Two Approaches for Identifying Shared Personality Dimensions Across Methods

Two approaches are illustrated, one exploratory and one confirmatory, or determining the extent to which personality dimensions are invariant across different methods of measurement. Using the interbattery factor model (Browne, 1979, 1980; Tucker, 1958), Study 1 explores the links between the Five-Factor Model of Personality, as assessed by the NEO-PI (Costa & McCrae, 1985), and the Needs system of Murray, as assessed by the Personality Research Form (Jackson, 1984). Study 2 uses an interbattery approach to examine the common structure underlying two widely used coping measures: the revised Ways of Coping Cchecklis (Folkman, Lazarus, Dunkel-Schetter, Delongis, & Gruen, 1986) and the COPE Inventory (Carver, Scheier, & Weintraub, 1989). The two studies illustrate the use of interbattery factor analysis as a means of separating battery-specific (method) factors from interbattery (trait) factors, in contrast to traditional factor analysis that describes underlying structure without regard to method of measurement. By maintaining the distinction between variability that is method-specific and variability that is common across methods, the interbattery factor model allows the common trait structure underlying multiple measures to be described more accurately.     

Agreement and similarity in self-other perceptions of moral character

We surveyed well-acquainted dyads about two key moral character traits (Honesty–Humility, Guilt Proneness), as well as several other individual differences. We examined self-other agreement, similarity, assumed similarity, and similarity-free agreement (i.e., self-other agreement controlling for similarity and assumed similarity). Participants projected their own level of moral character onto their peers (i.e., moderately high assumed similarity), but were nonetheless able to judge moral character with reasonable accuracy (moderately high self-other agreement and similarity-free agreement), suggesting that moral character traits can be detected by well-acquainted others. Regardless of reporting method, Honesty–Humility and Guilt Proneness were correlated with delinquency, unethical decision making, and counterproductive work behavior, suggesting that unethical behavior is committed disproportionately by people with low levels of these character traits.     

Does Personal Intelligence Exist? Evidence From a New Ability-Based Measure

Personal intelligence has been defined as the ability to reason about personality and personality-relevant information and to use that information to guide one's actions and more generally, one's life. We constructed an initial version of an ability-based measure to test whether personal intelligence can be measured and whether it exists as a unitary intelligence. In 3 studies (N = 241, 308, and 385), we administered this Test of Personal Intelligence (TOPI), composed of 4 sections, to undergraduates along with criterion measures. Results suggested that a personal intelligence can be measured, that it might exist as a unified area of mental abilities, and that it represents psychological qualities that have intriguing predictive aspects.     

The Effects of Educational Diversity in a National Sample of Law Students: Fitting Multilevel Latent Variable Models in Data With Categorical Indicators

Controversy surrounding the use of race-conscious admissions can be partially resolved with improved empirical knowledge of the effects of racial diversity in educational settings. We use a national sample of law students nested in 64 law schools to test the complex and largely untested theory regarding the effects of educational diversity on student outcomes. Social scientists who study these outcomes frequently encounter both latent variables and nested data within a single analysis. Yet, until recently, an appropriate modeling technique has been computationally infeasible, and consequently few applied researchers have estimated appropriate models to test their theories, sometimes limiting the scope of their research question. Our results, based on disaggregated multilevel structural equation models, show that racial diversity is related to a reduction in prejudiced attitudes and increased perceived exposure to diverse ideas and that these effects are mediated by more frequent interpersonal contact with diverse peers. These findings provide support for the idea that administrative manipulation of educational diversity may lead to improved student outcomes. Admitting a racially/ethnically diverse student body provides an educational experience that encourages increased exposure to diverse ideas and belief systems.     

Pre-operative transgender motivations for entering policing occupations

This article examines the motivations for American, English, and Welsh transgender motivations for entering policing. Historically and empirically, policing has been documented as a social environment where binary gendered ideologies are strictly enforced and upheld. Further, scant research on transgender perceptions of the police have highlighted fear of sexual assault, fear of arrest, heightened levels of police violence, and general uncomfortableness with interactions with the police. This article argues that instead of avoiding a perceived volatile binary gendered environment, pre-transition transgender identities seek out policing due to hyper masculine expectations of the job itself. I argue that MtF (male-to-female) and FtM (female-to-male) pre-transition transgender identities seek refuge within the hyper masculine environment of policing to ease internal conflicts as a result of gender dysphoria (i.e. pre-transition distress) prior to transition. In this study, 13 transgender police officers from America, England, and Wales were interviewed about their motivations for entering policing. This study found that a majority of male-to-female (MTF) and female-to-male (FTM) transgender identities chose to enter policing due to gender distress pre-transition. This research found that pre-transition people with MtF trasngender identies chose to enter policing to combat their gender dysphoria by proving their "masculinity," and people with FtM transgender identities enter policing to foster and embrace their “masculinity.”     

Factor analytic approaches to personality item-level data

Factor analysis models have played a central role in formulating conceptual models in personality and personality assessment, as well as in empirical examinations of personality measurement instruments. Yet, the use of item-level data presents special problems for factor analysis, applications. In this article, we review recent developments in factor analysis that are appropriate for the type of item-level data often collected in personality. Included in this review are discussions of how these developments have been addressed in the context of two different (but formally related) statistical models item response theory (IRT: Hambleton, Swaminathan, & Rogers, 1991) and structural, equation modeling (Bollen 1989) for item-level data. We also discuss the relevance of item scaling in the context of these models. Using the restandardization data for the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 Scale (cf. Butcher, Dahlstrom, Graham, Tellegen, & Kaemmer, 1989), we show brief examples of the utility of these approaches to address basic questions about responses to personality scale items regarding: (a) scale, dimensionality and general item properties, (b) the "appropriateness" of the observed responses, and (c) differential item functioning across subsamples. implications for analyses of personality item-level data in the IRT and factor analytic traditions are discussed.     

Shared Meaning and the Convergence among Observers' Personality Descriptions

ABSTRACT “Shared meaning” is a parameter in Kenny's (1991) rater agreement model concerning the extent to which two raters agree about the trait-implicative meaning of the observations they have made of a target. In the first study, 201 individuals rated observations relevant to friendliness and organization on the meaning dimensions of typicality, difficulty level, and evaluation. They also rated 25 targets on the two constructs. We found strong support for a modest relation between the similarity of meaning ratings and the similarity of target ratings, especially for raw, as opposed to standard score, ratings. In Study 2 we considered shared meaning in a version of Kenny's model that included the consistency and communication parameters. Judge pairs (N= 110) evaluated two targets described by play and openness on several personality dimensions. Shared meaning significantly contributed to rating agreement for both targets, but consistency and communication, as manipulated in this study, did not. Implications of employing the broader consensus model in experimental studies are discussed. If I say “sorrow,” you'll know exactly what I mean only if you've experienced it in the same sense I have. -Joel Peterson, Ravenswood's Winemaker, in Darlington (1991)     

An item factor analysis and item response theory-based revision of the Everyday Discrimination Scale

The Everyday Discrimination Scale (EDS), a widely used measure of daily perceived discrimination, is purported to be unidimensional, to function well among African Americans, and to have adequate construct validity. Two separate studies and data sources were used to examine and cross-validate the psychometric properties of the EDS. In Study 1, an exploratory factor analysis was conducted on a sample of African American law students (N = 589), providing strong evidence of local dependence, or nuisance multidimensionality within the EDS. In Study 2, a separate nationally representative community sample (N = 3,527) was used to model the identified local dependence in an item factor analysis (i.e., bifactor model). Next, item response theory (IRT) calibrations were conducted to obtain item parameters. A five-item, revised-EDS was then tested for gender differential item functioning (in an IRT framework). Based on these analyses, a summed score to IRT-scaled score translation table is provided for the revised-EDS. Our results indicate that the revised-EDS is unidimensional, with minimal differential item functioning, and retains predictive validity consistent with the original scale.     

Extraversion and the ability to decode nonverbal communication

This study examined the relationship between extraversion, as measured by the Eysenck Personality Inventory (EPI), and skill at decoding nonverbal forms of communication. Prior research has had mixed success in establishing this relationship. Because extraverts have more experience in social settings than introverts, and because extraverts have a greater desire for sensory stimulation than introverts, it was hypothesized that extraverts would decode nonverbal cues in social interaction more accurately than introverts. The data supported this hypothesis. Extraverts were significantly more accurate in interpreting the meaning of nonverbal communication than introverts; in addition, extraverts were more confident that they were accurate decoders than introverts. The results are discussed in terms of cognitive processing style: the ‘extravert advantage’ in decoding nonverbal communication may be due to extraverts' superior attentive/perceptual skills; their superior interpretive/attributional skills; or both. In addition, the results are discussed in terms of methodological issues in the nonverbal decoding literature and their impact on research on extraversion. The nonverbal decoding task used in the present study differed from that of prior research by presenting scenes of natural, spontaneous, dyadic interactions for which an objective criterion for accuracy existed.     

The growing significance of hot intelligences

Comments on the original article, "Intelligence: New findings and theoretical developments," by R. E. Nisbett, J. Aronson, C. Blair, W. Dickens, J. Flynn, D. F. Halpern, and E. Turkheimer (see record 2011-30298-001). The present authors note that Nisbett et al's review focuses on intelligences that have been topics of research through the 20th century. Since then, however, attention to a new group of intelligences that the present authors refer to as "hot intelligences" has been growing (Mayer, Salovey, & Caruso, 2004). Although Nisbett et al (2012) mentioned potential newcomers to the group of intelligences, such as practical intelligence, the present authors feel that future reviews should consider the burgeoning research in new conceptions of intelligence. Here the authors express a rationale for including a consideration of these newly described intelligences. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved).