Personality and esthetic sensitivity.

Abstract

Summary In an exploratory study of affective responsiveness as a component of esthetic sensitivity 62 college Ss took the Allport-Vernon-Lindzey Study of Values and described on an antonym checklist their affective responses to photographs portraying “forces of nature.” One-third of the group with extreme high and low AVL Aesthetic value scores were compared on measures of affective responsiveness and on Sensation-Intuition and Perceiving-Judging scales of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. As predicted, high esthetic value Ss were more acceptant of stimulus materials (p = .005), more often perceptive (p = .025) and intuitive (p = .05) types on the MBTI. Results support a typological conception of esthetic sensitivity, and suggest that direct, “pre-artistic” emotional responsiveness to phenomena expressed in art forms is a component of this personality pattern.