title: What do you learn about someone over time? The relationship between length of acquaintance and consensus and self-other agreement in judgments of personality.
abstract: Theory and research examining length of acquaintance and consensus among personality judgments have predominantly examined each dimension of personality separately. In L. J. Cronbach's (1955) terminology, this trait-centered approach combines consensus on elevation, differential elevation, and differential accuracy in personality judgments. The current article extends D. A. Kenny's (1991, 1994) weighted average model (WAM)--a theoretical model of the factors that influence agreement among personality judgments--to separate out two of Cronbach's components of consensus: stereotype accuracy and differential accuracy. Consistent with the predictions based on the WAM, as length of acquaintance increased, self-other agreement and consensus differential accuracy increased, stereotype accuracy decreased, and trait-level or raw profile correlations generally remained unchanged. Discussion focuses on the conditions under which a relationship between length of acquaintance and consensus and self-other agreement among personality evaluations emerges and how impressions change over time.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada. jbiesanz@psych.ubc.ca
authors.forename: Jeremy C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Biesanz
authors.forename: Stephen G
authors.initials: SG
authors.lastname: West
authors.forename: Allison
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Millevoi
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D032921:Consensus; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male; D008960:Models, Psychological; D010290:Parents; D010551:Personality; D012647:Self-Assessment; D012938:Social Perception; D013240:Stereotyping; D013997:Time Factors