Intellectual Traits Research Articles

A negativity bias in interpersonal evaluation

Two studies were conducted to demonstrate a bias toward negativity in evaluations of persons or their work in particular social circumstances. In Study 1, subjects evaluated materials written by peers. Those working under conditions that placed them in low status relative to the audience for their evaluations, or conditions that made their intellectual position within a group insecure, showed a clear bias toward negativity in those evaluations. Only individuals who believed their audience to be of relatively low status and at the same time believed their intellectual position to be secure did not show this bias. In Study 2, subjects viewed a videotape of a stimulus person and rated him on several intellectual and social dimensions. Again, subjects believed their audience to be of either relatively high or relatively low status. As a cross dimension, they were given instructions to focus on either the intellectual or the social abilities of the stimulus person while viewing the videotape. A strong main effect of audience status was demonstrated, but only in ratings of intellectual traits; subjects who believed their audience to be of relatively high status rated the stimulus person's intellectual qualities significantly more negatively. Moreover, this effect was independent of the instructional focus subjects had been given. The negativity bias is discussed in the context of previous demonstrations of biases toward weighting negative information more heavily than positive information, as well as previous demonstrations of seemingly pervasive positivity biases in memory and judgment.

THE RESEARCH INFORMATION TECHNICIAN

The Information Service Division at the Amoco Research Center introduced the position of the Research Information Technician. Such employees have special training that allows them access to computerized, bibliographic data. Drawing on their technical education and background, the Research Information Technicians can satisfy the special information needs of their clients in a quick and economical manner. The quality of the bibliographic search performed by the Research Information Technician is enhanced by possession or development of an array of personality and intellectual traits. Some traits of a successful searcher are a logical mind, knowledge of subject area, continuous education, good organization, and effective communication skills. Technicians employ various computer systems, databases, and high speed terminals in order to interface effectively with the computer.

Typifications of Homosexuals

Despite the importance of stereotyping to labeling theory, images of deviants have not been widely studied. This paper reports on social typifications about homosexuals. The data were obtained from 413 people in an urban metropolitan area who were asked to choose characteristics of homosexuals from a list of 34 traits. Factor analysis yielded three stereotypic dimensions: Sinful Lust, Sensitive Intellectual, and Sick Deviant. Compared with earlier work, Sinful Lust traits have apparently declined in importance, while Sensitive Intellectual traits have increased, and Sick Deviant traits have remained stable. The Sensitive Intellectual factor was related to greater tolerance of homosexuals, while the other two factors were related to greater rejection. Educational and age differences were also found on the three factors. Subgroup differences may selectively affect labeling and roles played by homosexuals. Shifts in typifications partly reflect shifts in “vocabularies of motive” concerning deviant behavior.

The universal nature of human intelligence: Evidence from games

Mentally retarded individuals have relatively greater difficulty in dealing with strategic games and puzzles than with many other tasks. Consequently, it is of interest to find that strategic games have been played since ancient times, are played throughout the world, and that players who excel are frequently considered wise. Hidden within the more obvious differences between cultures, strategic games are an invariant expression of certain universal intellectual traits.

魅力形成における人格特性の次元

This study investigated the relationship between dimensions of trait information and attraction judgments using 50male Ss. It was hypothesized and generally found that social trait information related to ratings of preferred playmate (likableness scale) and that intellectual trait information related to judgments of reliable task partner (respect scale). A selected group of 10 social-type Ss showed sensitivity to social traits of target persons, whereas 10 intellectual-type Ss were more sensitive to the intellectual traits of target persons. These effects operated independently of the normative scale values of these traits.

Sex differences in intellectual functioning: How much of a difference do genes make?

An X-linkage theory of inheritance of genes controlling sex differences in major intellectual traits is critically examined. A review of the research suggests that the mechanism of inheritance of differences in spatial visualization ability is X-linked recessive and its expression is probably testosterone-limited. However, the evidence concerning inheritance of differences in IQ does not support an X-linkage theory. Several characteristics of heritability estimates are discussed, including their specificity to a particular population at a certain point in time, their fluctuation with changes in amount of environmental variation, and the necessity of unconfounding sex and treatment in order to better determine the relationship between heritability and changeability of sex differences in specific intellectual trait expression.

A Factor Analytic Comparison of Faculty and Students’ Perceptions of Students

In order to compare the factorial dimensions along which faculty judge students and students judge their peers, random samples of faculty and seniors from two colleges of Arts and Sciences rated the concept “Senior Students in the College of Arts and Sciences” on a 26-item semantic differential. Principal components analysis with varimax rotation yielded five faculty and six student factors. A matrix of cosines (or intercorrelations) was computed between factors to determine the degree of similarity between the two factor structures. Despite a substantial degree of overall congruence in factor structures, faculty generally associated “value” in senior students with intellectual traits while seniors associated “value” with interpersonal sensitivity.

Art Product Characteristics of Elementary Education Majors Measuring High in Flexibility

Art educators have expressed the opinion that art experiences help a person become more flexible, but gaps exist in the knowledge of how flexibility operates in or could be identified through art products. This study was concerned with observing if differences exist in the art products of elementary education majors who measured high from those who measured low on tests of flexibility. Flexibility, a dispositional and intellectual trait, operates to change sets when divergent solutions to problems are produced, when repetition is avoided in producing a variety of class ideas, and when problems are solved by striking out in new directions with transformations and redefinitions. The characteristic of flexibility is a familiar and increasingly valid concern today. Artists have long advocated a flexibility of attitude when creating art. Klee, for example, wrote of the importance of varying the elements of art, of natural forms, and, in fact, one's whole viewpoint.' Malevich cited the importance of being able to shift familiar, established things into new orders.2 Pollock, in describing his own working process, spoke of the need to destroy old images for new ones when necessary.3 Picasso recommends a creative process which lets a picture grow and change as one's thoughts change.' Accompanying rapid social and technological change, the need for both personal and corporate flexibility has been stressed in many fields.5 6 7 8 9 Educational leaders particularly advocate the development of flexibility for persons planning to teach children. McFee and Taylor have said that teachers need to be flexible in their planning, procedures, and responses to the variable behavior or divergent thinking of children.' Theoretically, flexibility on the part of the teachers should encourage creativity in the students. In separate studies, both Joyce and Sprinthall found a relationship between flexibility and successful teaching.2 13 Although the potential for flexibility may be pervasive in nature, Ghiselin,4 Gelker,' Burgart,'6 and Hoffa have concluded that experience is a variable which effects evidence of this trait with varying content. Davis and Torrance reported that art teachers are more accepting of the child who demonstrates creative characteristics in the classroom than are elementary teachers. This finding contributed to the hypothesis of a previous study by the author that art experiences would have the effect of increasing the flexibility of a group of future teachers.9 In that study, a significantly greater proportion of students participating in art experiences made high gains in flexibility than students not having experiences in art.20 Elementary education students come to art education classes with experience in verbal and symbolic expression, but relatively little experience in manipulative experiences with figural content such as is common when using art media. Their art instructors observe, and they themselves realize, that they are often timid or threatened by dealing with the concrete visual aspects and figural content of communication and expression. This timidity may effect their flexibility in dealing with art in their classrooms if it is not overcome. However, little empirical evidence can be cited to justify the existence of art experiences and their role in increasing this

Self-Concepts of Graduate Students

Ratings were obtained from 142 graduate students concerning the extent to which they perceived themselves possessing certain characteristics. Half of these students were requested to sign their names; half remained anonymous. Analysis of the results indicated that:1. Students rated themselves higher on non-intellectual than on Intellectual traits.2. There was no significant difference in ratings between the anonymous group and the group who signed their names.3. Self-ratings were independent of both the sex and the number of graduate credits earned by the subject.

The Cerebral Cortex

The cerebral cortex is a dense aggregation of neuron cell bodies that ranges from 2 to 4 mm in thickness and forms the surface of each cerebral hemisphere. Most of the cerebral cortex is neocortex, consisting of six layers with different populations of neurons. In addition to the laminar organization, there is a perpendicular columnar organization as well. This is especially well studied for the visual cortex, which has columns that receive only visual information from the right eye adjacent to columns that receive only visual information from the left eye. Distinct higher cortical functional areas are devoted to memory, judgment, the planning of complex activities, the processing of language, mathematical calculations, and the construction of an internal image of an individual’s surroundings. The cerebral hemisphere that controls language is called the dominant hemisphere , is the left hemisphere in about 95% of humans, and includes Broca and Wernicke areas. Damage to either area leads to one of the two classic types of aphasia, Broca aphasia or Wernicke aphasia. Parietal association cortex in the nondominant hemisphere mediates spatial relationships and related selective attention. Damage leads to contralateral neglect and associated symptoms. Prefrontal association cortex mediates the most distinctly human intellectual traits, such as judgment, foresight, a sense of purpose, a sense of responsibility, and a sense of social propriety. Damage leads to a constellation of deficits that are classically described for Phineas Gage.

Validity of the Measurement of Social Traits of High School Pupils by the Method of Rating by Associates

The important part played in the individual's career by his non-in tellectual personality traits both in and after school has gained increas ing recognition by educators. However, progress in the quantitative evaluation of personality and character traits, when compared with ad vance in measurement of intellectual aptitudes and achievements, has been slow and uncertain. Studies of the validity of measures yielded by paper-and-pencil tests (inventories, schedules, questionnaires, etc.) of social and temperamental traits have not yielded encouraging results. One method of evaluating certain intangible qualities of behavior which offers good prospects of valid measurement is rating by associates. This type of measurement proceeds on the theory that an individual's personality can best be evaluated in terms of its effect on others, and that a valid expression of this effect can be obtained by the use of rating pro cedures under controlled conditions. Confidence in character rating received a serious blow through Rugg's discovery of the unreliability of the Army Rating Scale. (4) Later experi mentation, however, has gone a long way toward solving the problem of reliability, if reliability is understood as consistency or stability of esti mate. This has been accomplished by using a larger number of judges than was employed in earlier investigations and by insuring better con ditions of acquaintance. Furthermore, greater attention has been given to objectifying trait definitions in order to reduce the guesswork about the exact meaning of trait names. Recent studies in schools where the rating-by-associates method has been used to measure character traits report a reliability which rivals and even surpasses the reliability of the more objective measures of the intellectual traits. (5) (1) (6) While the problem of reliability of rating has apparently been solved in situations where conditions are favorable the question of validity has remained pretty much where it was left by Thorndike (7) and Knight, (2) who pointed out that the halo effect of general estimate tends to bias all judgments of specific traits no matter how many judges are used or how well acquainted they are with the person to be rated. In fact, it has been shown that under certain conditions high acquaintance 29

Physical and Intellectual Traits and Social Orders

Physical and Intellectual Traits and Social Orders

Emerson from an Indian Point of View

Of the eminent writers who are the exponents of the spiritual movement of the nineteenth century, those whose influence is most widely acknowledged—Wordsworth, Shelley, Carlyle, Emerson—have two notable characteristics: first, they either give a very subordinate place to dogma or reject it altogether; secondly, they lay great stress on truths which from remote antiquity have most deeply impressed the Oriental mind and have been uttered with the greatest power in the East. The influence of Wordsworth as a spiritual teacher will ever be felt, in spite of the “Ecclesiastical Sonnets,” to lie, not in his championship of orthodox Christianity, but in his awakening men to a sense of the Infinite revealed in the finite and to a consciousness of the immanence of the divine Spirit in the outer and the inner world. These are the truths which inspire some of Shelley's noblest lines. They find utterance in Carlyle's wisest words. And they occupy the foremost place in Emerson's message to an unspiritual world. Hence the power with which Wordsworth and Emerson appeal to the Oriental mind. They translate into the language of modern culture what was uttered by the sages of ancient India in the loftiest strains. They breathe a new life into our old faith, and they assure its stability and progress by incorporating with it precious truths revealed or brought into prominence by the wider intellectual and ethical outlook of the modern spirit. Before I dwell at any length on the spiritual affinity between the teachings of the East and the mind of Emerson, it will be convenient to consider some of his intellectual traits, which give us a key to the right interpretation of his faith.

Science in the Magazines

THE Fortnightly again takes the first place, as regards scientific articles, in the magazines received by us. Mr. Herbert Spencer contributes to it a paper on the late Prof. Tyndall, Prof. Karl Pearson, writes on “Science and Monte Carlo,” and Mr. H. O. Forbes states the grounds of his belief in “Antarctica: a Vanished Austral Land.” Mr. Spencer does not dwell upon the more conspicuous of Prof. Tyndall's intellectual traits, but upon a few characteristics concerning which little has, been said. Chief among these powers of thought was “the scientific use of the imagination.” Tyndall insisted upon the need for this. “There prevail, almost universally,” Mr. Spencer points out, “very erroneous ideas concerning the nature of imagination. Superstitious people whose folk-lore is full of tales of fairies and the like, are said to be imaginative; while nobody ascribes imagination to the inventor of a new machine … strange as the assertion will seem to most, it is nevertheless true that the mathematician who discloses to us some previous unknown order of space-relations does so by a greater effort of imagination than is implied by any poetic creation.” The faculty with which Tyndall was largely endowed was that of constructive imagination, and he used that talent in all his work. Among other points upon which Mr. Spencer dwells in the eulogy of his dead friend, are Tyndall's intellectual vivacity, and the x Club described by Prof. Huxley. The, influence that the Club eventually exercised in the scientific world is shown by the fact that it contained four presidents of the British Association, three presidents of the Royal Society, and presidents of the College of Surgeons, of the Mathematical Society, and of the Chemical Society. The number of members is now reduced to five, and the Club is practically dead. The object of Prof. Pearson's essay is to show that chance as it applies to the tossing of an unloaded coin has no application in Monte Carlo roulette. The discussion of records of the roulette tables leads to the strange result that “the random spinning of a roulette manufactured and daily readjusted with extraordinary care is not obedient to the laws of chance. ” In the Fortnightly of May last, Mr. Forbes gave reasons for believing that “there must have existed in the Southern Seas an extensive continuous land similar to that in the Northern Hemisphere, on which the common ancestors of the forms unknown north of the equator, but confined to one or more of the southern extremities of the great continents, lived and multiplied, and whence they could disperse in all directions. ”He then remarked that this lost continent “lies in part beneath the southern ice-cap, and it approached to, or included, the Antarctic Islands, as well as extended northward to unite with the southern extremities of South America, perhaps with Africa, and with the Mascarene, the Australian, and the New Zealand continental islands.” Mr. Forbes now brings forward a mass of evidence in support of his view, dealing in detail with the distribution of different divisions of the animal kingdom.