This research focused on the target effect on a perceiver's judgments of personality when the perceiver and the target are unacquainted. The perceiver was given no opportunity to interact with the target, a condition we refer to as zero acquaintance. We reasoned that in order to make personality judgments, perceivers would use the information available to them (physical appearance). Consensus in personality judgments would result, then, from shared stereotypes about particular physical appearance characteristics. Results from three separate studies with 259 subjects supported this hypothesis. On two of the five dimensions (extraversion and conscientiousness) on which subjects rated each other, a significant proportion of variance was due to the stimulus target. Consensus on judgments of extraversion appears to have been largely mediated by judgments of physical attractiveness. Across the three studies there was also evidence that the consensus in judgments on these two dimensions had some validity, in that they correlated with self-judgments on those two dimensions. If individuals were asked to make judgments about the personality characteristics of individuals with whom they were unacquainted, how much consensus would there be? That is, to what extent would perceivers agree as to where each target stands on a given trait? With no behavioral information on which to make judgments, intuitively we might speculate that consensus should be near zero. If, however, perceivers have access to the physical characteristics of the strangers they are judging, consensus may result from the use of shared stereotypes regarding the personality concomitants of these cues. Although there are studies that have measured consensus between acquainted individuals (

This article contains empirical tests of the information-motivation-behavioral skills (IMB) model of AIDS-preventive behavior (J.D. Fisher & Fisher, 1992; W.A. Fisher & Fisher, 1993a), which has been designed to understand and predict the practice of AIDS-preventive acts. The IMB model holds that AIDS-preventive behavior is a function of individuals' information about AIDS prevention, motivation to engage in AIDS prevention, and behavioral skills for performing the specific acts involved in prevention. The model further assumes that AIDS-prevention information and motivation generally work through AIDS-prevention behavioral skills to influence the initiation and maintenance of AIDS-preventive behavior. Supportive tests of the model, using structural equation modeling techniques, are reported with populations of gay male affinity group members (n = 91) and heterosexual university students (n = 174).

This research used the Information-Motivation-Behavioral Skills (IMB) model of AIDS risk behavior change (J. D. Fisher & Fisher, 1992a) to reduce AIDS risk behavior in a college student population. College students received an IMB model-based intervention that addressed AIDS risk reduction information, motivation, and behavioral skills deficits that had been empirically identified in this population, or were assigned to a no-treatment control condition. At a 1-month follow-up, results confirmed that the intervention resulted in increases in AIDS risk reduction information, motivation, and behavioral skills, as well as significant increases in condom accessibility, safer sex negotiations, and condom use during sexual intercourse. At a long-term follow-up, the intervention again resulted in significant increases in AIDS preventive behaviors.

Consensus refers to the extent to which judges agree in their ratings of a common target. Consensus has been an important area of research in social and personality psychology. In this article, generalizability theory is used to develop a percentage of total variance measure of consensus. This measure is used to review the level of consensus across 32 studies by considering the role of acquaintance level and trait dimension. The review indicates that consensus correlations ranged from zero to about .3, with higher levels of consensus for ratings of Extraversion. The studies do not provide evidence that consensus increases with increasing acquaintance, a counterintuitive result that can be accounted for by a theoretical model (D.A. Kenny, 1991, in press). Problems in the interpretation of longitudinal research are reviewed.

As outlmed by Snyder and Ickes (1985), the study of personality can be undertaken using (Hie of three researcb approaches dispositional, situational, and interactive We sbow how the Social Relations Model provides an integrative method to estimate simultaneously disposituHial, situational, and interactive effects Reviewed are component approaches to the study of personality The Social Relations Model is shown to be a component model (a special case of generahzabihty theory) applied in a social interaction context In the model, dispositional, situational, and interactive effects are termed actor, partner, and relationship efects, respectively The Social Relations Model can be used to answer a number of lmpcn-tant issues m personality research The model can be used to assess rehabdity, measure the validity of self-rabngs, and validate selfreport mventones ITie model requires special designs m wiiich each perscMi interacts with multiple partners Empincal examples are presented m which social anxiety, sex role mventones, and self-disclosure are studiedIn their recent review of research strategies for the study of personahty and social behavior, Snyder and Ickes (1985) identify three pnmary approaches tl^ dispositional, situaticmal, and interactive In this article, we introduce the Social Relations Model (Kenny & La Voie, 1984) as a fonnal framework for the simultaneous estimation of dispositional, situational, and interactional e£Fects within a social interaction context This method for the study of personahty and social behavicH* simultaneously treats individuals as both subject and object, or alternatively, as producer of behavior and social stimulus We illustrate exphcitly how the Social Relations Model can be apphed to the study of perscmality At tlô utset, however, we will very bnefly summarize the octant strategies for the study of personahty and social behavior elucidated by &iyder and Ickes (1985) VMs would like to thank Reub«i Baron, Steve Duck, Laurm Hafher, William Ickes, Lawroice La V)», and SteplMsn West wira commented on earher drafts of this article Please SOKI requests fin-repnnts to Thomas Malloy, Department of Psychology U-20, Umversity of Ccmnecticut, Storrs, CT 06268Journal ofPerBotudtty 54 1, March 1986 G<^)ynght €> 1986 by Duke Umversity Press CXX 00^-3506/86/11 50