Abstract
Left-handed children in Italy are subjected to social opprobrium and in school are forced to forego their natural disposition in favor of right handedness. Italian-American children, on the other hand, are free from such coercion. In this study three samples of Italian children are compared with a sample of Italian-American children on personality source traits taken from Cattell's High School Personality Questionnaire. Left-handed Italian children show a consistent and statistically very secure elevation on Factor I of the Cattell scale, a finding unparalleled in the data from the American sample. While the interpretation of this particular finding is not entirely clear, it does suggest that left-handed Italian children show a higher degree of sensitivity and self-centered-ness in consequence of their forced lateral conversion.
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