Relation of Certain Personality Variables to Decision Making in Perception

Abstract

It was hypothesized that certain personality variables would be related to decision making in a guessing experiment. A stimulus set of 100 3- × 5-in. unlined filing cards, 75 of which contained circles and 25 of which were blank, was presented twice to each of 56 undergraduate Ss. The cards were in a random order and Ss were asked to guess whether a circle or a blank would be the forthcoming event. Their predictions on the second session's presentations were quantified in terms of the likelihood of false positive errors and hit rate over false alarm rate. Independently of the behavioral task, all Ss completed two personality inventories designed to assess need for approval and a dimension of internal vs external control of reinforcement. Scholastic Aptitude Test scores and Ss' estimates of the number of circles present in the stimulus set were incorporated as control variables. Results clearly show the effect of personality differences on guessing behavior. Subsequent related studies for psychophysics and judgmental responses were suggested.

Internal versus external control of reinforcement: A review.

“…The former finding indicates a weak but significant tendency for persons with high need for approval to be doubtful about their personal efficacy. This relationship has also been reported in a study by Strickland and Rodwan (1963). However, several other studies (Crowne & Liverant, 1963;Seeman, 1963) have reported no relationship between social desirability and control measures.…”

Signal-detection methods in personality and perception.

“…Two types of estimates of the observer's criterion for the use of a given response class have been used. Swets, Tanner, and Birdsall (1961) and Strickland and Rodwan (1964) have discussed the use of the ratio of HR to FAR as one such measure. A second type of criterion estimate involves the cumulative standard-score value of HR.…”

“…A demonstration of the usefulness of the criterion as a measure of the effects of personality variables in perceptual experiments has been provided by Strickland and Rodwan (1964). Subjects were administered the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale as a measure of need for approval.…”

Internality and the internalisation of failure: Evidence from a novel task

“…Previous work touching on these issues is limited (see, e.g. [ 20 , 21 ])—and we know of no previous paradigm in which subjects had to learn controllability as they performed actions to reach goals.…”