Perceptions of Design Practitioners

Abstract

This study examined differences between perceived personality characteristics of a trained interior designer and of an untrained interior decorator. Subjects were 256 students who read a narrative description of a designer or a decorator and rated her personality traits by using a semantic differential scale. Factor analysis of the 17 adjective pairs of the semantic differential scale generated 5 factors: Professional, Extroverted, Creative, Intuitive, and Scientific. Narrative descriptions of practitioners' training had no significant effects on any of the 5 factors, thereby supporting the hypothesis that there would be no differences perceived between the trained interior designer and the untrained interior decorator.