Unraveling the Web of Personality Judgments: The Influence of Social Networks on Personality Assessment

Abstract

Contemporary assessment models have focused on the degree to which self- and other reports of personality description agree in an effort to define consensus and agreement about personality attributes. In general, we believe that analyses of this type of data have been limited in that they tend to focus on both simple models (usually dyad-based) and simple aggregations of data (usually correlations between self- and other ratings). In addition, the behaviors used as stimuli in experimental settings lack the richness of behaviors in natural social settings. Here, we present some ideas from social network models in an effort to influence broader conceptualizations of agreement and consensus in assessment. Social network models provide a more complete description of interpersonal behavior beyond the dyadic level in both laboratory and natural settings. After defining some basic social network concepts, we go on to suggest the applicability of these concepts to personality assessment and, more specifically, to how these models might be used to study self-other agreement and consensus about personality judgments. Empirical data are used to illustrate social network concepts in the domain of personality assessment.

How “Dark Side” Personality Traits Affect Social Network Position

“…However, Openness to Experience was negatively associated with friendship centrality and correlated positively with adversarial centrality. Similar findings were obtained in Kanfer & Tanaka's (1993) study with students. They found that the more Extraverted, Agreeable, and Emotionally stable individuals were better connected in a network.…”

Friends don't lie

“…For instance, according to Kanfer and Tanaka [25] all the Big Five personality traits, with the exception of Agreeableness, correlate closely with degree, and more precisely with in-degree; moreover, agreeable persons tend to occupy central positions and report more interacting with others while outgoing (extraverted) and secure (low Neuroticism) subjects had more people reporting interacting with them. Klein et al [26] found negative correlation between in-degree centrality from Neuroticism and Openness, and a positive effect of Agreeableness in friendship networks of work group members.…”

Personality assessment and social networks: An integrative proposal

“…Por outro lado, no campo da avaliação da personalidade, inúmeras pesquisas concluíram que informações oriundas de testes de autorrelato, os denominados inventários de personalidade, tendem a ser substancialmente diferentes da maneira como outras pessoas percebem o indivíduo (por exemplo, Clifton, Turkheimer, & Oltmanns, 2004;Kanfer & Tanaka, 1993). Kanfer e Yanaka (1993) sinalizaram os benefícios potenciais da aplicação de métodos de análise de redes sociais para o entendimento das conexões entre avaliação da personalidade e contextos sociais.…”

“…Mehra et al (2001) No campo da avaliação de problemas de personalidade, a inclusão de informantes além do próprio indivíduo não é novidade, e foi recomendada por diversos autores (Fiedler, Oltmanns & Turkheimer, 2004;Kanfer & Tanaka, 1993). Fiedler et al (2004) administraram medidas de transtornos de personalidade nas formas de autorrelato e de relatos de pares a 1080 recrutas do exército e acompanharam os participantes por dois anos.…”