Skepticism about Character Traits

The first part of this article discusses recent skepticism about character traits. The second describes various forms of virtue ethics as reactions to such skepticism. The philosopher J.-P. Sartre argued in the 1940s that character traits are pretenses, a view that the sociologist E. Goffman elaborated in the 1950s. Since then social psychologists have shown that attributions of character traits tend to be inaccurate through the ignoring of situational factors. (Personality psychology has tended to concentrate on people’s conceptions of personality and character rather than on the accuracy of these conceptions). Similarly, the political theorist R. Hardin has argued for situational explanations of bloody social disputes in the former Yugoslavia and in Africa, rather than explanations in terms of ethnic hatred for example. A version of virtue ethics might identify virtues as characteristics of acts rather than character traits, as traits consisting in actual regularities in behavior, or as robust dispositions that would manifest themselves also in counterfactual situations.     

A Contextual Account of Character Traits

Character traits have several vital functions. They should enable us to assess others morally, inform us of others’ behavioral tendencies, and accurately explain and predict others’ behavior. But traits of character, as they have traditionally been understood, cannot adequately serve these purposes. For character traits are traditionally thought to be context-insensitive. The Contextual Account of Character Traits, which I here develop and defend, posits traits that are context-sensitive. Context-sensitive character traits are more receptive to the complexity of human psychology and behavior and, hence, they not only adequately, but excellently, satisfy their theoretic and pragmatic functions.     

The Analysis of Character Traits in Group Therapy

The author describes a support group led by two psychiatrists for individuals with AIDS set in the participants' residence, the AIDS Community Residence Association (ACRA) House. Similar to other AIDS groups described in the literature, the residents spoke of existential fears such as losing their physical beauty or intellect. In contrast to the intimate and familial atmosphere of many other AIDS groups, the members' strong sense of invasion by the facilitators and their ongoing ambivalence were striking. This reaction toward the group and the co-leaders appeared to be metaphorically related to the “invasion” of illness and health care workers into their lives. As members better tolerated and expressed these thoughts and feelings, a greater intimacy and sense of “family” emerged.     

Assessing the Utility of Compound Trait Estimates of Narrow Personality Traits

It has been argued that approximations of narrow traits can be made through linear combinations of broad traits such as the Big Five personality traits. Indeed, Hough and Ones (2001 Hough, L. M., &; Ones, D. S. (2001). The structure, measurement, validity, &; use of personality variables in industrial, work, and organizational psychology. In N. Anderson, D. S. Ones, H. K. Sinangil, &; C Viswesvaran (Eds.), Handbook of industrial, work, and organizational psychology (Vol. 1, pp. 233–277). London, UK: Sage.[Crossref] , [Google Scholar]) used a qualitative analysis of scale content to arrive at a taxonomy of how Big Five traits might be combined to approximate various narrow traits. However, the utility of such compound trait approximations has yet to be established beyond specific cases such as integrity and customer service orientation. Using data from the Eugene-Springfield Community Sample (Goldberg, 2008 Goldberg, L. R. (2008). The Eugene-Springfield community sample: Information available from the research participants. Eugene: Oregon Research Institute. [Google Scholar]), we explore the ability of linear composites of scores on Big Five traits to approximate scores on 127 narrow trait measures from 5 well-known non-Big-Five omnibus measures of personality. Our findings indicate that individuals' standing on more than 30 narrow traits can be well estimated from 3 different types of linear composites of scores on Big Five traits without a substantial sacrifice in criterion validity. We discuss theoretical accounts for why such relationships exist as well as the theoretical and practical implications of these findings for researchers and practitioners.     

说"人治"

人治是古代特别是儒家的政治思想主张,其基本思想旨趣是对于贤人治政的伦理诉求.人治并不排斥法治.将人治与法治对立起来的是法家,尤其是表现于战国中、后期慎到、韩非的倡导重势和反对尊贤.人治作为一种政治现象和政治思想学说在人类社会发展的一定历史时期具有普遍性,对其历史作用应作具体分析.批判其历史的、阶级的局限性,吸取和借鉴其合理因素,是政治学和伦理学研究的一个不宜忽视的任务.     

The Fundamental Attribution Error and Harman's Case against Character Traits

Abstract

Gilbert Harman argues that the warrant for the lay attribution of character traits is completely undermined by the “fundamental attribution error” (FAE). He takes it to have been established by social psychologists, that the FAE pervades ordinary instances of lay person perception. However, examination of recent work in psychology reveals that there are good reasons to doubt that the effects observed in experimental settings, which ground the case for the FAE, pervade ordinary instances of person perception. Furthermore, it is possible to make sense of these experimental results without invoking the FAE. Harman's argument against lay character trait attribution is unsubstantiated.     

The Milgram Experiments, Learned Helplessness, and Character Traits

The Milgram and other situationist experiments support the real-life evidence that most of us are highly akratic and heteronomous, and that Aristototelian virtue is not global. Indeed, like global theoretical knowledge, global virtue is psychologically impossible because it requires too much of finite human beings with finite powers in a finite life; virtue can only be domain-specific. But unlike local, situation-specific virtues, domain-specific virtues entail some general understanding of what matters in life, and are connected conceptually and causally to our traits in other domains. The experiments also make us aware of how easily unobtrusive situational factors can tap our susceptibilities to obedience, conformity, irresponsibility, cruelty, or indifference to others’ welfare, thereby empowering us to change ourselves for the better. Thus, they advance the Socratic project of living the examined life. I note a remarkable parallel between the results of the baseline Milgram experiments and the results of the learned helplessness experiments by Martin Seligman et al. This provides fresh insight into the psychology and character of the obedient Milgram subjects, and I use this insight to argue that pusillanimity, as Aristotle conceives of it, is part of a complete explanation of the behavior of the obedient Milgram subjects.     

The Consequences and Correction of Inflation in Personal Savings Estimates in Specific Future Time Frames

We examined the consequences of personal savings estimate inflation that occurs when decision makers provide savings estimates for specific future months when compared with the next month or the next year time frames, along with a method to attenuate this bias. The results of three experiments showed that the savings estimate inflation leads to significantly larger estimates of desired nest egg size (Experiment 1) and preference for riskier choices in other financial domains such as investment and employment decisions (Experiment 2). An attempt to attenuate this bias revealed that it is corrected when individuals provide a budgeting estimate prior to giving a savings estimate (Experiment 3). The theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

大学生个人奋斗、人格特质与主观幸福感的关系

本研究采用问卷调查法,以武汉市6所高校的533名本科生为被试,通过结构方程建模的方法,探讨了人格特质、个人奋斗与主观幸福感三者之间的关系,并比较了个人奋斗和人格特质对主观幸福感的影响作用。研究发现,个人奋斗和人格特质都对主观幸福感有影响;人格特质对主观幸福感的影响大于个人奋斗对主观幸福感的影响;人格特质对个人奋斗有影响。因此,人格的特质因素与动机因素对主观幸福感有不同的影响作用。     

我国大学生在关爱价值观者特征上的公众观

在开放式预调查基础上,对452名大学各专业学生进行调查研究。结果表明:我国大学生认为善良、真诚、有爱心、不歧视残障者、宽容、设身处地、尊重7项是关爱价值观者最应该具有的特征;个人修养、利他助人、处事交往、外表印象、内在气质、尊重宽容、奉献与责任是关爱价值观者的7个品质因素,其中个人修养的品质因素最为突出;对这些品质因素,男女大学生看法没有明显差异,对某些品质因素城乡大学生、不同专业大学生有明显不同的看法。     

Character Traits Depicted in Newbery Medal Books from the 1920s Through the 2000s

Readers readily identify with characters in literature; therefore, educators must be acutely aware of the overt and underlying messages conveyed in Newbery Medal books. In this quantitative content analysis with a qualitative component, the researchers employed nonparametric measurements to examine Newbery Medal books from the 1920s to the 2000s to quantify the frequency of positive Biblical and negative opposite character traits exhibited through the thoughts and actions of characters in Newbery Medal books as well as the emergent moral themes of each book. A new system of classification for Newbery Medal books has been proposed to provide the American Library Association with an alternative method by which Newbery Medal books categorized.