Hampson Sarah E, John Oliver P, Goldberg Lewis R
U London, Birkbeck Coll, England.
J Pers Soc Psychol. 1986 Jul;51(1):37-54. doi: 10.1037/0022-3514.51.1.37.
Trait breadth and hierarchical organization are central structural principles in personality theory and research. We assume that personality traits serve as categories of behavioral events, and we define the breadth of traits as the diversity of their behavioral manifestations. We show that trait breadth can be measured reliably both by ratings and by direct comparisons within trait pairs. We assess the hierarchical relations between traits differing in breadth, using a task in which subjects select the most meaningful of two statements, such as "To be talkative is a way of being extroverted" versus "To be extroverted is a way of being talkative." The extent of asymmetry in the choices of the subject sample provides an index of the degree of class inclusion. In four studies, we demonstrate that the size of the asymmetry effect is highly predictable from differences in trait breadth, even when the effects of social desirability, familiarity, and meaningfulness are controlled. Moreover, we replicate these findings in two cultural contexts, and even at the level of individual subjects. The availability of traits at different hierarchical levels requires personality psychologists to make an explicit choice about level of abstraction, especially when studying behavioral consistency. We discuss the prospect for identifying a generally preferred or "basic" level of personality description.
特质广度和层次组织是人格理论与研究中的核心结构原则。我们假定人格特质充当行为事件的类别，并且我们将特质广度定义为其行为表现的多样性。我们表明，特质广度既可以通过评分可靠地测量，也可以通过特质对内部的直接比较来测量。我们使用一项任务来评估不同广度特质之间的层次关系，在该任务中，受试者要从两个陈述中选择最有意义的一个，例如“健谈是外向的一种表现方式”与“外向是健谈的一种表现方式”。受试者样本选择中的不对称程度提供了类别包含程度的指标。在四项研究中，我们证明，即使在控制了社会期望、熟悉度和意义性的影响后，不对称效应的大小也能从特质广度的差异中高度预测出来。此外，我们在两种文化背景下，甚至在个体受试者层面上重复了这些发现。不同层次水平特质的可得性要求人格心理学家在抽象水平上做出明确选择，尤其是在研究行为一致性时。我们讨论了确定一个普遍偏好的或“基本”的人格描述水平的前景。
