Personality Judgments, Accuracy Of

Definition

The accuracy of personality judgments refers to an area of research in which people evaluate the thoughts, feelings, and behavior of themselves or others and the correctness of their evaluations are determined. The determination of accuracy, or correctness, is a constant challenge for researchers because it is often unclear what to use as the standard for truth. It is straightforward to verify people's estimates of height and weight by using a tape measure and scale, but accuracy researchers must determine, for example, if a person's friendliness rating of a coworker is accurate. The absence of a friendliness “tape measure” requires researchers to use a variety of measurement techniques that together provide a close approximation of the personality characteristic under investigation. Accuracy researchers typically compare a person's friendliness rating to the coworker's observed behavior or to personality ratings of the coworker by close acquaintances. If the person's friendliness ratings predict the coworker's behavior and agree with the close acquaintances' ratings, the friendliness rating is likely to be accurate.

Context and Importance

People make judgments about personality every day and in numerous settings. Clinical psychologists diagnose their clients, human resource managers evaluate prospective employees, and teachers assess the capabilities of their students. In these settings, the judgments that professionals make can either help or harm an individual's life. The judgments that lay people make are equally life affecting, such as the decision to approach or to avoid a stranger. A faulty decision to trust a stranger may lead to physical harm. The misjudgment of a close friend may lead to unpleasant conflict or dissolution of the friendship. The personality judgments that people make of themselves and others can affect their own psychological and physical well-being.

Evidence

Research on the accuracy of personality judgments began by trying to identify the good judge of personality. This research focus represented a mix of theoretical interest and pragmatic concern. Researchers were curious why some people might be better than others at judging personality. From a pragmatic perspective, it was believed that being a good judge of personality was a prerequisite to being a successful clinical psychologist, personnel interviewer, or school counselor. The research evidence is inconsistent regarding the good judge of personality with one exception. Women tend to outperform men when judging the personality characteristics of others.

Despite these inconsistent findings, accuracy researchers continue to search for the good judge of personality and have broadened their research interests to include five additional factors that influence [Page 660]the accuracy and inaccuracy of personality judgments. Each factor will be discussed in turn.

First, judgability refers to how accurately people's personalities can be judged by others. Individuals who are high on judgability are like open books, their personalities are easy to read, and they are accurately judged. Those who are low on judgability are closed and enigmatic, and are inaccurately judged by others. Research demonstrates that judgable people tend to score higher on measures of psychological adjustment than do less judgable people.

Second, increased acquaintance produces greater accuracy. Although this might seem fairly intuitive, only recently have researchers provided evidence to support this factor. Considerable evidence now indicates that longer acquaintance leads to greater accuracy because acquainted individuals share more plentiful and intimate information than do people less acquainted.

...