Paranormal Beliefs and the Barnum Effect

The acceptance phenomenon (i.e., the general tendency for persons to accept almost any bogus personality feedback; Layne, 1979) may be related to certain paranormal beliefs (Alcock, 1981; Hyman, 1981). Paranormal beliefs are beliefs in phenomena that, if authentic, violate basic limiting principles of science (Broad, 1953; Tobacyk & Milford, 1983). One specific illustration of the acceptance phenomenon is the "Barnum effect," which refers to acceptance of bogus personality feedback consisting of relatively trivial statements with a high base rate (Layne, 1979; Snyder, Shenkel, & Lowery, 1977). The Barnum effect has been implicated in personal validation and in "cold reading," both of which are used routinely by many astrologers, clairvoyants, faith healers, fortune tellers, graphologists, mediums, Tarot Card readers, and others (Hyman, 1981). It was hypothesized that paranormal beliefs emphasizing divinatory procedures that produce personalized feedback (i.e., precognition, spiritualism, superstition, and witchcraft) are associated with greater susceptibility to the Barnum effect.     

Inventory responding as a model of people's acceptance of personality interpretations

The hypothesis was tested that inventory responding modeled the acceptance of personality feedback. A barnum group (n=40) was asked to rate the personal accuracies of a list of personality inventory items and then an equivalent list of bogus personality feedback. The two lines of evidence which supported the model were (a) that the correlation between their inventory ratings and their feedback ratings was not only Significant (p < .001) but achieved a ceiling magnitude, as evidenced by a control group's (n = 40) data; and (b) that the variables influencing, inventory responding exerted an equal influence upon feedback acceptance, Contrary to the model, it was found that feedback was accepted more highly than were the inventory items. Conclusions were that inventory responding, as a model of feedback acceptance, is accurate with respect to individual differences but somewhat inaccurate with respect to overall levels of acceptance due to the additional influences of persuasion. It was also concluded that clients' acceptance or rejection of personality feedback is not evidence of the validity or invalidity, respectively, of assessment devices. A reformulated model of personality feedback acceptance was proposed.     

Inventory Responding as a Model of People's Acceptance of Personality Interpretations

The hypothesis was tested that inventory responding modeled the acceptance of personality feedback. A barnum group (n=40) was asked to rate the personal accuracies of a list of personality inventory items and then an equivalent list of bogus personality feedback. The two lines of evidence which supported the model were (a) that the correlation between their inventory ratings and their feedback ratings was not only Significant (p < .001) but achieved a ceiling magnitude, as evidenced by a control group's (n = 40) data; and (b) that the variables influencing, inventory responding exerted an equal influence upon feedback acceptance, Contrary to the model, it was found that feedback was accepted more highly than were the inventory items. Conclusions were that inventory responding, as a model of feedback acceptance, is accurate with respect to individual differences but somewhat inaccurate with respect to overall levels of acceptance due to the additional influences of persuasion. It was also concluded that clients' acceptance or rejection of personality feedback is not evidence of the validity or invalidity, respectively, of assessment devices. A reformulated model of personality feedback acceptance was proposed.     

Predicting and accepting personality test scores

Three studies are reported concerned with people's perception of their own personality, their acceptance of bogus ‘personality’ feedback, and the relationship between their ‘actual’ personality scores and their willingness to accept bogus feedback. In the first study subjects attempted to predict their own and a well-known other person's personality scores. They were fairly good at predicting some of their own scores (extraversion, neuroticism) but less so others, suggesting that people can recognize their own ‘correct’ personality feedback. In the second study subjects were given either positive (Barnum Statements) or negative (reverse Barnum Statements) ‘bogus’ feedback after a personality test. They tended to accept the positive feedback as more accurate than the negative feedback though this was not related to their actual scores. In the third study subjects were given four types of feedback statements after a personality test: general positive, general negative, specific positive and specific negative. As predicted, people tend to accept general rather than specific, and positive rather than negative feedback as true. Furthermore, acceptance was closely related to neuroticism and extraversion in a predicted direction. These results are discussed in terms of the uses and abuses of validation of personality feedback.     

How and why people accept personality feedback

The present experiment examined a model and a supplementary explanation of feedback acceptance. The model consisted of inventory responding under a yea-saying response set and the explanation stated that feedback is accepted because it is accurate and persuasive. "Neurotic" and stable undergraduates (n = 120) took several personality inventories and then rated the accuracies of personality "interpretations." As predicted, the model mirrored every detail of feedback acceptance; also, the accuracy of interpretations related most simply to their acceptance and the undergraduates changed their self-perceptions in the direction of the interpretations. Contrary to predictions, individual differences in persuasibility did influence feedback acceptance.     

Accepting personality test feedback: A review of the Barnum effect

This article attempts a comprehensive and critical review of the by-now fairly extensive literature on the Barnum effect—the approval/acceptance by subjects of bogus personality interpretations supposedly derived from standard tests. Since the last major review eight years ago various methodological extensions have occurred and various rival hypotheses for established findings have been proposed. The present review is divided into three major sections: client and clinician characteristics; feedback statements and test format; and implications for personality assessment and measurement. Nearly 50 studies on the acceptance of personality interpretations are systematically reviewed and criticized.     

Personality Predictors of Extreme Response Style

ABSTRACT Extreme response style (ERS) refers to the tendency to overuse the endpoints of Likert-type scales. This study examined the extent to which ERS is accounted for by measures of personality, specifically, intolerance of ambiguity, simplistic thinking, and decisiveness. One hundred and sixteen pairs of undergraduate students and one of their respective peers completed a battery of questionnaires assessing these personality measures, alongside three measures of extreme responding. Results indicate that peer ratings of intolerance of ambiguity and simplistic thinking interact with the primary participant's time spent on the survey to predict the primary participant's extreme responding. Thus, those who quickly complete surveys and are intolerant of ambiguity or are simplistic thinkers are most likely to exhibit ERS. These results have implications not only for surveys using rating scales, but also illustrate how epistemic personality factors more generally influence the processing of new information.     

Recalled parental behavior and objective personality measures: a canonical analysis.

Information about an individual's past relationships with his parents is an important component in psychological assessment procedures. To systematically connect these relationships and personality, two groups of college students completed an objective inventory designed to assess parental child rearing behaviors. Canonical correlational analysis was employed to relate these measures to the CPI and MMPI. A recalled parental behavior component described as Acceptance vs. Hostile Detachment/Involvement emerged as being highly related to aspects of both personality inventories, with greater recalled acceptance (and lesser recalled hostility) being associated with the more positive aspects of personality. Additional findings are enumerated.     

AN EVALUATION OF THE VALIDITY OF THE PERSONALITY RESEARCH FORM WITH FILIPINO UNIVERSITY STUDENTS

The cross-cultural validity of a North American personality inventory, namely, the Personality Research Form (Jackson 1984) was examined using 394 university students in the Philippines who were able to speak and read English. Scale validities, with self and peer ratings as criteria, were generally significant but modest. Moderate scale and peer rating reliabilities probably contributed to these results. Elevated scores on a PRF scale designed to detect careless responding suggested failure to understand instructions or insufficient motivation may also account for the findings. Interestingly, recalculating validities for subsamples comprising ‘dependable’ and ‘undependable’ subjects yielded no substantial differences in overall validity. Implications for cross-cultural personality assessment are discussed.     

Recalled Parental Behavior and Objective Personality Measures: A Canonical Analysis

Information about an individual's past relationships with his parents is an important component in psychological assessment procedures. To systematically connect these relationships and personality, two groups of college students completed an objective inventory designed to assess parental child rearing behaviors. Canonical correlational analysis was employed to relate these measures to the CPI and MMPI. A recalled parental behavior component described as Acceptance vs. Hostile Detachment/Involvement emerged as being highly related to aspects of both personality inventories, with greater recalled acceptance (and lesser recalled hostility) being associated with the more positive aspects of personality. Additional findings are enumerated.     

Introduction to the Special Issue on the Role of Personality Assessment in Consulting to Organizations

This special issue aims to advance the integration of personality assessment across applied contexts. Personality assessment is an integral part of clinical and organizational case conceptualizations, intervention planning, and change efforts. Yet, as the present historical account will illustrate, the literatures in relation to personality assessment have developed rather independently. The articles in this special issue highlight the importance of organizational personality assessment as relates to how (a) academics vs. practitioners look at standards for test selection (Furnham), (b) the intended use of tests (selection vs. employee development) impacts the criteria used to establish assessment tool validity (Moyle & Hackston), (c) personality models developed in social and personality psychology can be applied in organizational contexts (Shorey & Chaffin), (d) assessments are modified to more accurately assess operational definitions of constructs (Belwalker & Tobacyk), (e) perception and knowledge about personality of others can be assessed as an ability (Mayer, Lortie, Panter & Caruso), and (f) performance-based techniques can be used in organizational personality assessment to curtail faking and socially desirable responding (Harms, Krasikova & Luthans). The present introduction highlights the important contributions of these articles, individually and as a body, in advancing the integration and application of personality assessment in organizational contexts.     

Personality and the derogation of others: Descriptions based on self- and peer report

We examined the tendency to react to failure by derogating others. A situation was constructed to test this reaction among those posited to exhibit this behavior most often—narcissistically inclined individuals. The participants (N=64) consisted of college students screened for pathological personality traits using self-report and peer report measures. Participants completed a two-part lab task and received false feedback indicating that they had been outperformed by fellow participants. Among self-report items, the best predictor of other-derogation was narcissism; among peer-report items, the best predictor items described cold, aloof, and avoidant personality tendencies. Findings are discussed with regard to identifying personality trait–situation–behavior patterns through multiple assessment methods.     

An approach for practice administration and interpretation of the MMPI-2

This paper discusses one teaching approach for practice administration and interpretation of the MMPI-2 in a graduate course on personality assessment. After graduate students practice scoring and interpreting the MMPI-2 inventory completed with specific response sets and practice interpreting MMPI-2 profiles of cases prepared for teaching and practice in interpretation, students practice administering and interpreting the MMPI-2 for volunteer test-takers who complete the inventory with a simulated stress response set. The simulated stress response set approach may be helpful in providing skill-building practice in the early phases of learning the MMPI-2 with volunteer test-takers, while minimizing some of the ethical concerns raised regarding actual administrations with nonclient volunteers in the early phases of training in assessment.     

Not too little, but not too much: The perceived desirability of responses to personality items

Paradigms typically employed to investigate socially desirable responding in personality assessment implicitly assume linear relationships exist between trait level and desirability but recent research has called this assumption into question. In this study, participants rated the desirability of a hypothetical applicant to one of four jobs on the basis of which five-point Likert-type scale option he/she selected when responding to personality items. Results generally indicated that the most extreme option, on the desirable side of the response scale, was rated as most desirable, but perceived desirability asymptotes with the penultimate option. The middle (neutral) option, however, was consistently regarded as being much less desirable. The occupational context also significantly moderated the patterns of desirability ratings for many items.     

The Body Image Boundary Construct: A Reply to Fisher and Cleveland

The ability of expert and naive judges to discriminate between genuine and Barnum assessment statements was assessed. In a 2 x 2 x 2 design (naive vs. expert judges, genuine vs. Barnum test statements, sex), judges rated assessment statements for their information value, usefulness, social desirability, and typicalness. Results indicated that judges were able to make expected discriminations between genuine and Barnum statements. These results were discussed in terms of previous findings which have suggested that judges have seen Barnum statements as "accurate" or "good" as genuine statements. In the present study, the discriminations seemed due to the use of a population of judges more representative of clinical assessment consumers and to the more specific judgments required.     

Relationships Among Spirituality, Religious Practices, Personality Factors, and Health for Five Different Faith Traditions

To determine: (1) differences in spirituality, religiosity, personality, and health for different faith traditions; and (2) the relative degree to which demographic, spiritual, religious, and personality variables simultaneously predict health outcomes for different faith traditions. Cross-sectional analysis of 160 individuals from five different faith traditions including Buddhists (40), Catholics (41), Jews (22), Muslims (26), and Protestants (31). Brief multidimensional measure of religiousness/spirituality (BMMRS; Fetzer in Multidimensional measurement of religiousness/spirituality for use in health research, Fetzer Institute, Kalamazoo, 1999); NEO-five factor inventory (NEO-FFI; in Revised NEO personality inventory (NEO PI-R) and the NEO-five factor inventory (NEO-FFI) professional manual, Psychological Assessment Resources, Odessa, Costa and McCrae 1992); Medical outcomes scale-short form (SF-36; in SF-36 physical and mental health summary scores: A user??s manual, The Health Institute, New England Medical Center, Boston, Ware et al. 1994). (1) ANOVAs indicated that there were no significant group differences in health status, but that there were group differences in spirituality and religiosity. (2) Pearson??s correlations for the entire sample indicated that better mental health is significantly related to increased spirituality, increased positive personality traits (i.e., extraversion) and decreased personality traits (i.e., neuroticism and conscientiousness). In addition, spirituality is positively correlated with positive personality traits (i.e., extraversion) and negatively with negative personality traits (i.e., neuroticism). (3) Hierarchical regressions indicated that personality predicted a greater proportion of unique variance in health outcomes than spiritual variables. Different faith traditions have similar health status, but differ in terms of spiritual, religious, and personality factors. For all faith traditions, the presence of positive and absence of negative personality traits are primary predictors of positive health (and primarily mental health). Spiritual variables, other than forgiveness, add little to the prediction of unique variance in physical or mental health after considering personality. Spirituality can be conceptualized as a characterological aspect of personality or a distinct construct, but spiritual interventions should continue to be used in clinical practice and investigated in health research.     

THE EFFECT OF FEEDBACK ON THE ACCURACY OF CHECKLIST COMPLETION DURING INSTRUMENT FLIGHT TRAINING

This study examined whether pilots completed airplane checklists more accurately when they receive postflight graphic and verbal feedback. Participants were 8 college students who are pilots with an instrument rating. The task consisted of flying a designated flight pattern using a personal computer aviation training device (PCATD). The dependent variables were the number of checklist items completed correctly. A multiple baseline design across pairs of participants with withdrawal of treatment was employed in this study. During baseline, participants were given postflight technical feedback. During intervention, participants were given postflight graphic feedback on checklist use and praise for improvements along with technical feedback. The intervention produced near perfect checklist performance, which was maintained following a return to the baseline conditions.