Chapter 2:

Clues to Personality:
The Basic Sources of Data

The Personality Puzzle

Sixth Edition
by David C. Funder

Slides created by
Tera D. Letzring
Idaho State University
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 Objectives
• Discuss four ways to “look at” personality
(BLIS—behavior, life, informants, self)
• Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of
each type of data
• Discuss why it is important to collect as many
types of data as possible

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 Think About It
• If you wanted to know all about the
personality of the person sitting next to you,
what would you do?

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 Clues to Personality
• All parts of the psychological triad (thoughts,
feelings, behaviors)
• “There are no perfect indicators of personality;
there are only clues, and clues are always
ambiguous” (p. 21)
– Funder’s Second Law
– Psychologist’s job
• “Something beats nothing” (p. 23)
– Funder’s Third Law
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 S Data: Self-Judgments
or Self-Reports
• Definition: a person’s evaluation of his or her
own personality
• Usually questionnaires or surveys
• Most frequent data source
• High face validity (the degree to which an
assessment instrument appears to measure
what it is intended to measure)

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 Advantages of S Data
• Based on a large amount of information
– You are always with yourself.
– People are usually their own best expert.
• Access to thoughts, feelings, and intentions
• Definitional truth

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 Advantages of S Data
• Causal force
– Efficacy expectations (what you think you are
capable of and the kind of person you think you
are)
– Self-verification
• Simple and easy data

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 Disadvantages of S Data
• Maybe people won’t tell you
• Maybe people can’t tell you
– Memory is limited and not perfect
– Fish-and-water effect
– Active distortion of memory
– Lack of self-insight
• Too simple and too easy

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 Informant Report (I) Data
• Definition: judgments by knowledgeable
informants about general attributes of the
individual’s personality
• Acquaintances, coworkers, clinical
psychologists, etc.
• Based on observing people in whatever
context they know them from
• Used frequently in daily life
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 Advantages of I Data
• Based on a large amount of information
– Many behaviors in many situations
– Judgments from multiple informants are possible
• Based on observation of behavior in the real
world
– Not from contrived tests or constructed situations
– More likely to be relevant to important outcomes

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 Advantages of I Data
• Based on common sense about what
behaviors mean
– Takes context into account
• Definitional truth
• Causal force
– Reputation affects opportunities and expectancies
– Expectancy effects/behavioral confirmation

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 Disadvantages of I Data
• Limited behavioral information
• Lack of access to private experience
• Error: more likely to remember behaviors that
are extreme, unusual, or emotionally arousing
• Bias: due to personal issues or prejudices

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 Life Outcomes (L) Data
• Definition
• Obtained from archival records or self-report
– Advantages and disadvantages of archival records
• The results or “residue” of personality

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 Advantages and Disadvantages
of L Data
• Advantages
– Objective and verifiable
– Intrinsic importance
– Psychological relevance
• Disadvantage
– Multidetermination

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 Behavioral (B) Data
• “The most visible indication of an individual’s
personality is what she does” (p. 44).
• Definition

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 Natural B Data
• Based on real life
• Diary and experience-sampling methods
• Reports by acquaintances
• Naturalistic observation
• Advantage: realistic
• Disadvantages: difficult and expensive; desired
contexts may seldomly occur

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 Laboratory B Data
• Experiments
– Make a situation happen and record behavior
– Examine reactions to subtle aspects of situations
– Represent real-life context that are difficult to
observe directly

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 Laboratory B Data
• (Certain) personality tests
– To see how a person responds
– Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory
(MMPI), Thematic Apperception Test (TAT),
Rorschach Inkblot test
• Physiological measures: biological “behavior”

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 Advantages and Disadvantages
of B Data
• Advantages
– Range of contexts in the lab
– Appearance of objectivity
• But subjective judgments must still be made
• Disadvantage
– Uncertain interpretation

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 Mixed Types of Data
• Data do not always fit into only one category
• There is a wide range of possible types of data
• Each type has advantages and disadvantages

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 No Infallible Indicators of Personality
• “There are only clues, and clues are always
ambiguous” (p. 55).
• It is important to collect more than one type.
• Consistent findings increase confidence.
• Discrepancies can be interesting and informative.
• There are only two kinds of data: terrible data
and no data.
– Funder’s Fourth Law

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 Identify Each Type of Data
1. How much money a person spends on groceries in a
month based on receipts
2. What type of food a student purchases from dining
areas and vending machines on campus
3. Reports from parents about what kind of food people
ate as children
4. Answers to a “Healthy Foods, Healthy People" survey
about one’s self

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 Think About the Sources of Influence
on Data
• What are some aspects of personality that
people are likely and unlikely to accurately and
honestly report about themselves?
• What influences your best friend’s, coworkers’,
and mother’s impressions of you?

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 Think About the Sources of Influence
on Data
• What influences whether you will apply to
graduate school? get a traffic ticket?
• What influences how long a child will wait to
receive a better food?

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 Clicker Question #1
Data are
a) clues to personality.
b) always ambiguous.
c) how researchers can “see” personality.
d) all of the above.

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 Clicker Question #2
If you are interested in what a person does,
rather than what a person says about himself,
then you are collecting
a) S data.
b) L data.
c) B data.
d) I data.

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 Clicker Question #3
What does it mean to say that S data have causal
force?
a) S data cause personality.
b)What people think about themselves influences
how they behave.
c)How people behave is caused by what others
think of them.
d)People’s environments cause their self-
perceptions.
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