On Inter- and Intragroup Differences in Schematic and Aschematic Groups' Ratings of Trait Relations

Abstract

It was hypothesized that a subject's personality with respect to having a self-schema in a given personality domain will affect the subject's assumptions about how traits that belong to the given personality domain are interrelated in other persons. Two hypotheses were posed: (1) schematic, as compared to aschematic groups, assume stronger relations (likelihood of co-occurrence) between schema-consistent traits in other persons and (2) schematic persons assume stronger relations between schema-consistent traits, as compared to schema-inconsistent traits and schema-neutral traits in other persons. 82 women made self-ratings on 3 feminine traits, 3 masculine traits, and 3 neutral traits, as well as trait-relation ratings between pairs consisting of feminine traits (F-F relation), masculine traits (M-M relation), and neutral traits (N-N relation). On the basis of the self-ratings subjects were classified into feminine schematic ( n = 14) and aschematic groups ( n = 13). The trait-relation ratings were analyzed through a 2 × 3 (group × type of trait-relation) analysis of variance. The analysis confirmed both hypotheses. Implications of these results for self-schema and implicit personality theory are discussed, and directions for future research are suggested.