Erikson's theory on the development of a healthy personality is integrated with Holmes' Theory of Reading in order to derive a testable hypothesis regarding the contribution of specified personality characteristics to reading success and to validate the findings. The study was conducted in the following three phases--the construction of new scales composed of personality items which significantly differentiated good and poor readers at the ninth-grade level in 1936, a longitudinal application of these scales to the same sample of students when they were in the seventh, eighth, and ninth grades in 1933 and 1934, and a cross-sectional replication after 30 years. Five samples were used. Two (n's-160 and 130) were drawn from the longitudinal study (1933-35) at the Institute of Human Development, University of California. Three comparable samples were selected from grades seven, eight, and nine in 1966. Specific personality characteristics hypothesized from an integrated Erikson-Holmes theory were consistently related to reading in the seventh, eighth, and ninth grades, and for two similar groups 30 years later. The report includes tables, figures, the self-interest inventory, and a bibliography. (RH)