On the interpretaion of MJAT through factor analysis on the inter-scales

Abstract

MJAT (Ministry of Justice Attitude Test) is an attitude test to measure social attitudes seen especially in juvenile delinquents, published by Japanese Correctional Bureau in 1971.

The purpose of the present study is to suggest theoretical ground to the interpretation of MJAT through factor analysis.

MJAT and MJPI (Ministry of Justice personality Inventory) were applied to 140 male delinquents in Kobe Juvenile Detention & Classification Home.

Those MJAT scales and Ed & Li (Ego-defence & Lie) scales in MJPI were correlated by Pierson’s r, factor-analyzed on the inter-scales, and rotated orthogonally so as to find psychologically valid meaning according to Thurstone’s complete Centroid Method.

The reuslts were discussed from the following viewpoints :

1. The meanings of the factors abstracted were considered:

The 1st factor (bipolar)

......The positive attitude to a novel and exciting stimuli, factor-loaded on “vogue” “free sex” “money” and “hooligan group” scales. (positive polar)

......The “ego-defensed” positive attitude to the authorities, factor-loaded on Li, Ed, “home” “policc” & “neighborhood” scales. (negative polar)

The 2nd factor

......The positive attitude to the habit of loose life, factor-loaded on “amusment quarter” “entertaining job” “free sex” & “hooligan group” scales,

......The strong ego-defense, factor-loaded on only Ed & Li scales.

The 4th factor

......The positive attitude to the friendship to delinquents,factor-loaded on “neighborhood” & “hooligan group” scales.

The 5th factor (bipolar)

......The positive attitude to deligence, factor-loaded on “occupation” & police”. (negative polar)

......The positive attitude to change of employment, factor-loaded on “change of employment” & “hooligan group” scales. (positive polar)

2. The clues to presume the intra-attitude organization of each scale were considered; The intra-attitude organization itself is difficult to be measured by MJAT, but the clue to presume that may be suggested through the result of factor analysis.

For example, the attitude to accept delinqutnts’ parents’ dominance measured by “home” scale would be presumed to have the background of the positive attitude to the authorities, connectted with the ego-defence probably influenced by being detained in Detention & Classification Home.

The clues to the intra-attitude organization were also considered about other scales,

3. Case study

In order to assure, from the viewpoint of case study, the presumption suggested by factor analysis that the 1st factor would include the reaction to social desirability, the distribution of Li & Ed scores was investigated about 25 cases having high scores only on the scales loaded on the 1st factor.

The result was that most 1st factor (negative polar) cases showed the ego-defense measured by Li & Ed, while most 1st factor (positive polar) cases didn’t show that tendency.

The exceptional cases were also studied so that a few cases were assumed to have the ego-defense not shown by Ed & Li, other few cases being assumed not to have any ego-defense.