Personality Factors and Sandtray Expressions

The present study investigated the relationships between different criteria of personality factors as measured by the NEO Personality Inventory and sandtray expressions of normal adult subjects. Several of the quantitative sandtray rating criteria correlated significantly with the Neuroticism and Openness factors. The Neuroticism facets of Impulsivity and Hostility were related to the amount of space used and the presence of fences; Anxiety was related to the amount of space used and Vulnerability to the use of fences. The Openness factor correlated with the number of archetypal figures used and the total amount of figures present in the constructions. The use of archetypal figures correlated significantly with the Value facet of the Openness factor, and the total number of objects used to the Aesthetics facet. The correlations of the lexically based NEO-PI with the imagery based sandtray expressions imply the commonalities of these two modes of expression for the two personality styles.