Relation of Hand Strength to Personality Measures

The Ss, 139 men, were drawn from junior and senior classes. They were given the GAMIN test by classes in groups numbering from 22 to 29, and the Smedley Hand Dynamometer test in groups of 3. One S tested his hand-grip, both left and right hands, while two of his classmates looked on. The specific instructions for the dynamometer-test were as follows: "Adjust the stirrup to fit your hand, then add one revolution to this adjustment; grasp the instrument with palm down, steadying it by holding the spring case between the thumb and fingers of the other hand; pull to the number called by E. (E demonstrated each of these steps.) Starting with a hand-grip of 10 kg. and going up by steps of 10 kg. to as high as S could go, a number was called at 5-sec. intervals. We followed Fisher and Birren's procedure with the exception that we asked S to pull to 10-point rather than 3-point kilogram-intervals.' Ss having hand injuries or who had taken special hand exercises were excluded from the study. When hand strength in kilograms was correlated with raw scores on the GAMIN test, the following coefficients of correlation were obtained: With the G-factor (great pressure for overt activity), 0.15 +.06; the A-factor (ascendency in social situations and leadership), 0.10 -+ .06; the M-factor (masculinity in attitude and interests), 0.20 -.06; the I-factor (lack of inferiority feelings, i.e. self-confidence), 0.10 .06; and the N-factor (lack of nervousness and irritability), 0.04 t.06. None of the coefficients were dose to four times its probable error. Insofar as our Ss may be regarded as representative of the general population, the following conclusions are warranted. Hand-grip, as measured by a Smedley Hand-Dynamometer, does not correlate significantly with any of the five personality factors on the Guilford-Martin Inventory of Factors GAMIN.