ABSTRACT
AN individual's written account of his past behaviour, feelings and wishes obviously constitutes an important source of information about his personality. G. Allport 1 points out the value of diaries, creative writings, and other personal documents in the ‘clinical’ study of the individual personality ; and psychiatrists and clinical psychologists often require their patients to write autobiographies. The interpretation of such material is inevitably as subjective as that of oral interview responses, and it cannot readily be treated quantitatively. It was hoped, therefore, that self-ratings and the answers to standard questions would overcome these difficulties.
