ESTHETIC PREFERENCE AND OTHER CORRELATES OF ACTIVE VERSUS PASSIVE FOOD PREFERENCE

E. H. Gombrich has suggested that esthetic sophistication may be correlated with the psychoanalytic dimension of active vs. passive orality. This prediction is confirmed in a study of 105 college men, using H. M. Wolowitz's (see 39:3) measure of food preference and I. L. Child's (see 40:3) measure of esthetic sensitivity. Each of these 2 measures is found to be related to active vs. passive preferences in several other spheres of life, and to several measures of independence vs. dependence. Neither oral nor esthetic preference appears to be related to measures of achievement, dominance, and aggression. Findings have no clear implication for the causal priority of one or another of the variables found to be interrelated. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved). © 1969 American Psychological Association.