Person Theories: Their Temporal Stability and Relation to Intertrait Inferences

This article tests whether individual differences in inferring one trait from another (intertrait inferences) can be linked to lay beliefs about the malleability of personality (person theories). It finds that holding the belief that personality is malleable (incremental theory) rather than fixed (e...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Personality & social psychology bulletin 2008-07, Vol.34 (7), p.965-977
Main Authors: Poon, Connie S. K., Koehler, Derek J.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Culture
Discrepancies
Humans
Impression formation
Incremental theory
Individual differences
Individuality
Interpersonal Relations
Intuition
Job performance
Lay conceptions
Pathology
Personality
Personality Development
Personality tests
Short term
Stereotypes
Stereotyping
Students - psychology
Surveys and Questionnaires
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Summary:This article tests whether individual differences in inferring one trait from another (intertrait inferences) can be linked to lay beliefs about the malleability of personality (person theories). It finds that holding the belief that personality is malleable (incremental theory) rather than fixed (entity theory) at the time of inferences is associated with less extreme inferences involving semantically related (but not unrelated) traits. Although person theories have been assumed to be stable over time, existing short-term test—retest coefficients do not capture their instability over a longer period. These results can illuminate interrater discrepancies in assessments of personality pathology and job performance, enrich understanding of such phenomena as stereotyping and impression formation, refine the interpretation of past research involving person theories, and inform research planning.
ISSN:0146-1672
1552-7433
DOI:10.1177/0146167208316690