Testing the State and Trait Accuracy Model: Links between Accuracy of Judging Affect and Accuracy of Judging Traits

在人们的个人生活和职业生涯中，决策是一个必不可少但又充满挑战的过程。关于另一个人的重要决定往往是基于第一印象。印象可以包括一个人在那一刻的情绪状态，或者“影响”，以及那个人通常是如何思考和行动的：他或她的个性特征。做出准确的判断对人们采取的行动有至关重要的影响。判断一个人的影响是积极的还是消极的，可以让人们决定在那一刻是接近还是回避最好。准确地判断特征对于社会生活的“谁”和“如何”是有用的。人们决定与谁接触，心中的目标是什么，他们预测这种互动将如何展开。在各种情况下做出正确的决定可能会导致高质量的关系或合作，并避免消极的关系。反过来，这可能会增加幸福感，员工满意度和生产力。虽然准确判断情感特征和稳定特征对于做出高质量决策至关重要，但研究人员已经开发了这两种判断相互独立的模型。当前的项目提供了这些研究领域的创新合并，产生了这些判断领域的准确性如何相关的模型。研究者将在四个实验中测试新开发的状态和特质准确度模型。此外，该项目为本科生和研究生提供了研究机会，并为小学生提供了参与科学的机会。本项目检验了人们判断情感和判断特质的准确性之间的关系和因果方向的两个假设。状态与特质准确度模型预测了这些判断之间的正相关关系，并进一步预测了情感判断先于人格特质的准确判断。为了检验关于判断陌生人的准确性的假设，重要的是要有显示真实情绪和反应的刺激，而不是做作或人为的情感表现。因此，参与该项目的三所大学的研究人员开发了一个经过验证的刺激数据库，该数据库由个人的录像带组成，这些录像带的个性特征和情绪状态已被评估。在目前的项目中，实验将使用这些录像带的片段作为刺激，让观察者做出影响和特征判断。四个实验涉及通过错误标签或自然不一致来操纵观察者的判断焦点和操纵情感和特征信息的有效性。本科生和研究生将作为研究人员和参与者参与项目，提供研究培训机会。当地小学的孩子们将通过接触学校提供的演示和研究设计经验而受益。该项目的另一个好处是，通过北美三所大学的研究人员的合作，研究基础设施得到了加强。此外，社会可以从对如何更准确地判断情感状态和人格特征的进一步了解中受益——这对日常生活中的人们和专业人士都很有用。例如，如果雇主能够更好地确定申请人和工作之间的契合度，美国经济可能会受益。

Decision making is a process that is an essential, but challenging, aspect of people's personal and professional lives. Important decisions about another person are often based on first impressions. Impressions can include the emotional state a person is feeling at that moment, or "affect", and how that person generally thinks and acts: his or her personality traits. Making accurate judgments has vital effects on the actions people take. Judging that a person's affect is positive or negative allows people to decide whether approach or avoidance is best at that moment. Accurately judging traits is useful for the "who" and "how" of social living. People determine whom to approach with what goal in mind, and they anticipate how such interactions might unfold. Making good decisions in a variety of contexts is likely to lead to quality relationships or collaborations and avoidance of negative ones. This, in turn, may increase well-being, employee satisfaction, and productivity. Although accurately judging both affect and stable traits is crucial to making high quality decisions, researchers have developed models of these two kinds of judgments independent of each other. The current project provides an innovative merging of these areas of research, producing a model of how accuracy across these judgment areas may be related. The investigators will test the newly developed State and Trait Accuracy Model in four experiments. In addition, the project provides research opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students, and engagement in science for students in primary schools. This project tests two hypotheses about the relationship and causal direction of people's accuracy in judging affect and judging traits. The State and Trait Accuracy Model predicts a positive relationship between such judgments, and further predicts that judgments of affect precede accurate judgments of personality traits. To test hypotheses about the accuracy of judging strangers, it is essential to have stimuli that display genuine emotions and responses, rather than staged or artificial affective displays. Thus, researchers from the three universities involved in this project have developed a validated database of stimuli consisting of videotapes of individuals whose personality traits and emotional state have been assessed. In the current project, experiments will use segments of these videotapes as stimuli for observers to make affect and trait judgments. Four experiments involve manipulating observers' judgmental focus and manipulating the validity of affect and trait information, either by mislabeling or by natural incongruences. Undergraduate and graduate students will be involved as researchers and participants in the project, providing research training opportunities. Children in local primary schools will benefit by exposure to presentations and research design experiences provided in their schools. Another benefit of this project is that the infrastructure for research is enhanced via this collaboration of researchers at three North American universities. In addition, society can benefit from an increased understanding of how affective states and personality traits can be judged more accurately--something useful to people in daily life as well as to professionals. For instance, the U.S. economy may benefit from employers being better able to determine the fit between applicants and jobs.