Sara L. Houston Papers, 1964-1969
| Oberlin College Archives
Administrative/Biographical History
Sara Louise Houston (1913-1973) was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In 1930 she matriculated to Wellesley College, where she earned the Bachelor of Arts degree in 1934, and the Master of Science degree in 1935. In 1935 she was appointed to the faculty of Dennison University, where she taught physical education until her appointment to the Oberlin College faculty in 1950. During several summers and two leaves of absence she continued graduate work, studying at the University of Wisconsin (1937), Adelphi College (1946), University of Minnesota (1948), and at Ohio State University (1964-67). Her work led to a dissertation on the relationships between body movement styles and personality based on the study of college women. In 1967, upon completing her Ph.D thesis she was awarded the degree Doctor of Philosophy by the Ohio State University.
Houston was a member of several professional associations including, the Ohio College Association, American Association of Physical Education, Health and Recreation, and the Midwest Association for Physical Education of College Women. She was an active participant at meetings and workshops, and presented several conference papers based on her phenomenological studies of movement behavior.
Increasing stress and tension led her to choose early retirement, planning to retire at age 60. Houston died of heart failure in 1973, before beginning retirement.
Author: Brian A. Williams Subjects (links to similar collections) Forms of Material (links to similar genres) Administrative Information
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.
INVENTORY
Series 1. Phenomenological Study of Movement Behavior Research
Box 1
Bibliography Cards, n.d.
Correspondence, 1966-69
Dissertation Abstracts and Proposals, 1966-68
Conference Paper, "A Phenomenological Study
of Movement Behavior," 1968
Excerpt, "Movement Style as A Function of
Personality Structure of College
Women," c.1967
Judges' Scoring Sheets, 1966 (4f)
Questionnaires and Personal Profiles, 1966 (6f)
Statistics and Data, 1966-69 (6f)
Series 2. Student Papers (Graduate School Work)
Box 1 (cont.)
"A Comparison of Manifestations of Dancing as Depicted
in Egyptian Paintings of the Old, Middle, and New
Kingdoms," 1965
"Primitivism as an Influence in the Development of Modern
Painting and Modern Dance, with Particular Reference
to its Manifestations in the Art of Emil Nolde and the
Early Artistic Growth of Martha Graham," 1964