Are implicit motives "visible" to well-acquainted others?
In this study, we compared self-ratings and informant ratings of personality as predictors of implicit motives, need for achievement (nAch), and need for affiliation (nAff). A total of 120 participants wrote creative stories to 5 images from the Picture Story Exercise (Smith, 1992) and completed the Revised NEO Personality Inventory (Costa & McCrae, 1992). Three well-acquainted informants rated each participant's personality with the Big Five Inventory (John & Srivastava, 1999) and Saucier's (1994) Mini-Markers. Consistent with the study hypotheses, peer ratings of Conscientiousness significantly predicted nAch scores after controlling for word count and self-rated Conscientiousness. Contrary to hypotheses, peer ratings and self-ratings in all 5 domains did not significantly predict nAff scores. The findings are considered in the interest of bridging the gap between trait and motive concepts in personality assessment.
Daugherty
James R
JR
Department of Psychology, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS 66506, USA. jrd07@ksu.edu
Kurtz
John E
JE
Phebus
John B
JB
D000124:Achievement; D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007600:Judgment; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009042:Motivation; D010551:Personality; D010555:Personality Inventory; D012649:Self Concept; D012938:Social Perception