Person-Differential Accuracy of Personality Judgment: A Limited-Acquaintance Examination

The current study used a recently-developed measure of judgmental ability, person-differential accuracy (PDA), to address two research questions: a) How accurately do we understand one another in general?, and b) Are there individual differences in the ability to judge personality? PDA is the ability to detect differences among individuals in terms of a given personality trait. The investigation complemented previous research by expanding Fanciullo and Furr's (2011) investigation of PDA through three meaningful methodological changes. First, this study examined PDA across a higher target-to-judge ratio than that which had previously been used. Second, this investigation of PDA used an identical, set of targets each judge. Third, this study used a greater range of criteria for accuracy than Fanciullo and Furr had used: in addition to assessing self-other agreement, this study assessed interjudge agreement in perceptions of personality. Multilevel modeling data analysis found general levels of PDA to be positive and significant for all of the Big Five traits and failed to find between-judge individual differences in nine out of ten measures of PDA for the Big Five. In conclusion, these results suggest the existence of a common ability to differentiate between others in terms of personality traits.

Grantor dc:publisher

Wake Forest University

Year dc:date.issued

2011

Author dc:creator

• Fanciullo, Joelle

• accuracy

Language dc:language.iso

en

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/10339/33441

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:wakespace.lib.wfu.edu:10339/33441