The relationship between higher order models and everyday conceptions of personality

Krahé

1988

Eur J Pers

Recent studies at the interface of social cognition and personality theory have stressed lay persons' ability to ‘function as intuitive psychometricians’ (Epstein and Teraspulsky, 1986). This research argues that lay persons not only show a substantial degree of accuracy in estimating cross‐situational generality of behaviour, but also take into account principles of aggregation over time. In contrast, it is argued here that lay persons' perceptions of the degree of relatedness of different behaviours are mediated largely by the decontextualized semantic relationships between behavioural descriptions. This argument finds support in two experimental studies which demonstrate that the main source for subjects' judgments of ‘cross‐situational consistency’ can be found in an abstracted knowledge base which is represented and mediated through language. The implications of the findings are drawn out for personality research, in particular with reference to domain and item selection in questionnaires for research.

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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

Krahé

1988

Eur J Pers

“…Semin, 1987;Semin and Chassein, 1985), i.e., intersubjective variations are minimal. This is mainly due to the highly contained and exclusively semantic context within which such judgements are made.…”

Section: )mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Furthermore, there is evidence suggesting that such decontextualized meanings are interpreted consensually by subjects (cf. Semin, 1987;Semin and Chassein, 1985), i.e., intersubjective variations are minimal. This is mainly due to the highly contained and exclusively semantic context within which such judgements are made.…”

Section: Features Of Attribute Inference Tasksmentioning

confidence: 99%

The contribution of linguistic factors to attribute inferences and semantic similarity judgements

1989

Euro J Social Psych

Two studies are reported which examine the contribution of linguistic factors to attribute inferences and semantic similarity judgements. For this purpose a new method is developed which allows us to examine the contribution of language as a symbolically shared system. The two studies show that a substantial amount of the variance in both attribute inferences and semantic similarity judgements is mediated by socially shared linguistic conventions. The implications of these findings and the methodology for social cognition, and some models of personality and affect are discussed.The relationship between language and social cognition occupies a central position in any analysis concerning our abilities to process, store and retrieve information about behaviour and persons. By and large, however, the role of language has not attracted any direct theoretical and research interest in the examination of social cognition, except as a vehicle for communication (cf. Clark, 1985, Kraut andHiggins, 1984). There are isolated and notable exceptions examining the relationship between social cognition and language (e.g., Abelson and Kanouse, 1972;Brown and Fish, 1983; Fiedler and Semin, 1988;Garvey et al., 1976;McGuire, McGuire and Cheever, 1986; Semin and Fiedler, 1988;Semin and Greenslade, 1985).The two studies reported here investigate the relationship between language and social cognition by a new method that assesses the contribution of linguistic factors in *The research reported here was supported through an ESRC personal grant G 00 24 2033 (Social psychology of Language and Social Cognition). Thanks are due to Barbara Krahi? and an anonymous reviewer for their kind and helpful comments on an earlier version of this paper and to David Hitchin who generously gave his time to develop the programmes necessary for computing the linguistic index and providing statistical advice.

“…More recently, the relationship between the content of psychological theories and lay theories has become a focus of interest (e.g. Heckhausen, 1976;Rosch, Chassein, Semin and Krolage, 1984;Semin and Chassein, 1985;Semin, Rosch and Chassein, 1981; Smedslund, 1978Smedslund, , 1982bSternberg, Conway, Ketron and Bernstein, 1981 , inter a h ) . in large part, this type of inquiry has arisen from considerations about the reciprocal relationship between psychological and lay models of behaviour.…”

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confidence: 99%

“…The question addressed in this paper arises from a constructivist perspective which regards psychological processes as social products (cf. Berger, 1966;Gergen, 1985, Semin & Chassein, 1985 Semin & Manstead, 1983, inter afia). This perspective suggests that perceived realities always refer to and are derived from a corresponding social background upon which they are predicated.…”

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confidence: 99%

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

Krahé

1987

Euro J Social Psych

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.