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PROCESSES AFFECTING THE CONGRUENCY OF PERSONALITY DESCRIPTIONS: A PERSONAL CONSTRUCT APPROACH
Abstract
An extensive, idiographic investigation of individual self-construct systems examined several issues regarding self/other perception processes. A major theme involved an assessment of the influence of various self-construct properties on the congruency of personality descriptions. Triads of research participants were recruited with one individual serving as a target and the other two as peers. Targets generated self-constructs, situations, and self-construct action referents on which self and peer ratings were obtained using two personality description procedures. The global description procedure had triad members make judgments about the target on global descriptors across various situations (Self-repertory Inventory). In the specific description procedure (Q-sort), participants categorized specific, concrete actions (representing an integration of self-construct and situation) according to how well they characterized the target. Findings indicated that congruency was greater in both procedures for self-constructs that exhibited relatively more importance and cross-situational consistency. Results also revealed greater congruency in personality descriptions made at a specific level than those made at a global level. In addition, greater agreement about the target's personality characteristics was found between peers rather than between target and peers. The disposition of Self-Consciousness affected several processes of self-perception. Specifically, individuals high (vs. low) in private self-consciousness evidenced stronger correlations between perceived self-construct importance and its mean rating across contexts. However, stronger correlations between perceived self-construct consistency and rating variability emerged for individuals high (vs. low) in public self-consciousness. Other results showed that self-constructs comprised of action referents that were (a) judged more characteristic of the target, or (b) highly prototypical of the self-construct were related to self-construct system variables such as perceived importance, cross-situational consistency, and congruency. The diverse findings were discussed in the context of patterns of variable relationships in a self-construct system. Particularly important in facilitating congruency of self/other perceptions was the specification of contextual information, the use of explicit action referents, and the meaningfulness of self-constructs. Dimensions of private and public self-consciousness were interpreted in terms of their influence on the perception and organization of self/social knowledge.
Subject Area
Social psychology
Recommended Citation
BENESCH, KEVIN FRANCIS, "PROCESSES AFFECTING THE CONGRUENCY OF PERSONALITY DESCRIPTIONS: A PERSONAL CONSTRUCT APPROACH" (1984). ETD collection for University of Nebraska-Lincoln. AAI8423761.
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/dissertations/AAI8423761