The Personality Analyst

A researcher turns his gaze on personality in public life.

by John D. Mayer

Three Skills Involved in Ethical Judgments of Public Figures 2: Psychological Knowledge

I explored the communication skills useful in making ethical judgments of public figures in my last post. Clear writing, guided by an editor, can help a professional who is analyzing another person to ensure that what he or she says is what is meant. Few writers attain such clarity all the time, but it is an important facet of judging others carefully and ethically. Read More

Three Skills Involved in Ethical Judgments 1: Communication

I have been exploring what a set of ideal standards would be for commenting ethically on the psychology of public figures. In a series of posts beginning in January of this year, I have proceded through a series of relevant topics. I now am examining the expertise needed to comment well on a public figure's psychology. Read More

The Form of the Judgment of a Public Figure

The problem with personality psychology is how personal it can become when talking about specific individuals. If you are a cognitive psychologist you can speak generally about cognitive phenomena such as memory and decision-making without singling out any one person. The same is true of those who study emotions in general. Read More

What Mental Health Professionals Might Add to the Discussion of a Public Figure's Personality

People pay attention to commentaries about public figures and their personalities because it helps satisfy a natural interest in their fellow human beings. Satisfying such curiosity can be a life-affirming act in that it recognizes our innermost yearnings to understand the people in our surrounding world. Read More

The Potential Upside of Commenting About Others

In "The vindication of gossip," Aaron Ben Ze'ev of the University of Haifa argues that gossip is neither good or bad, but rather represents our interest in other people's lives. When commentators remark on a public figure's personality, it is similar in many ways to gossip. One similarity is that commentaries help satisfy our interest in the lives of public figures. Read More

The Potential Downside of Commenting about Others

What kind of ethics should mental health professionals follow when commenting on the personalities of public figures -- if they ought to comment at all? A look at the dark side of commenting on public figures can inform such practices (more background here). Read More

Do Good Intentions Matter When Commenting about Public Personalities?

Do a blogger's intentions matter when commenting on a public figure? Some people might say that an ethical commentator should possess virtuous motives if discussing the personality of a public figure. Read More

The Ethics of Blogging about Public Personalities: Introduction

I have been wondering about how psychologists, psychiatrists, and other professionals in the mental health field might comment ethically on the personalities of public figures. When might it be helpful for a psychiatrist to raise concerns as to the mental health of a politician, or for a psychologist to explain non-conscious processes using the example of someone in the media spotlight? Read More

Judging Personality Over the Holidays -- 2010 Edition

Each year at this time, I post some thoughts on how we judge the people we know and care about most. During the holiday season we often see more of our family and friends, and our relationships with them may be foremost in our minds. More generally, how we relate to others and how they behave in return may be of heightened importance to us. Read More

Time Perspective as an Expert Dimension

I continue to look at expert dimensions of perceiving personality this week — aspects of personality that experts are sensitive to and that may not be as visible to ordinary observers (more background here). Read More

A Developmental View of the Hierarchy of Mental Defenses

Professional judgments of personality are different in some ways from the everyday judgments we make of one another (see here, for background). Last week, I began looking at "expert dimensions" -- dimensions of personality that experts, in particular, notice and employ to understand others. Read More

An Example of What Experts See That Most People Cannot: Defensiveness

This week I turn my attention to defense mechanisms -- a quality of personality that experts attend to, but that other people may miss. Read More

An Aspect of Personality that Predicts Longevity

Are there certain aspects of personality that predict how long a person will live? Many people have heard of the "Type A" personality -- the individual who is hostile, time pressured, and as a consequence, more likely to suffer a heart attack. Research on the Type A personality has been complicated and controversial. Read More

How the Words We Use to Describe One Another Led to an Expert Theory of Personality

I have been examining how psychologists and other experts judge personality, and how experts' judgments of personality might differ from the judgments made by ordinary people. My aim is to explore how expertise in the field emerges and what difference such expertise can make (background here). Read More

Three Levels of Knowing a Person

I have been examining how professional judgments of personality might differ from those made by people who are untrained in perceiving others. I am asking whether there is something that a psychologist (or psychiatrist, social worker, or other insightful person) knows about someone else that most of miss in our everyday interactions with one another (see here for background). Read More

Person Perception and the Scientific Judgment of Personality

I have been examining the differences between psychological judgments made by professionals and everyday lay judgments of personality. I began by distinguishing thoughtful judgments by early psychologists and other insightful people, on the one hand, from more superficial observations by others (see here for background). Read More

No Consensus on Judging Personality in the Mid-20th Century

The mid-20th century was a time of diverse and creative theorizing in the field of personality psychology -- with many competing theories explaining how people's minds worked. Psychodynamic (Freudian) theory argued that to understand a personality, one should pay attention to inner conflicts such as those between mental defense mechanisms and thought processes. The mental defenses, Read More

Do Psychologists Value People's Personalities in a Different Way from Others?

The early psychologists had a vision of uncovering a person's true worth...ignoring the superficialities of a person and understanding, rather, the more important parts of an individual's character. Read More

The Emergence of a Professional Approach to Judging Personality

People have been judging one another for a long time, but only in the past 100 years have the professions of psychology and psychiatry emerged. Read More

The Bright and Shining Line of Diagnosis

I have been exploring what, if anything, makes professional judgments of personality different from non-professional judgments (background here).

This week, I turn to the diagnosis of mental disorders -- a bright and shining line -- because making a diagnosis of a person is a line that, when crossed, plainly labels a person. Read More

Personality Judgments and Holy Secrets

Recently I've been thinking about instances when judging personality is an inherently dangerous or bad activity (background here). Read More

Are Psychological Judgments of Public Figures Inherently Bad?

Psychologists and psychiatrists are advised to be cautious about commenting on the personalities of public figures, according to the ethics codes of the APAs (American Psychiatric Association and American Psychological Association). Read More

Key Areas in the Ethics of Judging Personality

In my posts over the past year, I have examined the law and ethics of judging others' personalities in the media. My columns have included an examination of the Fact Magazine libel trial (that is: Goldwater v. Read More

Jewish Teachings about Judging Others

Judging personality involves moral and ethical concerns as well as the search for accuracy in judgments of an individual's character. Recently, I have been examining thoughts about judging personality, paying particular attention to the ethics codes of the American Psychological and American Psychiatric Associations (backgroud here). Read More

Background

Background for the most recent topic(s) are listed immediately below, with earlier ones further down. The entry at the end explains more about these "Background" posts.

January 24th, 2011, and forward Read More

Judgment Freeloaders

Last week, NBA Commissioner David Stern fined Dan Gilbert, the Cleveland Cavaliers' owner, $100,000 for Gilbert's comments about LeBron James. Stern determined that the owner's comments about his star player LeBron James were "ill-advised" and "imprudent" according to a Cleveland Plain Dealer report. Read More

Coverage of Public Figures: A View from the Society of Professional Journalists

What sorts of legal and ethical issues ought to be considered when discussing someone's character in public? My focus has been on when it is appropriate to comment on another individual's personality. Read More

The APA's Ethics Code and Personality Analysis at a Distance

This week, I examine the American Psychological Association Ethics Code in regard to media presentations -- which includes the analysis of public figures. In this and related posts I am trying to understand the best way to analyze others' characters and to comment on them. Read More

John D. Mayer is Professor of Psychology at the University of New Hampshire and the author of numerous scientific articles, books, and psychological tests.

more...

About The Personality Analyst

The "Personality Analyst" posts are written by John D. Mayer unless otherwise noted. Each post is edited by Deborah Hirsch of By Your Side Editing (see link below).