What you don’t know: The role played by errors of omission in imperfect self-assessments

Perceptions of ability often bear little relationship to objective performance. We suggest that people fail to judge their ability more accurately because they have little or no insight into their errors of omission (i.e., solutions they could have generated to problems but missed), although they can be perfectly aware of solutions found. Across five studies with tasks involving, for example, word games and research methodology, we found that participants gave weight to the number of solutions found when making self-evaluations, but not to solutions missed. When given explicit information about these errors of omission, participants gave them just as much weight as they did solutions found, and thus provided more accurate self-evaluations.     

Self-enhancement and belief perseverance

Belief perseverance—the tendency to make use of invalidated information—is one of social psychology’s most reliable phenomena. Virtually all of the explanations proffered for the effect, as well as the conditions that delimit it, involve the way people think about or explain the discredited feedback. But it seems reasonable to assume that the importance of the feedback for the actor’s self-image would also influence the tendency to persevere on invalidated feedback. From a self-enhancement perspective, one might ask: Why would people persist in negative self-beliefs, especially when the basis for those beliefs has been discredited? In the present study, actors and observers completed a word-identification task and were given bogus success or failure feedback. After success feedback was discredited, actors and observers persevered equally in beliefs about the actor’s abilities. However, following invalidation of failure feedback, actors provided significantly higher performance evaluations than observers, thus exhibiting less perseverance on the negative feedback. These results suggest that the motivation to maintain a relatively favorable self-image may attenuate perseverance when discredited feedback threatens an important aspect of the self-concept.     

Correlation of Self-Perception and Image of Christ Using the Five-Factor Model of Personality

In this study, the relationship between one’s self-perception of personality and his or her image of Jesus Christ was studied within a sample of 153 undergraduate students, of whom 130 were Christian and 23 were non-Christian; 23 Protestant pastors; and 55 Protestant laypersons. Using two forms of the NEO Personality Inventory (Self and Observer), ratings of the Big Five personality factors were obtained for both self and Jesus Christ. Results indicated significant positive correlations between ratings of self and Christ in each of the subgroups of Christian individuals. No correlations were found between ratings of self and Christ for the non-Christians. A repeated-measures ANOVA revealed significant differing correlations between groups. Christian persons may project perceptions onto Christ or attempt to mold themselves in a way more consistent with their own images of Christ. Further implications of the results as well as direction of the relationship between self-perception and image of Christ are discussed.     

Les profils recherchés et rejetés par des recruteurs professionnels en France

This research explores the expectations of recruiters in terms of what they think are prerequisite qualifications of applicants at different job levels. The professional recruiters (N=384) practicing in France, read a job profile (managers or blue-collar workers) and subsequently indicated the five most advisable and inadvisable characteristics for performance on the job. The results confirm our hypothesis and are evidence of a strong prevalence of personality traits in recruiters’ choices. Moreover, the profiles of the « ideal » and « unacceptable » personality mentioned by the recruiters differ according to the job level. Finally, for the management level as well as for the blue-collar worker level, the « ideal » profile is not a simple reversal of the « unacceptable » profile, each profile implies specific personality traits.     

Effects of self‐enhancement on agreement on personality profiles

Effects of self‐enhancement and socially desirable responding (SDR) on rater agreement for personality profiles were studied in 304 students. Dyads of participants described themselves and their peer on the Revised NEO Personality Inventory (NEO‐PI‐R) that measures 30 facets of personality. In addition, participants filled in six scales measuring self‐enhancement or SDR. Data analyses focussed on moderator and suppressor effects of SDR on the similarity between self‐reported and other reported NEO‐PI‐R profiles. Three kinds of profile agreement were distinguished: (a) normative agreement; (b) distinctive agreement and (c) profile normativeness, that is, how strongly a self‐reported personality profile resembled the average profile of all participants. There were no moderator or suppressor effects on distinctive agreement, but SDR predicted profile normativeness quite strongly. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Profiles of emotion regulation: Understanding regulatory patterns and the implications for posttraumatic stress

Trauma survivors often experience posttraumatic stress (PTS) and report concurrent difficulties with emotion regulation (ER). Although individuals typically use multiple regulatory strategies to manage emotion, no studies yet examine the influence of a constellation of strategies on PTS in a community sample. We assessed six ER strategies and investigated whether specific profiles of ER (i.e. the typical pattern of regulation, determined by how often each strategy is used) were related to PTS. A hierarchical cluster analysis indicated that four distinct profiles were present: Adaptive Regulation, Active Regulation, Detached Regulation, and Maladaptive Regulation. Further analyses revealed that an individual's profile was not related to frequency of past trauma, but had the power to differentiate symptom severity for overall PTS and each symptom cluster of posttraumatic stress disorder. These findings highlight how profiles characterising multiple regulatory strategies offer a more complete understanding of the ways ER can account for PTS.     

The Future of Research on Intimate Partner Violence: Person-Oriented and Variable-Oriented Perspectives

This article uses the distinction between the person and the variable orientations as a frame for structuring (1) research on IPV, (2) results of this research, and (3) an agenda for future research. The main tenet of this agenda is that causes, processes, and effects of IPV are person and context specific; therefore, results that relate variables to each other are of limited value if it can be shown that the processes that take place, the meaning of the variables, the profile of the transgressors and the women who experience IPV depend on time, environment, and research design. Examples of valuable variable-oriented research are given; examples of the growing contribution made by person-oriented research are given as well. Sample theories are sketched out, for the variable-oriented, the person-oriented, and the theoretical research arenas, the need for future research is derived from inconsistencies and shortcomings in both current research and theory. Sample research questions are proposed. The contributions made by the authors of this Special Section are embedded within the discussion of research and theory of IPV. It is shown that each of the contributions is valuable within a particular segment of the research landscape.     

Attachment relationships and physical activity in adolescents: The mediation role of physical self-concept

ObjectivesBased on the integration of attachment and physical self-perception perspectives, the present study examined links between adolescents' engagement in physical activity and their attachment relationships with mothers, fathers, and friends, respectively, and assessed the potential mediation role of physical self-perception in this link.Design and methodsUsing a cross-sectional design, questionnaire data was obtained from 767 adolescents (49% boys, M_age = 12.92, SD = .86) and structural equation modeling was used to examine relationships among variables.ResultsAttachment security with parents and friend was associated with higher levels of physical activity. There was partial support of the mediation role of physical self-perception, as adolescents who were securely attached to mother and friend perceived themselves as having better physical condition, which in turn predicted greater engagement in physical activity. The mediation role of physical self-perception between mother attachment and PA was stronger for female adolescents. Secure attachment to father had a direct positive effect on physical activity. The direct effect was strongest for male adolescents.ConclusionsOur findings highlight the importance of relationship-based intervention strategies to enhance and maintain healthy regular physical activity among adolescents.     

Évaluation de la compréhension écrite de récits chez l’enfant de 7 à 10 ans : vers des profils de compreneurs

IntroductionThe aim of the study was to investigate reading comprehension skills in 7 to 10-year-old children and to present a new tool for assessing reading comprehension skills in elementary school children. Two aspects of text comprehension were assessed: literal comprehension skills and inference generation (with two subtypes of inferences, coherence inferences and knowledge-based inferences).MethodTwo narratives of varying length and complexity have been constructed and presented to 498 French-speaking children from second grade to fifth grade.ResultsThe results showed an evolution of performance with school level. Children's scores also depended on the type of comprehension skill evaluated (literal versus inferential) and difficulty of texts. Furthermore, cluster analysis yielded five profiles that clearly differ on children's ability to respond to either literal questions, coherence inferential questions, or knowledge-based inferential questions.ConclusionThe existence of different profiles of comprehenders is discussed in terms of theoretical implications. Finally, some limitations and way of improvement are presented.