The Judgment of Personality: An Overview of Current Empirical Research Findings

Authors

  • Tera D. Letzring Orcid
    Department of Psychology, Idaho State University, Pocatello, ID, USA
  • Nora A. Murphy Orcid
    Department of Psychology, Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles, CA, USA
  • Jüri Allik Orcid
    Department of Social Sciences, Institute of Psychology, University of Tartu, Tartu, Estonia
  • Andrew Beer Orcid
    Department of Psychology, University of South Carolina Upstate, Spartanburg, SC, USA
  • Johannes Zimmermann Orcid
    Department of Psychology, University of Kassel, Kassel, Germany
  • Daniel Leising Orcid
    Faculty of Psychology, Technische Universität Dresden, Dresden, Germany

Abstract

This article presents an overview of the current state of knowledge in personality judgment research. We discuss accuracy and bias in personality judgments, including types of inter-rater agreement and elements of criteria used to determine levels of agreement and accuracy. We then address 1) the words and phrases that people use to describe one another and themselves, 2) research investigating judgments of targets by perceivers per trait, and 3) research investigating judgments of targets by perceivers on profiles or sets of traits. We also provide 4) an outlook regarding important research questions that remain unanswered in this field.