, Activity vs. Lack of Energy, and Emotional Stability vs. Neuroticism were significantly associated with effectiveness in both the validation and cross-validation subsamples. Such findings suggest that these variables, particularly those related to affiliation and enjoyment of physical activities, should be considered as ossible selection indicators for recruits who are overweight or cannot pass t f e physical requirements for recruit training.

One aspect of the post-baby-boom demographics that military planners must face is the reduction in the number of potential enlistees in the 18- to 24- year age group. Filling the manpower needs of the Armed Forces from a steadily di- minishing pool of potential enlistees promises to be a serious challenge to recruiters. Due to this increased emphasis on recruiting, the Special Training Branch of the Marine Corps has been scrutinized more closely than in the past. Since 1956, the Marine Corps has trained marginally acceptable recruits in small goal-oriented groups such as the Academic Remedial Training Platoon or the Physical Con- ditioning Platoon (PCP). Faced with a sizable number of men who are desirous of serving in the Marine Corps but are unable to meet the minimum physical requirements, the Special Training Branch offers an opportunity to alleviate

1Report Number 79-50, supported by Naval Medical Research and Development Command Department of the Navy, under Research Work Unit 3F51-524.0220001. The mew8 presented in this paper are those of the authors. No endorsement by the Department of the Navy baa been given or should be inferred.

Physical Conditioning 901

some of the enlistment shortfall problem. The PCP program allows physically marginal men to enlist or remain in the Corps on the condition that they meet prescribed physical standards before they can be assigned to a regular training platoon and thence to their first duty station.

In 1966, Rimland and Neuman studied the Special Training Branch and concluded that PCP graduates did not differ significantly from other recruits on several measures of initial potential or actual performance in thc Marine Corps. In a later report, Hoiberg (1978) noted that 36% of a PCP sample failed to gradu- ate from recruit training. Compared to the 12% attrition rate for all recruits a t the Marine Corps Recruit Depot in San Diego, the PCP members were not very successful. Furthermore, due to the additional training required in PCP and the high instructor to student ratio, the recruits are more expensive to train than men who can fulfill regular training requirements.

I n order to assess the cost-effectiveness of the PCP program, a longitudinal study was undertaken to examine the performance of PCP participants during recruit training (Hoiberg, 1978) and throughout the 4-year enlistment. Members of our cohort of PCP enlistees have now been on active duty for more than 2 years or have been discharged from the Marine Corps. It is our goal to identify back- ground, motivation, and personality characteristics that differentiate effective from noneffective Marines. Characteristics found to distinguish these two groups could be used to design enlistment criteria. The Marine Corps could utilize the guidelines in the enlistee selection process and thereby reserve special recruit training opportunities for those who are most likely to prove effective during their military service. For this second phase of the longitudinal study, the effective- ness of Marines who had been assigned to PCP will be examined after a follow-up period of a t least 2 years.

METHOD Subjects

Participants for this study were 635 Marine Corps enlistees who had entered recruit training between January and September 1975. Because they were unable to meet the minimum physical requirements, 280 men were assigned to PCP. The other participants ( N = 355) had been assigned to the PCP program primarily because they were overweight.

Questionnaires Instruments used for this study included a battery of questionnaires com-

pleted at the beginning of the PCP program: A background information question- naire, a self-evaluation scale, a Marine Corps opinion questionnaire, and the Com- rey Personality Scales. Items selected from the background questionnaire consisted of education, number of expulsions and suspensions from school, height, and weight.

On the self-evaluation scale, participants were asked to respond on the basis of their feelings of satisfaction or dissatisfaction with various physical characteristics such as weight, body build, strength, or width of shoulders. All responses, which ranged from 1 to 5, were summed to obtain a total score; higher scores on this 36-item scale indicated greater satisfaction with one’s attributes.

The Marine Corps opinion questionnaire was designed to assess recruits’ feelings about four aspects of service in the Corps: (1) the Toughness of Marines, i.e , the invincibility of Marines; (2) the Spirit of Marines, i.e., the group loyalty m d dedication among Marines; (3) Affiliation with the Marine Corps, i.e., identi- fication with the Marine Corps; and (4) Authority in the Marine Corps, i.e., tra- ditional views of Marine Corps leadership anddiscipline. Scores for each of the four scales were derived by summing the item responses (ranging from 1 to 6) that comprised the four subscales. To eliminate the possibility of response bias, one-half of the 32 items were negatively worded on the questionnaire and responses were reflected during the scoring process. High scale sums represented favorable

902 Journal of Clinical Psychology, October, 1980, Vol. 36, N o . 4.

attitudes toward the Marine Corps. This instrument is described more completely in Booth and Hoiberg (1974).

The Comrey Personality Scales consist of 10 scales (a total of 180 items) with a response range from 1 to 7. Included in this study were eight characteristics: (1) Trust vs. Defensiveness; (2) Orderliness vs. Lack of Compulsion; (3) Social Conformity vs. Rebelliousness; (4) Activity vs. Lack of Energy; (5) Emotional Stability vs. Neuroticism; (6) Extraversion vs. Introversion; (7) Masculinity vs. Femininity; and (8) Empathy vs. Egocentrism. The two remaining scales assessed the validity and reliability of responses to the eight personality scales. Responses for each scale were summed to create the scale score.

After the specified follow-up period of 2 years, those men who were listed on active duty were asked to complete a questionnaire on their service history as well as their success or failure in maintaining a weight loss achieved during participation in the PCP program. For those men who had been separated from the Marine Corps, information on the date and circumstances of the separation was obtained from Headquarters, Marine Corps, in Washington, D.C.

Procedure For the purpose of analysis, the sample was divided into three groups: (1)

Effective Marines included men on active duty after the 2-year follow-up period or those who had been recommended for reenlistment at the time of their sepa- ration; (2) Noneffective Marines were those who failed to complete 2 years on active duty and were not eligible for reenlistment; and (3) Marines who were discharged for reasons other than inaptitude, lack of motivation, or bad conduct, but rather were separated for physical problems or for adverse family circum- stances, etc. Members of the latter group were separated because of factors beyond the realm of their ability or desire to perform as Marines, hence they were excluded from the analyses.

Effective Marines received a criterion score of 2, and noneffective partici- pants were given a criterion value of 1. The sample then was divided into validation and cross-validation subsamples on the basis of the criterion and the reason the individual was assigned to the PCP program (i.e., overweight or marginal physical qualifications). Variables that represented three domains, Background Character- istics, Motivation for Being a Marine, and Personality Characteristics, were ex- amined for their relationship with the criterion. Pearson product-moment cor- relation coefficients were computed for each variable. The correlation coefficients were developed initially on the validation subsample, and the relationships then were confirmed by analyses on the cross-validation subsample.

RESULTS During the 2-year follow-up period, the active duty status or reason for sepa-

ration was collected on each PCP participant. Of the 635 men who were assigned to the PCP program between January and September 1975, 196 (30.9%) were effective after 2 years, 242 (38.lyO) were noneffective, and 197 (310/0) were sepa- rated from service for physical disabilities, errors in enlistment, family circum- stances, or death. The latter group was excluded from the analyses, and the effective and noneffective enlistees were divided into validation ( N = 221) and cross-vali- dation ( N = 217) subsamples.

Background Characteristics Although the level of education did not predict graduation from PCP (Hoiberg,

1978), it proved to be correlated significantly with the 2-year effectiveness cri- terion. The correlation coefficients for all variables in the validation and cross- validotion subsamples are presented in Table 1. The number of expulsions and suspensions from secondary school usually has been predictive of success in the

Physical Conditioniirg 903

Marine Corps (Hoiberg & Berry, 1977); this relationship was reaffirmed by the results obtained in this study. It was predicted that the Weight/Height Index (weight in pounds divided by height in inches squared and multiplied by 100) would be associated with the criterion because a substantial number of the par- ticipants had been assigned to the PCP program to reduce their weight. The cor- relation coefficient of the Index and criterion was negative because higher levels of the Index indicated greater deviation from a desired weight; however, the re- lationship was not statistically significant. The self-evaluation scale score was not related to the success criterion.

TABLE 1 CORRELA~ONS OF PREDICTOR VARIABLES WITH TWO-YEAR EFFECTIVENESS

CRITERION FOR VALIDATION AND CROSWALJDATXON SWSAMPLES

Le.vel of (& (x-?~I) siglllficance'

Background Characteristics Years of education .13 .15 . 01 Number of expulsions/suspensions (score

reversed) . 19 .13 .05

Weight/height index Self Evaluation Scale

Marine Corps Opinion Questionnaire Toughness Spirit miat ion Authority

Comrey Personality Scales Trust va. Defensiveness Orderliness vs. Lack of Compulsion Social Conformity vs. Rebelliousness Activity vs. Lack of Energy Emotional Stability vs. Neuroticism Extraversion vs. Introversion Masculinity vs. Femininity Empathy vs. Egocentrism

-.lo -.11 1uI

.07 . 01 na

- .05 - .08 n8 .22 .07 ?a8

.31 .22 . 01

.14 . 11 ?la

.14

.04

. 11

.24

.24

.05

.02

.03

.39

.07

.06

.20

.13 - .003 .05 .06

.05 ?la 1uI

. 01

.05 A8

ns ?la

N 221 217

aSign3cance level exceeded by both correlation coefficients.

Motivation for Being a Marine The Marine Corps opinion questionnaire was designed to measure attitudes

that would be expected to differentiate effective from noneffective Marines. Only one of the subscales, Affiliation, was related significantly to the 2-year effective- ness criterion. The 5 items in this subscale are concerned with an individual's feelings about being a Marine rather than a civilian. The results indicated that individuals who felt a relatively strong association with the Marine Corps during the first few days of their enlistments were more likely than others to be effective after 2 years of active duty.

904 Journal of Clinical Psychology, October, 1980, Vol. 36, N o . 4.

Personality Characteristics Of the eight Comrey Personality Scales assessed in this study, three were

found to be associated with the 2-year effectiveness criterion. These included: Trust vs. Defensiveness, Activity vs. Lack of Energy, and Emotional Stability vs. Neuroticism. The strongest relationship between the 2-year effectiveness cri- terion and the scales was obtained for the Activity vs. Lack of Energy Scale. Two statements from the 20-item scale included the following: “I enjoy doing things that involve quite a bit of physical exercise” and “Being a big success in life re- quires more effort than I am willing to make” (reversed).

Such results indicated that the successful Marine in this group of PCP par- ticipants can be characterized as having completed more years of schooling and having had fewer expulsions and suspensions than his peers. Identification with being a Marine was reflected by his relatively high score on the Affiliation sub- scale of the Marine Corps opinion questionnaire. He is more trusting, more physically active and motivated to excel, and exhibits a higher level of emotional stability than the noneffective Marine.

DISCUSSION Results of this study showed that after a follow-up period of 2 years about

31y0 of the cohort had performed satisfactorily in their roles as Marines. In 1966, Rimland and Neuman reported that 75y0 of their Special Training Branch cohort was effective after 2 years, and 82% of the Marine Corps as a whole met the 2- year effectiveness criterion. However, by 1975, the circumstances had changed considerably; that is, the attrition rate of the Marine Corps had risen to 44y0 after 3 years of the 4-year enlistment (Janowitz & Moskos, 1979). Although the attrition rate among PCP participants reported in this study was high, the Marine Corps could improve the odds that an individual PCP member would complete his enlistment by selecting men who resembled the profile of the effective ‘Marine as put forth in this study. In other words, men who are likely to be effective, as shown by the test results, could be granted PCP training while less likely can- didates could be excluded. In this way, the expense of training a recruit would not be lost on those men who are most likely to prove unsuitable as Marines.

The effective Marine after 2 years was characterized as an individual who (1) identified with being a Marine rather than a civilian and (2) was motivated to do well in his pursuits and enjoyed being physically active. These findings were based on the significant correlation coefficients obtained between the criterion and the Affiliation and Activity vs. Lack of Energy Scales, which were similar to the results reported for recruits (Hoiberg, 1978) and indicated that the probabi- lity of completing recruit training and 2 years of active duty was greatest for those men who corresponded with the effective Marine characterization. The educational level of an individual and the number of expulsions and suspensions from school did not predict recruit training success, but were shown here and in other studies to be predictive of effectiveness during various phases of an enlistment (Hoiberg & Berry, 1977). It seems likely, therefore, that questions designed to tap an ap- plicant’s motivation for being a Marine, his enjoyment of physical activities, need to excel, educational level, and history of expulsions and suspensions readily could be integrated into the recruitment phase. Such information would be useful to recruiters and drill instructors who must decide whether to accept an applicant or assign a recruit to the PCP program.

Because PCP participants have a high attrition rate and cost more than other recruits to train, the effective PCP graduate is a relatively expensive Marine. From a cost-effectiveness standpoint, it would be difficult to justify the extra expense of these men for a pay-off of only 31y0 remaining on active duty after 2 years. In conclusion, it does seem reasonable that the Marine Corps should consider the findings presented here and possibly alter the selection process, thereby reducing the cost of the present high attrition rate.

Physical Condition,in,g 90.5

REFERENCES BOOTH, R. F., & HOIBERQ, A. Structure and measure of Marine recruit attitudes. Journal of

HOIBERQ, A. Effects of participation in the Physical Conditioning Platoon. Journal of Clinical

HODERG, A., & BERRY, N. H. There’s no doubt about it, a diploma goes a long way for combat

JANOWITZ, M., & MOBKOS, C. C., JR. Five years of the all-volunteer force. Armed Forces and Soeiely,

RIMLAND, B. & NEWMAN, I. A two-year f o h w p of Marines aeeigned to a 8 ecial (corr&zimal) tmining banch during recruit training. San Diego, Calif.: U. S. Naval Personney &search Activity Report No. 67-3, 1967.

Applied Psychology, 1974, 69, 236-238.

Psychology, 1978, 34, 410-416.

efficiency. Marina Corps Gazette, 1977, 51, 67-61.

1979, 6, 171-218.

ADJECTIVE CHECK LIST SELF AND IDEAL SELF CORRELATES OF MMPI PROFILES CLASSIFIED ACCORDING TO THE

MEEHGDAHLSTROM RULES RENATO LAZZARI

University of Rome, Italy

Institute of Personality Assessment and Rceearch University of California, Berkeley

Classified MMPI profiles of 61 male and 119 female Italian psychiatric out- patients IM neurotic (N = loo), psychotic (N = 45), or indetermmate ( N = 35) by means of the Meehl-Dahlstrom rules. These claasifications were un- influenced b a e or sex. Real and ideal self descriptions on the Adjective Check Lut &CfJ also were obtained. Thirteen of the 24 ACL scalea scored on the real protocols differentiated significantly ( p <.05) among the three sub- groups. Adequacy of personal adjustment aa inferred from these differences, wm poorest for patients with “psychotic” MMPI profiles, next poorest for the indeterminates, and best for those in the neurotic cate o . Personal Ad’ustment was the lowest ACL scale for all three subgroups. b x y one ideal sell scale differentiated significantly among the three subgroups. Also, the ideal self profile for the total sample of 180 patients was almost perfectly correlated with that for a sample of 229 nonpatients. Descriptions of the real self appear to be related systematically and meaningfully to psychatric status as indicated by the Meehl-Dahlstrom rules, whereas descnptions of the ideal self are not associated with diagnosis.

HARRISON Q. QOUQH

The use of various quantitative signs, ratios, and difference scores has been a long-standing tradition in the history of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) (Hathaway & McKinley, 1942). Examples include Gough’s (1947) F minus K dissimulation index, Hathaway’s (1947) profile coding technique, Welsh’s (1952) anxiety index and internalization ratio, and Peterson’s (1954) signs for the identification of subclinical schizophrenia.

In 1956, Meehl urged the development of empirically based “cookbooks” for the automated analysis of MMPI profiles. Interpretational programs of this type have been developed by Marks and Seaman (1963), Gilberstadt and Duker (1965), Finney (1966), Fowler (1966), and Lachar (1974), among others. There also have been important advances in the development of classificatory methods, including the rules proposed by Meehl and Dahlstrom in 1960 for distinguishing between neurotic and psychotic MMPI profiles. Although classifications based on the Meehl-Dahlstrom rules have in some instances been less accurate than those based on other methods (Goldberg, 1965), their psychodynamic logic is appealing to many clinicians. The availability of a convenient computer program