PAPERS, 1964-1969
Consisting almost exclusively of data and statistics from her phenomenological movement behavior studies, the collection sheds little light on the personal life of Sara Louise Houston. The earliest records consist of two graduate school papers written by Houston in 1964 and 1965 on the relationship between movement and the fine arts. The remainder of the records are comprised of questionnaires, personal profiles, and statistics derived from her movement behavior studies.
The phenomenological studies investigated aspects of movement behavior in relation to personality correlates of twenty college women measured by the Cattell Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire. The studies observed movement as a projection of inner attitude and personality structure. Using judges' ratings and subject self-ratings of the sixteen Cattell factors, the results were tabulated and compared to average scores on the Cattell 16 PF Questionnaire. Each of the twenty subjects performed structured movement improvisation in isolation before a video camera. After completing the exercise, the subjects wrote immediate spontaneous reactions, and then rated reflexively the movement experience best and least liked. The studies were designed to shed some light on the significance of human movement as a symbolic form, and the movement experience as a source of human meaning.
Abstracts of her dissertation help to explain the meaning of the questionnaires and profiles contained within the record series. Although a final copy of the dissertation is not found within the records, the profiles and statistics provide evidence of the research methodology used by Houston. The fact that the twenty subjects were Oberlin College students adds significance to the data. There is little correspondence contained in the collection, but what is present, consisting of letters to and from her advisor, and from members of the Ohio State University statistics laboratory, aids in understanding her statistical approach to movement behavior analysis. Other correspondence relates to efforts to secure permission to use the Cattell Questionnaire, and to publish her dissertation.
Four cartons of Sara Houston records were brought to the archives by P hysical Education Women's Department colleague Barbara Calmer following Houston's death. They were placed on temporary deposit at the request of Calmer, and eventually placed on permanent deposit and accessioned in 1985. A large portion of the notes and other material collected while Houston was taking classes was not retained.
Files relating to Houston's physical education teaching can be found in the records of the Physical Education Department (9/6). Biographical information can be found in Houston's staff file in Alumni Records (28).
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