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In a recent study of the processes involved in the forming of impressions of personality, Asch concluded that this formation "is an organized process, that charactenstics are perceived in their dynamic relations, that certain qualities are discovered, leading to the distinction between them and peripheral qualities, that relations of harmony and contradiction are observed To know a person is to have a grasp of a particular structure "Â s Asch has pointed out, there have been several theories regarding the formation of impressions of personality 1 The formation of impressions of personality is the result of a simple summation of independent traits 2 Some traits are always of a central quahty, and these affect peripheral traits by making them consistent with the central trait 3 Impressions are formed of the whole personality by the perception and organization of the dynamic interrelations of the traits of a given individualThe first theory is no longer accepted by psychologists The emphasis in our textbooks on the "halo effect" in personality judgments indicates the extent to which the second theory is currently held The amount of evidence Asch has marshaled against this theory and for the third theory requires a re-examination of the entire field of personality ratings Objections may be raised against his sampling, however, particularly with respect to the factors of sex and geographical representation Therefore, a repetition of some salient parts of his study, with a different sample, would be important Two of the ten experiments in Asch's series were selected for •The authors wish to acknowledge their indebtedness to Professor A R. Gilhland, Northwestern University, for his assistance in carrying out this investigation, to Professor S E Asch, The New School for Social Research, for many helpful suggestions, and to Professor W A Hunt, Northwestern Umversity, for editorial comment 'S E Asch, Forming impressions of personality / abnorm soc Psychol, 1946, 41. 258-290