Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Abstract

This study investigated the relation between social experience and trait relationships. Subjects were exposed to information that was contrary to their assumptions about trait relationships. They then rated stimulus persons on a number of trait dimensions. There were significant changes in how subjects rated these stimulus persons, although these changes were not consciously recognized by the subjects. The results indicate that certain social experiences may influence the relationships among trait ratings of both fictitious and real persons. In addition, these results suggest that there may be differences between conscious beliefs about trait relationships and trait relationships derived from actual ratings.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Berman, J. S. , & Kenny, D. A. Correlational bias in observer ratings. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1976, 34, 263-272.

Bruner, J. S. , & Tagiuri, R. Person perception. In G. Lindzey (Ed.), Handbook of social psychology (Vol. 2). Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, 1954.

Bush, L. E., II . Individual differences multidimensional scaling of adjectives denoting feelings. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1973, 25, 50-57.

Dewhirst, J. R. , & Berman, J. S. Social judgments of spurious and causal relations between attributes and outcomes. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 1978, 14, 313-325.

Kim, M. P. , & Rosenberg, S. Comparison of two structural models of implicit personality theory. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1980, 38, 375-389.

Nisbett, R. E. , & Wilson, T. D. The halo effect: The evidence for unconscious alteration of judgments. Journal of Personality, and Social Psychology, 1977, 35, 250-256. (a)

Nisbett, R. E. , & Wilson, T. D. Telling more than we can know: Verbal reports on mental processes. Psychological Review, 1977, 84, 231-259. (b)

Rosenberg, S. , Nelson, C. , & Vivekananthan, P. S. A multidimensional approach to the structure of personality impressions. Journal of Personality> and Social Psychology, 1968, 9, 283-294.

Schneider, D. J. Implicit personality theory: A review . Psychological Bulletin, 1973, 79, 294-309.

10.

Schneider, D. J. , Hastorf, A. H. , & Ellsworth, P. C. Person perception. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, 1979.

11.

Stricker, L. J. , Jacobs, P. I. , & Kogan, N. Trait interrelations in implicit personality theories and questionnaire data. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1974, 30, 198-207.

12.

Thorndike, E. L. A constant error in psychological ratings . Journal of Applied Psychology, 1920, 4, 25-29.

Trait Relationships

Abstract

Get full access to this article

References