That is, third level behavior is closed in total belief systems as well as rigid in particular activities, and thus would yield a questionnaire score high in both dogmatism and rigidity. Fourth level behavior, on the other hand, while still closed in belief systems, manifests flexibility in particular actions. 

With movement into the fifth behavioral level, the individual sheds his closed system of belief and is able to change, adopt, or move to different kinds of belief systems. However, within this behavior, rigidity is again demanded within the particular belief systems which the individual adopts.

Beyond this level of existence, both rigidity and dogmatism recede to yield behavior unburdened by adherence to either particular acts or total belief systems.

Each subject was instructed to respond to every statement of the questionnaire by marking –3. –2, -1, +1. +2, or +3, depending on his degree of agreement or disagreement with it. Scores were subsequently converted to a 1 to 7 scale by adding a constant of 4 to each item.

Upon calculation of the test scores of all 52 subjects, a 10 point range was established at both the lower and upper extreme of the Dogmatism Scale and the Rigidity Scale. Within this range a total of 12 subjects were selected according to the criteria of Table 1. The scores of the 12 subjects were distributed such that 3 subjects represented each of the hypothesized four levels.

The subject was seated in a darkened room and positioned so as to face a gray wall, which served as a projection screen. The 12 subjects were shown 20 words, one at a time, by a tachistoscope, which was situated behind and above the subject.

The twenty words, typed in capital letters upon slides, were chosen to represent the dominant motivational and ethical behavior of each of the four hypothesized Levels of Existence. To control the factors of word frequency, none of the words selected appear less than fifteen times per 1,000.000 words in the printed English language, as determined by the Thorndike and Lorge count of 1944.¹⁸

Only partial control could be secured over the number of letters contained in each word because of the difficulty in securing words of appropriate meaning which contain a designated number of letters. Among the twenty words, a total of two contain eight letters; three, seven letters; seven, six letters; three, five letters; and four, four letters. When placed into categories of representative levels, the words of level 3 contain a total of 29 letters; level 4, 30 letters; level 5, 31 letters; and level 6, 29 letters. 

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