Lay conceptions of personality: Eliciting tiers of a scientific conception of personality

Abstract

Two studies are reported which examine the availability of scientific propositions of personality in lay conceptions of personality. It is argued from a social constructivist perspective that models of personality must derive from and refer to lay conceptions of persons. Eysenck's trait-type model of introversion-extroversion, containing specific propositions about phenotypic and genotypic differences between extraverts and introverts, was utilized as the scientific model of personality and its availability in lay conceptions of personality was examined in two studies. In the first study, subjects were presented with a genotypic characterization of either an introvert or an extravert target person and asked to infer corresponding phenotypic differences. In the second study, the inference process was reversed with subjects being asked to infer genotypic characteristics of introverts versus extraverts on the basis of phenotypic target person descriptions of the two types. Results from both studies show a high degree of accuracy in subjects' inferences, suggesting that laypersons have well-formed conceptions about personality containing 'higher-order' psychogenetic propositions corresponding to Eysenck's trait-type model. The implications of the findings for theory construction are discussed.

Essentialist Beliefs about Personality and Their Implications

“…The studies, therefore, help to extend the range of domains in which psychological essentialism applies. In doing so, they join a small quantity of work that primarily examines children's understandings of traits (e.g., Giles, 2003;Yuill & Pearson, 1998), focuses on single elements of essentialist beliefs such as inherence (e.g., Semin & Krahé, 1987), or addresses individual differences in essence-related beliefs about personality as a whole rather than differences among personality characteristics (e.g., Levy et al, 1998). Moreover, the studies demonstrate that essentialist beliefs about personality are not only held, but are also held preferentially for particular kinds of characteristics and have several social-cognitive implications.…”

“…Several studies partially remedy this neglect. Semin and Krahé (1987) found that lay conceptions of personality operated at more than one tier, drawing inferences between underlying (genotypic) and manifest (phenotypic) levels of understanding. Research by Chiu, Hong, and Dweck (1997) indicates that laypeople hold a view of personality as enduring and latent dispositions ("lay dispositionism").…”

Explaining perceived cross‐situational consistency: Intuitive psychometrics or semantic mediation?

“…In fact, both sets of findings, but particularly the present ones, would appear to directly contradict a popular theory driven hypothesis, namely the systematic distortion hypothesis * Indeed, there is evidence suggesting that such theories may be quite explicit, at least in the personality domain (cf. Semin and KrahC, 1987;Semin, Rosch and Chassein, 1981;Semin and Chassein, 1985) and possibly even in the intelligence domain (e.g. Sternberg, Conway, Ketron and Bernstein, 1981).…”

Social psychology and the wrong revolution

“…Semin and his colleagues (Semin and Chassein, 1985;Semin and Krahe, 1987) have demonstrated the dependency of scientific formulations of personality on common belief systems within the culture. Kitzinger (1987) demonstrates how liberalist constructions of lesbiansim undermine the radical implications of lesbian lifestyles, and contribute to continued homophobia.…”