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Trait Assessment Intercorrelation and Occupational Stereotypy
Author(s) -
VENESS THELMA
Publication year - 1969
Publication title -
british journal of social and clinical psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.479
H-Index - 92
eISSN - 2044-8260
pISSN - 0007-1293
DOI - 10.1111/j.2044-8260.1969.tb00611.x
Subject(s) - psychology , trait , checklist , personality , variable (mathematics) , social psychology , stereotypy , centrality , developmental psychology , cognitive psychology , statistics , mathematics , computer science , mathematical analysis , programming language , amphetamine , neuroscience , dopamine
Wishner (1960) refutes Asch's explanation of the findings of his warm‐cold experiments, in terms of the centrality and organizing power of the variable concept, by showing that the differential performance of subjects on a checklist, following exposure to one of the variable terms, is predictable from the independently ascertained correlations between the variable terms and the checklist terms. He obtained his independent intercorrelations by asking subjects to rate ‘instructors’ on series of scales, including warm‐cold, and correlating all pairs of ratings. This procedure is repeated but using four different occupational designations. As expected, many of the intercorrelations vary according to the occupation designated, and the occupation of ‘lecturer’ cannot be regarded as yielding typical intercorrelations (occupation was not specified in Asch's experiments). As a contribution to the conception of ‘implicit personality theory’, it is suggested that the organizing power of a trait can be identified in part by its power to modify the intercorrelations of other traits.