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The Psychosemantic Approach to Personality

The Psychosemantic Approach to Personality. Shulamith Kreitler Department of Psychology Tel-Aviv University Tel-Aviv, Israel E-mail: Krit@netvision.net.il. Budapest symposium on “The Many Faces of Personality”, May 13-15, 2002.

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The Psychosemantic Approach to Personality

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  1. The Psychosemantic Approach to Personality Shulamith Kreitler Department of Psychology Tel-Aviv University Tel-Aviv, Israel E-mail: Krit@netvision.net.il Budapest symposium on “The Many Faces of Personality”, May 13-15, 2002

  2. The psychosemantic approach denotes a theory and methodology based onanalyzing meaning assignment tendencies of individualsand clarifying their role in regard to the major components of personality: TraitsEmotionsCognitionBehavior

  3. Structure of the talk: • Presentation of the meaning system • Meaning and personality traits • Meaning and emotions • Meaning and cognition • Meaning and behavior • General conclusions

  4. A.Presentation of the meaning system Developed by Kreitler and Kreitler, since 1968 onward

  5. The System of Meaning(Kreitler & Kreitler) Meaning is a cognitive concept. It forms part of cognition. It is the dynamic core of cognition.

  6. Cognition is a system that works with meaning, namely, it responds to meanings, and produces, elaborates, stores, transforms and uses meanings.

  7. Assumptions Underlying the Meaning System • Meaning is communicable • Meaning is complex (multi-component system) • Meaning includes a personal-subjective part and an interpersonally-shared part

  8. Meaning is a pattern of cognitive contents focused on a referent.

  9. A referent can be an external or internal stimulus, an object, a situation, an event, an individual, limited or extended, real, virtual or fantasized, etc.

  10. The cognitive contents are designed to express or communicate information that would enable identifying the referent, handling it, responding to it, or dealing with it within the psychological domain.

  11. Referent – Meaning Value The cognitive content and the referent form together the meaning unit. MEANING UNIT Examples: Budapest – is a wonderful cityAn airport – serves for transportationSymposium – brings people together

  12. The cognitive content is called meaning value because it fulfills the role of expressing or communicating meaning.

  13. Referent – Meaning Value The meaning unit is characterized in terms of the following 5 sets of variables: Meaning Dimensions Shifts in Referent Forms of Expression Types of Relation Forms of Relation

  14. The psychosemantic method consists in coding the responses in terms of the following categories: • Meaning dimensions: Content categories, such as Feelings and Emotions, Actions, Sensory Qualities (color, shape, etc.), Size, Weight • Types of Relation: Relational categories, such as Attributive, Comparative, Illustrative-Exemplifying, Metaphoric-Symbolic. • Forms of Relation : Formative categories, such as Positive or Negative, Simple or Complex (e.g., Conjunctive, Disjunctive), Absolute or Modified (e.g., always, sometimes) • Shifts of Referent : Categories of shifts to other constructs, such as from Ocean to Lake, from House to Windows • Forms of Expression : Categories of means of expression, such as words, drawings, movements, denoted objects

  15. Meaning Variables =Meaning dimensionsandTypes of relationandForms of relationandShifts of referentandForms of expression

  16. Meaning Dimensions Range of inclusion Material Function, Purpose & Role Feelings & Emotions Actions Possessions & Belongingness Sensory qualities Locational Qualities Temporal Qualities Types of Relation Attributive Comparative Exemplifying-illustrative Metaphoric-symbolic Forms of Relation Positive, Negative Conjunctive, Disjunctive Normative Referent Shifts Identical to input Part of input Association Opposite of input Forms of Expression Verbal Gestural Graphic Tones & Sounds Examples of Meaning Variables

  17. Meaning Test Instructions: Communicate to another person the meaning (interpersonally-shared and personal) of a presented set of stimuli, using any means of communication considered adequate, for example, words, drawings, movements, etc. Stimuli: Street, Bicycle, Sea (ocean), to take, to kill, Telephone, etc.

  18. Examples of Coded Responses

  19. Meaning Profile • Frequencies (proportions) of individual’s use of each meaning variable in responding to the stimuli of the meaning test.

  20. Frequencies Meaning Variables

  21. Development of Meaning

  22. Characteristics of the meaning system • Complex • Developing • Selective • Dynamic • Referent-focused • Self-embedded

  23. Uses of Meaning Variables • For characterizing an individual’s meaning processing system i.e., the individual’s meaning profile • For characterizing specific contents e.g., “I am in Budapest” refers to the Meaning Dimension Locational Qualities • For characterizing processes e.g., solving a problem about causality involves the Meaning Dimension Causes and Antecedents • For characterizing structures or complexes e.g., identifying the meaning variables corresponding to a personality trait, a cognitive act, an emotion, or an act of behavior

  24. B.Meaning and Personality Traits

  25. What is the relation of meaning variables to personality traits? Research procedure applied for answering this question: • Administering to participants personality questionnaire and the Meaning Test • Correlating the scores on personality tests with the meaning profiles • The significant correlations constitute the meaning profile of the trait.

  26. Meaning Dimensions Contextual allocation Range of inclusion Actions Results & Consequences (-) Size & dimensions Quantity & numbers Temporal qualities (-) Possessions Sensory qualities (-) (experienced by referent) Sensory qualities (of object) Judgments & evaluations (-) Types of Relation Attributive Metaphoric (-) Forms of Relation Positive Referent Shifts Associations (-) Example A: Pattern of meaning variables corresponding to extraversion [Source: Kreitler, S. & Kreitler, H. (1990). The Cognitive Foundations of Personality Traits. New York: Plenum]

  27. Meaning Dimensions Size & dimensions Quantity & numbers Temporal qualities Possessions Functions Types of Relation Comparative Metaphoric (-) Forms of Relation Absolute Negative Referent Shifts To parts of stimulus To opposites Example B: Meaning pattern of anality

  28. Applying the procedure to 280 personality traits showed thatEach personality trait corresponds to a unique pattern of meaning variables.

  29. Patterns of meaning variables corresponding to different personality characteristics and tendencies were identified,for example, • Leadership (Fiedler’s LPC) • Alexithymia • Tendency for different defense mechanisms, e.g., denial, repression, projection • Narcissism • The “good” manager

  30. Meaning Dimensions Contextual allocation Function Manner of operation Consequences Causes (-) Domain of application State Types of Relation Attributive Comparative: Difference Exemplifying (-) Metaphoric (-) Forms of Relation Positive Partial (not universal) Conjunctive Disjunctive Normative Desired (-) Referent Shifts Close shifts Medium shifts Distant shifts (-) Meaning Profile of the “Good” Manager(based on the meaning variables common to the meaning profiles of 12 managers in different high-tech firms, evaluated by their peers and supervisors)

  31. Extraversion Authoritorianism Meaning Profile Social desirability Sociability Depression Paranoia

  32. Uses of meaning patterns of traits • Assessment of personality traits Each trait corresponds to a unique pattern of meaning variables Step 1 Determine he patterns of meaning variables corresponding to the trait Step 2 Determine the individual’s meaning profile by means of the Meaning Test Step 3 Compare the traits pattern with the individual’s meaning profile. Comparison – by correlation or by counting shared components.

  33. Validation studies:The scores of traits based on personality inventories and meaning-based traits were significantly intercorrelated:16 PF r = .76 – r = .83CPI r = .50 – r = .86Myers-Brigs r = .69 – r = .84

  34. The meaning profile of an individual provides information about the score of the individual on 300+ personality traits without administering any personality inventory. Advantages: • Increased reliability • Reduced costs (time, resources) • Increased information (about personality trends, anti-traits)

  35. Insight into the dynamics of a trait Patterns of meaning variables corresponding to a trait provide insight into the unique underlying dynamics of the trait. For example, Extraversion – Low arousal Social desirability – Evaluation, not emotions.

  36. Validating personality traits Validating-by-meaning is a new procedure of validating traits. It consists in examining the manifestations of traits in domains defined by the meaning variables in the pattern corresponding to the trait. For example, extraversion and anality. Advantages of this validation: • Broad-ranging • Theoretically-anchored • Comprehensive • Systematic

  37. Comparing personality traits Patterns of meaning variables enable comparison between traits based on analyzing shared meaning variables. For example, • “Cleanliness” and “punctuality” • r = .56 • Shared: e.g., State, Quantity, Size • “Cleanliness” and “authoritarianism” • r = .58 • Shared: e.g., Evaluation, Cognitive qualities, Structure, Metaphorization.

  38. Identifying personality traits Formal properties of patterns of meaning variables corresponding to traits: • No. of meaning variables in the pattern: 13.8 ± 6.5 • No. of different kinds of meaning variables in the pattern: 3 - 4 • Proportion of different kinds of meaning variables in the pattern: • Meaning dimensions 54.75% • Types of relation 25.75% • Forms of relation 5.90% • Referent shifts 12.57% • Relative proportion of negative components in the pattern: .38 • Proportion of meaning dimensions and types of relation in the pattern representing general variables: .44

  39. Examples Trait-identical Neuroticism, Narcissism Trait-similar Alexithymia, Trait-anxiety Trait-dissimilar MMPI scales

  40. C.Meaning and Emotion

  41. The tendency for each type of emotional reactioncorresponds to a pattern of meaning variables

  42. ExamplePattern of meaning variables corresponding to anxiety (as assessed by 7 scales)Meaning DimensionsAction (-)Sensory qualitiesFeelings & emotions (experienced)Judgments & evaluationsCognitive qualitiesTypes of RelationAttributive (-)Metaphoric

  43. D.Meaning and Cognition

  44. Meaning Variables and Cognition Cognitive contents, information Cognitive acts, structural schemas Cognitive processes Meaning values Meaning variables Meaning profiles Meaning

  45. 1. Meaning Values and Cognitive Contents Meaning values correspond to cognitive contents and information. Examples: When the individual’s meaning profile shows a high frequency of the meaning dimension Locational Qualities, that individual may be expected to have a lot of labels, words, information in the domain of location, places, routes.

  46. 2. Meaning Values and Cognitive Processes Cognitive processes correspond to specific meaning variables or combinations of meaning variables. Examples: • Shifting from one theme to another– High frequency of referent shifts of medium degree (e.g., shifting to previous response, or to superordinate referent) • Associations– High number of meaning values (absolute and especially relative), high number of different shifts of referent • Abstracting–High frequency of meaning dimension Contextual Allocation

  47. 3. Meaning Profiles and Cognitive Acts Cognitive acts correspond to specific combinations of meaning variables that constitute complete profiles.

  48. Meaning Dimensions Contextual allocation Range of inclusion Actions Manner of operation Antecedents & causes Consequences & results Range of application Structure Quantity & numbers Locational qualities Temporal qualities Sensory qualities (-) Judgments & evaluations Types of Relation Attributive Metaphoric-symbolic (-) Forms of Relation Propositional, positive & negative Partial Conjunctive Disjunctive Shifts of Referent Close shifts: Parts, Former responses, Grammatical variations Medium shifts: Input modified by addition, Combination of several former responses Distant shifts (-) : Associations, Labels Forms of Expression Verbal, Verbal description of drawings Meaning Profile of Planning

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