ادراک و اختلالات شخصیت فردی: استفاده از یک رویکرد برش نازک

Abstract Study 1 expands upon previous research by looking at the ability of untrained raters to detect pathological traits within a normal population of college students. In Study 1, 30-s video clips of 81 target persons were shown to 42 raters. Ratings of traits of personality disorders made by thin slice raters reliably predicted scores on the personality pathology measures obtained from the targets themselves and from close peers. Study 2 is a preliminary examination of how pathological rater traits impacts thin slice accuracy. In Study 2, peer and self-report data were examined regarding 87 thin slice raters. Raters who exhibited traits of narcissistic personality disorder were significantly less accurate in making personality predictions regarding targets. Three clusters of personality items were identified based on rater characteristics related to accuracy in predicting behavior.

1. Introduction Interpersonal difficulties are a hallmark of personality disorders (American Psychiatric Association, 2000); one of the most common forms of psychopathology afflicting between 10 and 15% of the adult population (Mattia & Zimmerman, 2001). Many of these interpersonal difficulties may have their roots in first impressions that are made quickly, often without intention or awareness. Research on thin slices of expressive behavior has demonstrated that fairly accurate judgments about strangers can be made on the basis of minimal information (Ambady and Rosenthal, 1992 and Ambady et al., 2000). Once formed, these impressions can have a lasting impact on subsequent judgments about others (Sunnafrank & Ramirez, 2004). With regards to personality disorders, first impressions are of interest in two domains: the person being judged and the individual making judgments. People who are viewed negatively by others at the outset of a relationship may have difficulty overcoming the impact of this impression in future interactions. Additionally, people who form less accurate first impressions of others may also encounter problems in developing relationships. Initial studies of the relation between first impressions and personality pathology have focused on broad personality features of the person being judged. Untrained undergraduate raters were able to make reliable personality judgments of military recruits based on a 30-s excerpt of a videotaped interview (Oltmanns, Friedman, Turkheimer, & Fiedler, 2004). First impressions, recorded in terms of the five-factor model of personality, were systematically related to evidence of personality pathology in the target persons. Raters found individuals with personality features related to schizoid and avoidant personality disorders to be low in extraversion, agreeableness, and openness. They also rated them as being less attractive. In contrast, they found individuals with features of histrionic personality disorder to be high on the same three personality traits and also more attractive. These patterns were found regardless of whether the target person’s pathological personality characteristics were originally assessed using a semi-structured diagnostic interview or using peer nominations. Our second study (in a different sample of target recruits) examined the basis for these impressions by decomposing the signal that was presented to raters. We found that impressions of individuals with pathological traits were based on information that is present in several informational channels; similar effects were found when thin slice raters were presented with sound alone, picture alone or a written transcript (Friedman, Oltmanns, Gleason, & Turkheimer, 2006). In the studies outlined above, thin slice judges were asked to rate target persons on broad personality dimensions. They were not asked to make judgments about the presence of specific pathological personality features, such as grandiosity or paranoia. Extensive evidence supports the utility of the five-factor model in the conceptualization of personality disorders (Costa and Widiger, 2002 and Lynam and Widiger, 2001) and our findings were consistent with these predictions. We originally chose the five-factor model as a descriptive format for our thin slice raters because it employs terms that do not require knowledge of psychiatric jargon and are intuitively obvious to untrained student raters. In fact, it lends itself well to this purpose. The five-factor model has been described as a “psychology of the stranger” (McAdams, 1992) because it provides a broad summary of the kinds of things one would want to know about another person if no other information were available. Our results suggested that, at this broad level, thin slice judges do form modestly accurate impressions of people who exhibit pathological personality features. In the present study, we wanted to move beyond this phenomenon to determine if thin slice raters are also able to perceive the presence of specific pathological traits. Our previous studies also employed two different populations as raters (college students) and targets (military recruits). Some research has found improved accuracy in interpersonal judgments when raters and targets are matched on demographic attributes such as age, education level, and socio-economic status (Wright & Drinkwater, 1997). The recruits and the undergraduate students were similar in age, but many also differed on factors such as education level and socio-economic status of their families of origin. In the present study, this concern was addressed by collecting (on videotape) brief samples of behavior in which undergraduate students described themselves specifically for the purpose of thin slice ratings (as opposed to using the first 30 s of an interview that was collected for diagnostic purposes). These thin slices of expressive behavior were then rated by student judges who did not know the target persons but were part of the same university community. There are two sides to the first impression phenomenon. One involves the person who is being perceived, and the other involves the person who is making the perception. The ability to detect pathological personality traits in another person during a brief initial encounter is almost certainly adaptive. Some investigators have shown that people who are skilled at interpersonal perception are viewed positively by their peers (Costanzo & Archer, 1989). Conversely, aggressive children have been shown to have poor interpersonal perception beginning at an early age, and these deficits can lead to inappropriate, hostile reactions in ambiguous situations (Dodge, 1980). Since individuals with personality disorders have difficulties in interpersonal relationships, a logical extension of this argument would be that these individuals may have impairments in the ability to accurately perceive and respond to others appropriately. While limited research on the thin slice rating accuracy of individuals with pathological personality traits has been conducted, some research has been conducted to determine the influence that personality factors have upon differential accuracy among thin slice raters. The presence of pathological traits has a negative impact on interpersonal perception. People with borderline personality disorder and Cluster C personality disorders (dependent, avoidant, obsessive–compulsive personality disorders) have been found to be less accurate than people without personality disorders in rating individuals in film clips (Arntz & Veen, 2001). Social anxiety and shyness, highly related to avoidant personality disorder, have been found to impair the decoding of non-verbal information from strangers (Schroeder, 1995). Women with Cluster B personality disorder traits (histrionic, narcissistic, borderline or antisocial) and men with Cluster A personality disorder traits (schizoid, schizotypal or paranoid) rate interaction partners more harshly than do raters without these traits after a 25-min interaction (King & Pate, 2003). Research has shown that inducing negative emotions leads to reduced accuracy and efficiency in making thin slice ratings (Ambady & Gray, 2002.) People with low self-esteem have been shown to be impaired in decoding the negative non-verbal behavior of interaction partners and instead focus solely on polite verbal expressions (Swann, Stein-Seroussi, & McNulty, 1992). Socially anxious individuals have been shown to be unable to detect interpersonal deception at greater than a chance level (DePaulo & Tang, 1994). Contrary to these findings, other researchers found that raters who were less expressive, less sociable, and with lower self-esteem (all of which could be related to mood or personality disorders) were more accurate than other judges (Ambady, Hallahan, & Rosenthal, 1995). There does not seem to be a clear consensus among researchers at this point in time with regards to how pathological traits impact ability to accurately rate others. While we have conducted research which demonstrates that untrained raters respond differentially to individuals with pathological personality traits and control individuals based on thirty seconds of videotape, insufficient research has been conducted to explore how individuals with pathological personality traits perceive others in the same context. The following two studies aim to expand and replicate earlier work by applying social psychological research techniques to study how individuals with pathological personality traits perceive, and are perceived, by others. We expected that previous findings would be replicated in this new target sample, and that raters with pathological personality traits would be impaired in their perceptions of others.