Richard W. Robins

Resilient, Overcontrolled, and Undercontrolled Boys: Three Replicable Personality Types

Three replicable personality types were identified in a sample of 300 adolescent boys and shown to generalize across African Americans and Caucasians. The types had conceptually coherent relations with the Big Five dimensions, ego resiliency, and ego control, and converged with three of the types identified by J. Block (1971). The behavioral implications of the types were explored using several independent data sources. Resilients were intelligent, successful in school, unlikely to be delinquents, and relatively free of psychopathology; Overcontrollers shared some of these characteristics but were also prone to internalizing problems; and Undercontrollers showed a general pattern of academic, behavioral, and emotional problems. This research demonstrates that replicable and generalizable personality types can be identified empirically, and that the unique constellation of traits defining an individual has important consequences for a wide range of outcomes.

The Quest for Self-Insight: Theory and Research on Accuracy and Bias in Self-Perception

Publisher Summary This chapter focuses on the self-perception accuracy. The scientific study of self-perception accuracy requires an understanding of the person at three levels— (1) as object, (2) as perceiver, (3) and as researcher. At each level, philosophical, conceptual, and methodological issues must be considered. There are two conceptual frameworks, one that organizes the various criteria used by researchers to assess the accuracy of self-perception, and another that organizes the different theoretical accounts of the self-perception process. The first framework is classified into six broad categories: (1) operational, (2) social consensus, (3) pragmatic, (4) normative models, (5) information processing, and (6) internal consistency. Operational criteria are difficult to find in the domain of personality. The use of social consensus criteria reflects the folk belief that self-insight means seeing oneself as others see one. The functional criteria are based on a judgment that can be considered accurate if it helps an individual adapt in the real world. Normative models are commonly used to evaluate the quality of human judgment. Information processing criteria provides a powerful framework for studying the appropriateness of peoples use of informational cues. Internal consistency criteria examine whether individuals self-perceptions are consistent with their other beliefs. The second framework characterizes the self-perception process from four different theoretical perspectives—the scientist, the consistency seeker, the politician, and the egoist.

The Actor-Observer Effect Revisited: Effects of Individual Differences and Repeated Social Interactions on Actor and Observer Attributions

This research examined several factors hypothesized to influence the actor-observer effect (AOE). Participants engaged in 3 successive dyadic interactions: after each interaction, they rated the importance of 4 causal factors in influencing their behavior and that of their partner. The AOE held for 1 external factor, interaction partner, and 1 internal factor, personality, but not for situation or mood. Actor and observer attributions changed in predicted ways across the 3 interactions: Actors increasingly emphasized the importance of their partner, whereas observers increasingly emphasized personality: both actors and observers substantially lowered their attributions to the situation. We found consistent individual differences in attributional tendencies that allowed us to predict who showed the AOE. Together, the findings demonstrate that A-O differences depend on: (a) the specific causal factor invoked, (b) the individuals history in the situation, and (c) individual differences among attributors. Discussion focuses on the limited generality of the AOE and the need for a more complex formulation of A-O differences in attribution.