Comparing Democratic Maturity Test Scores for German and American College Freshman
The study sought to compare scores on The Democratic Maturity Test between German and American college freshman students. The test is designed to measure two things: (1) personal maturity, and (2) social integration. The American students were significantly superior in personal maturity, and the German students were significantly superior in social integration. The German students were significantlty older than the American ones. The new democratic way of living in America seeks to guarantee freedom to all, but in the process has generated the largest prison population of any civilized country in the world. The Democratic Maturity Test (DEMO) seeks to assess the degree to which an individual is prepared to live successfully in a democracy. It is based on the theory described by John Dewey, that "a democracy is the interdependence of independent individuals." It has 200 true/false type items, with half of them (four part scores) seeking to measure the independence of an individual in terms of personal maturity. The other half of the items (four part scores) seeks to measure the interdependence factor - the ability to get along with all kinds of people in terms of social integration. Groups Involved There were 60 incoming psychology majors at the University of Koblenz-Landau, Germany ranging in age from 19 to 35, with a mean age of 22.27 and a standard deviation of 1.02 years. It included 45 females and 15 males. The second group included 68 freshmen from a state university near Commerce, Texas. They ranged in age from 18 to 22 with a mean age of 15.46 and with a standard deviation of 0.78 year. It included 35 females and 33 male students. Group Differences A t-statistic was computed for the difference on all mean scores for The Democratic Maturity Test (DEMO) as depicted in Table 1 below. Based on the "Sign Test," with every one of the PER MAT (personal maturity) scores favoring the American student, they were significantly better than the German ones. In terms of personal maturity there was no significant difference on the LOC score (locus of control), however. Table 1 Comparing DEMO Mean Scores by use of a t-Statistic (N=60 German, and N=68 American) Mean German American t- Scores Freshmen Freshmen Difference statistic Probability 1. Self-esteem - EST: M 67.40 70.12 2.72 -1.22 n.s. SD 11.99 13.01 2. Coping Skills - COP: M 65.93 70.77 4.84 -2.11 0.04 SD 11.21 14.31 3. Assertiveness - ASS: M 48.67 57.71 9.04 -4.35 0.00 SD 9.86 13.17 4. Locus of Control - LOC: M 56.60 60.24 3.64 -1.65 n.s. SD 9.13 14.74 5. Personal Maturity - PERMAT: M 238.60 260.29 21.69 -3.85 0.00 SD 26.02 26.02 6. Conformity - CFM: M 62.07 56.35 -5.72 -2.42 0.02 SD 11.25 14.93 7. Sympathy - SYM: M 59.73 58.18 -1.55 -0.69 n.s. SD 10.31 14.93 8. Self-efficacy - EFF: M 61.80 53.24 -8.56 -4.05 0.00 SD 8.70 8.70 9. Caring- CAR: M 76.90 53.47 -23. …