A study designed to investigate the relationship between spatial ability and selected social and emotional variables is presented. With the total sample of students in a freshman psychology course, and with the 48 females and 45 males separately, the relationship was investigated between spatial ability and participation in, and enjoyment of, activities requiring spatial thinking; familial influences; self-reliance; parents' careers; or anxiety. Selected second-order combinations of these social-emotional characteristics and spatial ability were also examined. Three major types of spatial ability were investigated: one of spatial orientation and two of analytic spatial ability. The measures were the Shepard-Metzler Rotations Test, Form MA of the Revised Minnesota Paper Form Board Tests, and three tests from the Purdue Spatial Visualization Test Battery. The social-emotional measures were the Spatial Experience Questionnaire and the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory. The major findings for either sex or for one or more spatial tests were that higher spatial scores are associated with greater participation in spatial activities, greater mother influence, greater anxiety, and mothers in non-technical career areas. Main and second-order interaction effects are analyzed. (CM)