Strangers' ratings of the five robust personality factors: Evidence of a surprising convergence with self-report.

Attempted to replicate and extend the results of Passini and Norman (1966), who found surprising evidence of convergent validity (i.e., significant correlations with the targets' self-ratings) in strangers' judgments of 5 broad personality factors. In the current study, 250 previously unacquainted Ss were run in small, same-sex groups of various sizes. Ss rated both themselves and their fellow group members on the same set of 20 bipolar trait scales used by Passini and Norman. Consistent with previous research, significant self–peer agreement correlations were obtained for Extraversion and Conscientiousness. Ratings of Agreeableness also showed significant convergent validity when a sufficient number of peers rated the target. More generally, self–peer agreement correlations tended to rise as the number of peer raters increased. Possible explanations for the validity of strangers' trait ratings are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Presidential style: Personality, biography, and performance.

Past research in the personality basis of leadership has led several investigators to study the characteristics of American presidents using content-analytical and biographical measures. In this article, biographical information on 39 U.S. chief executives provided the basis for assessments by seven raters on 82 items concerning presidential style. The presidents could be reliably discriminated on 49 items, which a factor analysis reduced to five dimensions: the interpersonal, charismatic, deliberative, creative, and neurotic styles. These styles were shown to be related to broader personality traits, biographical experiences, and both objective and subjective indicators of leader performance. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

A structured interview for the assessment of the Five-Factor Model of Personality.

The authors report on the psychometric properties of a new semistructured interview, the Structured Interview for the Five-Factor Model of Personality (SIFFM; T J. Rull & T A. Widiger, 1997). The SIFFM assesses major dimensions of the five-factor model (FFM) as well as trait facets for each dimension. Analyses of data obtained from both nonclinical and clinical participants support the reliability and validity of SIFFM scores. Specifically, SIFFM scores were reliable across raters, were internally consistent and relatively stable over time, and were correlated with scores from related measures (e.g., personality, personality disorders). The authors discuss the need for and attractiveness of an interview-based measure of the FFM in assessing normal and dysfunctional personality traits. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Temporal stability and validity of two personality disorder inventories.

The 3-mo temporal stability of self-report personality disorder scores from the Personality Diagnostic Questionnaire—Revised (PDQ—R; S. Hyler and R. Rieder, 1987) and the MMPI-Personality Disorder scales (MMPI-PD; L. Morey, M. Waugh, and R. Blashfield, 1985) was examined in a sample of 51 psychiatric outpatients. In addition, the convergent and discriminant validity of the scales from the PDQ—R and MMPI-PD were also assessed. Results indicate that PDQ—R and MMPI-PD scores were relatively stable over time, but support was obtained for the validity of only several of the personality disorder scales. Issues concerning the overlap of personality disorders as well as the lack of a "gold standard" to be used for establishing the validity of personality disorder instruments are discussed. Future research aimed at combining multiple forms of Axis II assessment (e.g., self-report, interview, informant) is recommended. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Validity of observer ratings of the big five personality factors.

Examined the validity of observer (supervisor, coworker, and customer) ratings and self-ratings of personality measures. Results based on a sample of 105 sales representatives supported the 2 hypotheses tested. First, supervisor, coworker, and customer ratings of the 2 job-relevant personality dimensions—conscientiousness and extraversion—were valid predictors of performance ratings, and the magnitude of the validities was at least as large as for self-ratings. Second, supervisor, coworker, and customer ratings accounted for significant variance in the criterion measure beyond self-ratings alone for the relevant dimensions. Overall, the results suggest that validities of personality measures based on self-assessments alone may underestimate the true validity of personality constructs. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Aggregation, moderator variables, and the validity of personality tests: A peer-rating study.

A study with 85 college fraternity members investigated the effects of aggregation and moderator variables on the validity of personality tests. Aggregation over items and raters yielded an average self–peer correlation of .44 for ratings on 4 personality dimensions. The combination of social communication skill and self-knowledge produced significant moderating effects. Ss high on the Acting subscale and high on a composite of Private Self-Consciousness and Personal Identity scales had stronger agreement between self- and peer ratings than did those low on these measures. Results for 4 specific moderator variables (the importance, variability, and observability of each rating dimension) were in the predicted direction, although weaker than expected. It is concluded that aggregation and the use of moderator variables are both important techniques for obtaining convincing validity coefficients in personality research. (75 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Is increased arousal in social anxiety noticed by others?

Self–peer ratings were compared for high- and low-anxious (Social Avoidance and Distress Scale) undergraduates on 3 personality dimensions: anxiety, friendliness, and conscientiousness. The hypothesis that elevated somatic symptoms in socially anxious individuals contributes to the perceived salience of one's anxiety was examined. 19 low-anxious/low-somatic, 8 high-anxious/low-somatic and 7 high-anxious/high-somatic Ss and 34 of their peers completed a trait rating, observability rating, and behavioral checklist for each of the above dimensions. MANOVAs indicated that self-rated anxiety was significantly greater than peer-rated anxiety for the high-anxious/high-somatic Ss only. These Ss also reported that they displayed significantly more behavioral signs of anxiety than were noticed by their peers. No significant self–other discrepancies were observed for the traits of friendliness and conscientiousness. Findings suggest that a central concern associated with social anxiety—that symptoms of anxiety are salient to others—may derive, in part, from the experience of elevated somatic concomitants of anxiety. (8 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The character to lead: A closer look at character in leadership.

This study explored The Worthy Leadership Model's (Thompson, Grahek, Phillips, & Fay, 2008) “Character to Lead” construct, which encompasses three factors (Personal Integrity and Ethics; Organizational Integrity and Courage; and Humility, Gratitude, and Forgiveness) and nine dimensions (personal integrity, ethics, openness, organizational integrity, courage, power, humility, gratitude, and forgiveness). This article reports the results of an empirical test of the model's character construct using a behavioral measure of character in leadership. The measure (The Worthy Leadership Profile for Executives, WLPe) consisted of self-ratings by director and executive-level leaders (N = 275) along with ratings of these leaders by their managers, direct reports, peers, and others (N = 4,127 raters). Psychometric characteristics of the ratings are reported along with the relationship of ratings of character in leadership to selected personality variables. The article also examines the degree to which managers, peers, and direct reports perceived factors of character (as compared to factors of capacity and commitment) as being important to leaders' roles and to the likelihood of future success and/or failure. Finally, the study explored the degree to which ratings on the character construct were related to employees' perceptions of selected job-related outcomes (past job performance, failure to reach full potential, perceived support for the leadership efforts of others, and overall perceptions of worthy leadership). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Interrater agreement in dimensionality and combination of assessment center judgments.

The present study represents an attempt to examine the interrater reliability of assessment center ratings, the dimensionality of those ratings, the consistency of that dimensionality across raters, and the rater's combination of information to arrive at an overall rating. Before- and after-discussion ratings by 4 assessors of 101 potential middle managers on 17 judgmental dimensions were intercorrelated and subjected to principal-components and regression analyses. Results indicate high interrater reliability along with a great degree of similarity across raters in the perceived dimensionality of ratings. Three dimensions—administrative skills, interpersonal skills, and activity level—were the major determinants of overall ratings for all 4 raters. Test scores did not greatly affect overall ratings. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Depressive personality: Reliability, validity, and relation to dysthymia.

The reliability and validity of K. Schneider's (1958) construct of depressive personality was evaluated in a sample of 177 outpatients, who were administered structured diagnostic and family history interviews, an extensive battery of inventories, and a 6-mo follow-up assessment. The criteria for depressive personality had moderate to good interrater reliability, internal consistency, and test–retest stability, and the assessment of depressive personality traits was not influenced by patients' clinical states. In addition, preliminary support for the convergent and discriminant validity of the depressive personality construct was obtained. Although there were significant relations between the depressive personality and diagnoses of dysthymia from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-III) and DSM-III—Revised (DSM-III—R), the depressive personality was not entirely subsumed by existing mood disorders. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A new look at within-source interrater reliability of 360-degree feedback ratings.

This study investigated within-source interrater reliability of supervisor, peer, and subordinate feedback ratings made for managerial development. Raters provided 360-degree feedback ratings on a sample of 153 managers. Using generalizability theory, results indicated that little within-source agreement exists; a large portion of the error variance is attributable to the combined rater main effect and Rater X Ratee effect; more raters are needed than currently used to reach acceptable levels of reliability; supervisors are the most reliable with trivial differences between peers and subordinates when the numbers of raters and items are held constant; and peers are the most reliable, followed by subordinates, followed by supervisors, under conditions commonly encountered in practice. Implications for the validity, design, and maintenance of 360-degree feedback systems are discussed along with directions for future research in this area. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The Construct and Criterion Validity of Emotional Intelligence and Its Potential Utility for Management Studies.

In this study, the authors reviewed the definition of emotional intelligence (EI) and argued that El is conceptually distinct from personality. In Study 1, the authors showed that EI was related to yet distinct from personality dimensions and that it had incremental predictive power on life satisfaction. The authors examined the construct validity of self-reports and others' ratings of EI using two samples in Study 2. In a student sample, parents' ratings explained additional variance in the students' life satisfaction and feelings of powerlessness after controlling for the Big Five personality dimensions. In the work sample, peer ratings were found to be significant predictors of job performance ratings provided by supervisors after controlling for the Big Five personality dimensions. Other implications for future research on EI are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

DSM-III—R personality disorders and the five-factor model of personality: An empirical comparison.

Examined the relationship between the 5-factor model (FFM) of personality and the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-III-Revised (DSM-III-R) personality disorders in a sample of 54 psychiatric outpatients. Correlations between raw scores on the NEO-Personality Inventory (NEO-PI) and the number of DSM-III—R personality disorder symptoms rated present using a semistructured interview were computed. In addition, correlations between NEO-PI scores and scores on 2 self-report personality disorder inventories were also examined to determine which results replicated across instruments. Results indicate that the FFM personality dimensions of Neuroticism, Extraversion, and Agreeableness were most apparent in the DSM-III—R conceptualizations of the personality disorders. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Goal orientation and planfulness: Action styles as personality concepts.

We performed nine studies with partly overlapping samples from the United States and Germany to establish the reliability, validity, and usefulness of the concept of action style—a person-specific approach to action. Two principal-components-analyses factors are dealt with in more detail: goal orientation and planfulness. Both show high consistencies and have test–retest correlations of r?=?.47 and .48, respectively, across 8 months. In one validity study, the correlations between self-ratings and peer ratings are .36 for goal orientation and .54 for planfulness. In a second validity study, a quasi experiment, with thinking-aloud protocols on planning a day in a strange city, showed rather weak correlations between raters and subjects, but these correlations improved when we included only those subjects who were easy to observe. A third validity study on the correlations with impulsivity showed that goal orientation is little related but that planfulness is to a higher degree. There are small but consistent and significant relations with depression and with coronary-prone Type A behavior, and there are correlations with work-related constructs of stress and resources at work as well as with performance in college. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A (latent) Big Five personality model in 1915? A reanalysis of Webb's data.

In 1915 Edward Webb, working under Charles Spearman at University College London, reported a study of personality trait ratings of 194 trainee teachers. The original report found a single personality factor, which Webb named Persistence of Motives or w. Subsequent partial reanalyses and reinterpretations of Webb's data are reviewed and are found to be misleading. The quality of Webb's data is high; 2 raters assessed every student, and the raters' studies of the students' characters were unusually prolonged and intense. A new reanalysis of Webb's data analyzes 6- and 5-factor personality structures latent in the data set, which are judged by experts to be congruent with current 5-factor and other models of human personality trait structure. Therefore, the first, albeit latent, discovery of some currently recognized broad personality dimensions came from the department that is the birthplace of differential psychology. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Peer judgments of parole success in institutionalized heroin addicts: Personality correlates and validity.

Studied the validity and personality correlates of peer judgments of parole success in 89 incarcerated heroin addicts (mean age = 22.1 yrs). Ss completed a battery of personality measures, including Rotter's Internal-External Control Scale, the Death Concern Scale, the Adjective Check List, and the Sensation-Seeking Scale. Ss judged as successes by their peers, in contrast to peer-judged failures, had significantly higher rates of parole success at 6 and 15 mo following release and differed significantly from the failures on 17 of 33 personality dimensions. Results are discussed within the context of previous studies of peer ratings in other settings, and implications for research are noted. (20 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)