Restlessness in a Delinquent Group
- Author:
Lowell S. Selling, A.M., M.S., M.D.
Institute for Juvenile Eesearch, Chicago
In an attempt to derive a solidarity of ideas from the predications of many writers, Selling 1 showed that in a group of children brought to clinics for the investigation of the feeble-minded, there was some tendency for the brighter children to be more restless. However, an inspection of the table in that paper showed a predominance of the “not abnormally restless” group. In the present report, one hundred male delinquents, fourteen to sixteen years of age, were studied to determine whether the tendency toward restlessness in brighter children and the lack of restlessness in the duller occurred in other groups in the community. Of this group of delinquents it was found that all were in good health; none had neurological symptoms, and none were considered feeble-minded by lay persons, although some were called dull. The I.Q. distribution was as follows: 110-120 2 cases 100?109 3 cases 90- 99 15 cases 80- 89 29 cases 70- 79 25 cases 60? 69 19 cases 50- 59 7 cases Out of this group of 100 consecutive cases none were found to be in groups I or V, i.e., the extraordinarily restless or the quiet groups; and there were only seven cases which did not fall in the middle group, that is, the group of average restlessness. These seven cases were distributed as follows: Hyperactive: I.Q. 69, 83, 89, 104 Hypoactive: I.Q. 60, 78, 99
This seems to show that the variations in restlessness extend throughout the whole range, and that, while there are differences * Studies from the Institute for Juvenile Research, Chicago; Series C, No. 183. 1 Lowell S. Selling, “Psychomotor Activity and Feeblemindedness,” The Psychological Clinic, vol. XIX, No. 9, pp. 275-284. in restlessness in such a group as the one above, the majority of cases are not abnormal in their hyperactivity. The discrepancy between the findings in this group and the group brought to clinics for defectives probably lies in the fact that the latter group is selected on a basis of the obvious abnormality of its members, restlessness or the lack of it being one trait which comes to the eye of the casual observer, while the former group is a section of a more or less inconspicuous group of society. In addition the mathematics1 of the earlier study tends to give a much higher result than either the inspection of the distribution or the Present study would indicate.
In conclusion we may say: 1. Restlessness in a group composed of persons such as delinquents does not tend to be an outstanding trait. 2. The findings in such a group do not agree with those of a group brought to a clinic for defectives, probably because of the obvious pathology of the latter, of which the abnormal restlessness may be one of the symptoms. 3. No definite trend of restlessness corresponding to I.Q. was noted. 1 K. Pearson, ‘1 On the Theory of Contingency and its Relation to Association and Normal Correlation,” Drapers’ Company Research Memoirs, Biometric Series, I, 1904.
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