Comparisons between an ancient instrument and modern instruments for assessing personality : A pilot study

Forty-nine college level subjects were selected from a subject pool of over 200 respondents to an advertisement requesting volunteers, age 23 years or older, for an experiment on astrology and personality. The subjects were selected on the basis of the aspects among planets in their natal horoscope to form 2 groups. Group A (n = 24) had a minimum of a 2:1 ratio of harmonious aspects to discordant aspects, and Group B (n = 25) had a maximum of a 1:1 ratio of harmonious aspects to discordant aspects. The groups were compared on the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI), the 16 Personality Factor questionnaire (16PF) and the Eysenck Personality Inventory (EPI). A multivariate analysis of variance indicated the groups were different on the MMPI, but not on the 16PF. The differences were greater for females than for males. Analysis of the separate scales suggested that Group A was less conventional, less rigid, more experimenting and more worrying than Group B. A special analysis of particular sub-groups, formed by their common adherences on different scales, was provided and presented in graph form to serve as a set of guides for future research.