Personality Judgment.pdf

Preface

It is difcult for me to believe that I have been doing research on accuracy in

personality judgment for 20 years. This work has taken various forms, including

investigations of the relations between personality judgments and behavior and the

conditions under which personality judgments are made with more and lesser ac-

curacy. Most recently, I attempted to develop a theoretical approach, called the

Realistic Accuracy Model, that might be sufcient to account for some of what is

now known about accuracy and to suggest directions for further research (Funder,

1995a).

Over the years my colleagues and I have managed to publish a fair number of

journal articles and chapters that present data relevant to accuracy, survey bits of the

literature on behavioral consistency and on judgmental error, and attempt to justify

our theoretical approach. However, this varied material has never been brought

together into one place. Of course, it might be possible for a dedicated reader to go

to the library and nd for himself or herself nearly everything—both theoretical

and empirical—that is presented on the following pages. But it has lately dawned

on me that few readers are sufciently motivated to do a PsychLit search under my

name and to study everything that pops up. Thus, if I hope for anyone to be able to

understand the entire range of interpretations of the literature, theoretical develop-

ment, and empirical ndings that underlie the Realistic Accuracy Model, the job

of pulling this material together is one that I must do myself.

That is the purpose of this book. It draws on nearly all of the research that has

come out of my lab so far (actually three labs, at Harvard, Illinois, and Riverside),

and most of the major publications of my graduate students, collaborators, and

myself. Indeed, parts of this book were, for the rst draft, taken verbatim out of

prior publications, although over the course of revision most of these passages have

been substantially changed. Of some relevance to the reader is that—in case you

xiii

xiv Preface

have read some of this prior work—passages in this book here and there may sound

familiar. This is not merely dj` vu.

As might be expected, I found myself saying both more and different things on

a large number of subjects than before. I also managed to bring in a fair amount of

work from other investigators in laboratories—not enough to do them justice,

probably, but enough to illustrate that accuracy in personality judgment is a reborn

topic of research with many different approaches and participants around the world.

Acknowledgments

I am grateful to Academic Press, the American Psychological Association, and

the American Psychological Society (via Blackwell Publishers) for permission to

reuse some material previously published under their copyright.

I have been fortunate in the students and colleagues with whom I have collabo-

rated over the years and, of course, the most fun occurs when a student, over time,

turns into a full collaborator and nally becomes someone on whom you rely for

ideas and wisdom. Dr. C. Randall Colvin of Northeastern University did this, and

I thank him for all his help, which over the years has ranged from collating Q-sort

decks to sharply criticizing some of my conceptual blunders. Research on the

‘‘accuracy project,’’ as we call it, has also been greatly assisted by Melinda Blackman,

Alex Creed, Kate Dobroth, Leslie Eaton, Robert Fuhrman, R. Michael Furr, David

Kolar, Carl Sneed, and Jana Spain, all of whom have developed or are developing

into signicant psychological researchers in their own right. Our lab has also been

assisted by an army of undergraduate research assistants, too numerous to list, at

Harvey Mudd College, Harvard University, the University of Illinois, and the Uni-

versity of California, Riverside. I do have to give special mention to Doretta Mas-

saro and Robert Eblin, my rst two undergraduate assistants at Harvard. Bob was

the rst to say to a subject, ‘‘You can talk about anything you like and I’ll be back

in about 5 minutes.’’ Doretta was the rst to explain to an undergraduate how to

do a Q-sort. Both were important in getting this project off the ground and both

went off to great careers outside of psychology. I also need to acknowledge Mary

Verdier, who organized the rst army of videotape coders at the University of

Illinois, and Rayanne Notareschi, who did the same thing at Riverside.

The bulk of the writing of this book was completed while I was on a sabbatical

visit holding an Erskine Fellowship at the University of Canterbury in Christ-

church, New Zealand. Canterbury provided a stimulating and supportive academic

xvi Acknowledgments

atmosphere and a truly superb, computer-based library of the psychological litera-

ture. New Zealand is a wonderful country and Christchurch is a lovely city. Garth

Fletcher both made my Erskine fellowship possible and was a most hospitable as

well as intellectually stimulating host, ably assisted by his then-student, Dr. Geoff

Thomas. I also enjoyed and learned from long conversations about philosophy of

science with Dr. Brian Haig.

At Academic Press, Nikki Levy was a consistently supportive and encouraging

editor. Rebecca Orbegoso patiently shepherded the nal draft through production.

My wife, Patti, was supportive and helpful during the whole process of writing

this book. This project is just one of the many things I could not have done without

her. To Patti, I dedicate this book.

CHAPTER 1

Approaching Accuracy

This is a book about accuracy in personality judgment. It presents theory and

research concerning the circumstances under which and processes by which one

person might make an accurate appraisal of the psychological characteristics of

another person, or even of oneself.

Accuracy is a practical topic. Its improvement would have clear advantages for

organizations, for clinical psychology, and for the lives of individuals. With accurate

personality judgment, organizations would become more likely to hire the right

people and place them in appropriate positions. Clinical psychologists would make

more accurate judgments of their clients and so serve them better. Moreover, a

tendency to misinterpret the interpersonal world is an important part of some

psychological disorders. If we knew more about accurate interpersonal judgment,

this knowledge might help people to correct the kinds of misjudgments that can

cause problems. Most important of all, if individuals made more accurate judgments

of personality they might do better at choosing friends, avoiding people who cannot

be trusted, and understanding their interpersonal worlds (Nowicki & Mitchell,

1998). This last-named advantage—improving interpersonal understanding—is the

worthiest justication for doing research on accuracy and the most powerful reason

why people nd the topic interesting.

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