Projective aspects on cognitive performance: distortions in emotional perception correlate with personality

Abstract

Several approaches in psychology converge with the concept that individual characteristics may interfere with the perception and interpretation of the world. We hypothesized that such phenomenon could be identified in instruments that were not only projective techniques. The research's goal was to study perceptive distortions in a cognitive test and their relations with personality instruments. Responses from 222 participants in the Computerized Test of Primary Emotions Perception (PEP) were rated in distortion scores, which related to perceiving emotions that were not present. We used Spearman correlations between these scores and the Rorschach Inkblot test, Dimensional Clinical Personality Inventory, and tasks of Verbal and Abstract Reasoning. Results showed that the distortions were not related to intellectual abilities. Distortions of joy were associated with greater interest in interpersonal contact; love with positive view of the interactions and need for attention; fear with concerns about aggressiveness and autonomy; sadness with lower perception of damaged objects; disgust with feelings of loneliness; and anger with criticism avoidance, distrust, feelings of loneliness, and aggressive behaviour. The results support the proposal that altered perception of reality is related to affective or personality characteristics.

Avaliação psicológica de jogadores de videogame, tabuleiro e live: personalidade, raciocínio e percepção emocional

“…Besides, there was a correlation between more hours playing and lower attribution of joy to emotional expressions, which may be related to less interest in contact with others, according to other studies with emotional perception (Miguel & Pessotto, 2016). This result indicates a propensity for social isolation and the little experience of joy given a large number of hours in-game activity.…”

“…Previous studies (Miguel & Pessotto, 2016) have shown that there is an association between these distortions and personality traits rather than cognitive aspects. Also, there is an association between the general distortion in the test and being less able to correctly perceive reality.…”

“…In this study, we employed the general emotional perception score, the general distortion score, and the scores of each of the eight emotions, i.e., frequency of each emotion. Psychometric studies with PEP demonstrated adequate accuracy and validity, and there is a relation between the ability to perceive emotions and other measures of intelligence and emotional perception, whereas there is a relation between distortions and individual frequency of emotions and personality characteristics (Miguel & Pessotto, 2016;Miguel & Primi, 2014 Dimensional Clinical Personality Inventory (IDCP): It is a self-report instrument for the evaluation of pathological personality traits designed by Carvalho and Primi (2015). It consists of 163 items distributed in 12 dimensions: dependency, aggressiveness, mood instability, eccentricity, attention seeking, distrust, grandiosity, isolation, criticism avoidance, self-sacrifice, conscientiousness, and impulsiveness.…”

Study of the collective administration of an emotional perception test in deaf people

“…Em uma pesquisa feita com não surdos em aplicação individual (Miguel & Pessotto, 2016), os resultados sugeriram que perceber mais alegria estaria relacionado a maior interesse no contato social, mais medo estaria relacionado à necessidade de autonomia, mais tristeza estaria relacionado a menos problemas de autoestima, e mais raiva estaria relacionado à desconfiança, sentimentos de solidão e pensamentos agressivos. Surpresa e curiosidade não foram investigados naquela pesquisa, e os surdos da presente pesquisa não perceberam amor e nojo em níveis significativamente distintos.…”

“…Além disso, deve assinalar se a emoção expressa é autêntica ou falseada. Pesquisas anteriores foram desenvolvidas com o PEP, que mostraram adequadas características psicométricas e validade com construtos relacionados e divergentes (Miguel, Finoto, & Miras, 2013;Miguel, Ogaki, Inaba, & Ribeiro, 2013;Miguel & Pessotto, 2016;Miguel & Primi, 2014).…”