John O P, Hampson S E, Goldberg L R
Department of Psychology, University of California, Berkeley 94720.
J Pers Soc Psychol. 1991 Mar;60(3):348-61. doi: 10.1037//0022-3514.60.3.348.
A person's behavior and experiences can be described at different levels of abstraction. For example, a person might be described as charitable, as generous, as kind, or as good. Is there a level in such a trait hierarchy that is particularly useful in personality descriptions? The present 4 studies show that there is indeed a general preference for a particular level; the size of this preference depends on the familiarity and likability of the target people, which included various others and the self. These findings suggest that in trait hierarchies, people prefer the highest level of abstraction that is still descriptive of behavior (e.g., kind) over more descriptive subordinate levels (e.g., charitable and generous) and over an even broader level devoid of descriptive meaning (e.g., good). This level is basic in that it represents the optimal resolution of the trade-off between bandwidth and fidelity that characterizes all hierarchies.
一个人的行为和经历可以在不同的抽象层次上进行描述。例如，一个人可能被描述为慈善的、慷慨的、善良的或品德好的。在这样的特质层次结构中，是否存在一个在人格描述中特别有用的层次呢？目前的4项研究表明，确实存在对特定层次的普遍偏好；这种偏好的程度取决于目标人物（包括他人和自己）的熟悉程度和受欢迎程度。这些发现表明，在特质层次结构中，人们更喜欢仍然能够描述行为的最高抽象层次（如善良），而不是更具描述性的下属层次（如慈善的和慷慨的），也不是缺乏描述意义的更宽泛层次（如品德好的）。这个层次是基本的，因为它代表了所有层次结构中带宽和保真度之间权衡的最佳分辨率。
