The number of significant differences in this area is once again not large. Those that are significant bring out further the relationship of religion to the independent variables, as well as the relationship of health behavior.

Students who report that they never go to church tend to be somewhat over-represented in the psychiatric help group, while those who attend regularly are underrepresented. Bear in mind once again that the reported church attendance is relative to the freshman year, while psychiatric ehlp pertains to all four years, Furthermore, if the student attends the same church each time he worships, he is less likely to come for hlep.

In a questionnaire on opinions, students were asked about religious belief by checking one of a series of statements ranging from belief in a personal God to atheism. The question was identical with one that was used in the Cornell Values Survey. Students were separated into those who believed in God (the first two statements) and those who did not (all the rest of the statements). For the Class of 1964 there was a significant association between belief and use of the Psychiatric Service. Nonbelievers were overrepresented in the psychiatric population. The association did not hold up, however, when tested on the 1965 sample.

Not only was the psychiatric patient more likely to report that his past health was less than excellent, he also used the medical and surgical clinics more frequently during college. Another health-related variable comes from a question on the medical form filled out by the student at the time of his freshman physical examination. "Do you have any problems that you would like to discuss with any doctor?" About a sixth of the students answered yes and among this group a rather high proportion eventually sought psychiatric help. Apparently at time of matriculation some students could articulate their need for help and many of them eventually sought professional aid.

Dissatisfaction With Harvard

The third major variable in present behavior is dissatisfaction with the college situation. We note a steady increase in the proportion using the Psychiatric Service as the level of dissatisfaction with the freshman year rises. The statistical significance of this relationship for both samples makes us more willing to accept the results of the 1965 sample concerning dissatisfaction with the last year of secondary school.

Suggestive correlations with the use of psychiatric help were also observed in two other questions: "Have you ever felt out of place at Harvard?" and "What kind of a time are you having at Harvard?" Both questions have an element of the satisfaction-dissatisfaction continuum in them. For the 1964 sample only, students who admitted they had felt out of place, or who said they were not having a very good time at Harvard were overrepresented in the psychiatric group. Although the association could not be replicated, the data do tend to strengthen our findings about the dissatisfaction variable.

To recapitulate, three factors emerge in this section which are associated with use of the Psychiatric Service: religious affiliation and attendance, use of medical facilities, and a sense of dissatisfaction with the environment.

Personality Test Results

Among the numerous personality tests that comprised the battery used for the Haravrd Student Study, there are a series of differences, many of them interconnected.

The group seeking psychiatric help was lower on the F-scale, a test designed to measure the extent to which the subject accepts authoritarian positions in various areas. Students in the psychiatric group were lower on a measure of social desirability, that is they were less likely to endorse statements about values in a conventional and confirming manner. They were lower on a scale which measures the need to be different. For example, they were more inclined to say dislike rather than like to such statements as "Going along with a decision made by a supervisor or leader rather than starting an argument," or "Listening to older persons about how they did things when they were young." The psychiatric group was higher on a scale which measures the need for emotional expressiveness. For example, they were more inclined to say like rather than dislike to such statements as "Letting loose and having a good cry sometimes," or "Being unrestrained and open about my feelings and emotions." Finally, the psychiatric group was higher on a test called Impulse Expression, which measures the willingness and need to be free in bringing out impulses in behavior. This test is very much like the scale for emotional expressiveness.

The interpretation that might be drawn from these results is that students who used the Psychiatric Service were less willing to be conformists in social situations, less willing to be deferent in their relationships with others, and felt a stronger pressure to give vent to their impulse in overt behavior.

Further support for these themes, although less definite, comes from test results that were significant on only one of the two samples. The psychiatric group was lower on a test of traditional value orientation, which means they were less inclined to emphasize the work success ethic, future time orientation, individualism, and puritan morality. They were also lower on the Self-Deception Scale, a test which is really a measure of conformity. At the same time, those seeking psychiatric help were higher on a scale which measure of conformity. At the same time, those seeking psychiatric help were higher on a scale which measures the need to be aggressive and on a scale which measures the need for self-display and attention seeking.

The Myers Briggs Test provides data which can be interpreted as measures of cognitive style, particularly of the kind of perceptual process by which a person interprets sense impressions. The psychiatric group was more inclined to use that perceptive process which depends less on direct perception through the ordinary senses and more on the unconscious meanings attached to direct sense impressions. To put it another way, the students who sought psychiatric help were more intuitive and introspective.

Three other scales from the Myers Briggs Type Indicator add another dimension. The psychiatric group was higher on the scale for unconscious strain, or what might be interpreted as a sense of vulnerability, but lower on the scale for constructive reaction, or what we might think of as a feeling of competence in or capacity for coping. They are also lower on the scale for self-confidence, although the differences reached an acceptable rate of probability for the 1964 sample only. The 1965 sample difference was in the same direction, however.