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Individual differences and adult development in person perception
Abstract
The research on the psychological construct Person Perception has a long and controversial history. For the purposes of this study, the construct was defined as the ability of an individual to make inferences or draw conclusions about the beliefs, desires, intentions, emotional experiences, cognitions, and/or personality characteristics of other individuals. The study tested the validity and reliability of a new measure of person perception, called the Person Perception Inventory (PPI-R). Additionally, the study introduced a new person perception task which was designed to elicit person perception behaviors from participants in the project. The PPI-R, through Cronbach's Alpha analyses and factor analyses, was shown to be internally consistent and to have content validity. The measure, however, failed to conclusively demonstrate construct validity, as determined by correlations with the person perception task. Given the person perception task's perceived face-validity, and the fact that the task was an empirically observable demonstration of the behaviors described by the operational definition, the subsequent analyses utilized the task as the research criterion. Analysis failed to support the hypothesis regarding the positive correlation between age and person perception ability. Results indicated weak support but conflicting evidence regarding the hypothesized positive correlation between psychological maturity and person perception ability. Finally, the study failed to produce a consistent pattern of Observer traits that could be seen as indicative of high levels of person perception ability. Results did, however, indicate that a new definition of person perception might be called for. Rather than focusing on person perception as a stable ability that is present or absent in a given individual, it is better envisioned as a temporary or periodic ability. A given individual may have his or her person perception abilities evoked by specific characteristics present in the individual being observed.
Subject Area
Social psychology|Personality
Recommended Citation
Hill, Edward Weathers, "Individual differences and adult development in person perception" (1998). ETD collection for University of Nebraska-Lincoln. AAI9826085.
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/dissertations/AAI9826085