ABSTRACT
The third hypothesis predicted that intellectually retarded children would display significantly more affection seeking behaviour than intellectually average children, despite the fact that both groups of children would display a considerable underlying need for affection. This hypothesis assumes that children of low intelligence will find greater difficulty in hiding or controlling their need for affection than will more able children. The need to inhibit affection seeking behaviour is thought to arise from the demands of society, and particularly from the child’s awareness of his parents and the society’s disapproval or disgust at the sexual episode. The testing of this hypothesis relied upon a statistical comparison of the affection seeking tendencies, as seen in school and measured on the B.S.A.G., and the underlying need for affiliation scores, measured by the T.A.T. of children with below and above average I.Q,. A statistical analysis was made of the difference between the two groups, using the Mann Whitney Test.
