The anal personality: self-disclosure, negativism, self-esteem, and superego severity

Psychoanalytic implications of anal characterology were operationalized, and an experimental situation devised to test hypotheses of various aspects of interpersonal behavior. Subjects selected for the study had been found to score either high or low on Kline's (Ai3) Anality Scale. Self-disclosure and disclosure reciprocity were shown to be negative functions of anality: productivity and superego measures were also shown to be functions of anality. Self-esteem and socio-economic status did not relate to anality levels, while the hypothesis linking anality with negativism was only partially confirmed. Implications for psychoanalytic and social psychology research are discussed.