Validity Of Psychological Assessment: Validation Of Inferences From: Fill & Download for Free

Yes, but the relationship between physical features and personality traits is only approximate and most people aren’t very good at recognizing it.Below are four photographs, each a composite of several faces from a study of the relationship between personality traits and facial characteristics. Two of these photos were made from the top 10% most extroverted participants, while the other two were made from the most introverted. Can you tell which are which? We'll come back to these pictures later.A Brief History of PhysiognomyThe notion that one's personality can be determined through analysis of facial features is a practice that dates back to the First Babylonian Dynasty, though the first written records detailing such analysis are credited to Aristotle. Called Physiognomy, the Greeks derived personality traits from features by comparing those features to animals. For example, a person with a hooked nose was said to resemble a hawk, and was therefore ferocious. Even during Greek times, this kind of analysis was disputed and not taken that seriously.Physiognomy had a resurgence in the Middle Ages, during which time it was considered a high art taught in universities across England until it was banned by Henry VIII in 1531. It once again rose to prominence in the 18th century following the publication of Essays on Physiognomy by Johann Lavater. In his four-volume work, the Swiss pastor exhaustively described the associations between facial features and personality traits, characterizing them as either positive or negative. "Perfect" features suggested perfection in relevant character traits while "flawed" features suggested character flaws. In the early 19th century, Alexander Walker, a Scottish scientist in anatomy and physiology, expanded on Lavator's work by explaining why certain physical and personality traits were linked. Lips, for example, being sensitive and near the tongue, were an indicator of desire, with thin lips suggesting little desire and full lips suggesting great desire.[1] Towards the mid-18th century, an understanding of Physiognomy became popular among intellectuals, many of whom employed Physiognomonic "truths" when writing fiction. For example, in Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte described Jane as follows:"I sometimes wished to have rosy cheeks, a straight nose and small cherry mouth; I desired to be tall, stately, and finely developed in figure; I felt it a misfortune that I was so little, so pale, and had features so irregular and so marked."Likewise, here is how she described Mr. Mason:"He repelled me exceedingly: there was no power in that smooth-skinned face of a full oval shape: no firmness in that aquiline nose and small cherry mouth; there was no thought on the low, even forehead; no command in that blank, brown eye."These physical descriptions carried significance as personality indicators, and thus conveyed character to contemporaries in a way most modern readers cannot recognize.In 1883, Francis Galton, economist, scientist, and cousin of Charles Darwin, sought to explore the validity of Physiognomy through photography. By creating composites of various photographs, he hoped to identify the physical features which distinguished various personality characteristics. His most famous experiment involved composites of criminals. While Galton was unable to discern a physical indicator inherent to crime, this experiment is famous for discovering that composite faces tend to be more physically attractive than those that make them up, eventually leading us to realize that "averageness" is a physically attractive trait in humans.Francis Galton's criminal composites.[2]In 1924, researchers Cleeton and Knight conducted research into the validity of Physiognomic claims. "The physical factors purporting to measure the same trait do not present even a suspicion of agreement." "The correlation between ratings of casual observers and physical measurements is best represented by 0.000."[3] Facial features that were supposed to indicate a personality trait could not be related to each other or to those traits. Physiognomy had been debunked.The modern understanding of how physical features relate to personalityIf Physiognomy is false, why did I open my answer with a "yes?" In debunking the claims made by Physiognomy, Cleeton and Knight happened upon another discovery. Though the physical traits claimed to be associated with various features showed no correlation with the judgments of observers, the observers' judgments correlated strongly with each other. Whether or not the judgments of observers were accurate was unclear, but there appeared to be consensus between observers that something about a person's physical features suggested personality characteristics.Modern research has explored the topic further, and our capacity to discern personality through physical features appears to have some merit. When subjects rated the faces of CEOs for competence, their ratings were correlated with the successful management of companies and higher profits.[4] When observers were asked to assess the personalities of subjects in video clips, their assessments agreed with the self-assessments made by the individuals in those clips.[5] People are able to read something, but are they truly reading facial features, or are they picking up on clothing, body language, or other confounding factors?At the start of this answer, I showed you four composite photos related to extroversion. If you guessed that the left man and the right woman were the extroverts, you were right. These composites come from a study conducted by Dr. Penton-Voak and his team that tested agreeableness, conscientiousness, emotional stability, and openness, in addition to extroversion. All featured cues that observers could identify.[6]One thing you might notice about these photos is that people with "desirable" qualities tend to be more physically attractive. Perhaps people aren't reading desirable qualities in these faces, but rather recognizing beauty, and projecting desirable qualities onto it? Indeed, in the study, men who self-reported as high in agreeableness, extroversion, conscientiousness, and emotional stability were rated as significantly more physically attractive than men at the opposite ends of those spectra, with similar results for women who self-reported as high in extroversion, agreeableness, and openness. To address the beauty question, further research found that even when comparably attractive faces were paired, observers were still able to identify specific qualities like extroversion and agreeableness.[7] Rather than projecting positive qualities onto beauty, it appears that either people with positive qualities tend to be more attractive, or attractive people tend to have more positive qualities.Have a look at this next set of photos. Care to wager a guess as to what personality trait differentiates these composites?These photos are taken from a study analyzing the association between facial features and sociosexuality. The left composites were formed from people who are only interested in sex in the context of a long-term monogamous relationship. The right composites are made from people interested in "no strings attached" sex.[8] Subjects were generally able to identify the sexual preferences both of the composites and in normal photographs, with women performing exceptionally well at identifying the sexual interests of other women.In these studies, the average accuracy for identifying personality characteristics from faces was 60%, which is certainly better than chance, but hardly extraordinary. Some subjects were exceptionally skilled, performing with better than 90% accuracy. Individuals possessing particular traits were better at identifying those traits in others, for example, extroverts could recognize other extroverts with ease. Warm-hearted and generous people were exceptionally bad at judging faces, whereas those who rated themselves as cold-hearted were the strongest performers.Why is there an association?Determining why there is an apparent discernible association between facial features and personality involves the difficult and complicated question about how our personalities develop in the first place. Twin studies suggest that genetics account for about 50% of our personality, with experiences playing an equal developing role.[9] It is likely, though difficult to prove, that interpretations of a child's facial features influence how people treat that child, thus training that child to adopt complementary personality habits. For example, masculine-looking babies tend to be considered less attractive and are assumed to require less care.[10] If we imagine a baby boy who's genes pre-dispose him to high levels of testosterone, he will look less cute and old for his age, and his mom, dad, and friends are less likely to cuddle him, more likely to pick on him, and generally treat him as if he were more mature, encouraging the archetypal masculine traits of independence and self-reliance. In short, our appearance provokes prejudices in others, which shapes how they treat us, which in turn shapes our personalities. It's also possible that the prejudices are, to some degree, justified. In the case of masculinity, for example, large amounts of testosterone are associated with domineering and assertive behavior, and also produce masculine-looking facial ridges in adolescence.[11] How much of this correlation is a result of a genetic relationship between personality and appearance, and how much is a result of social influences, may be impossible to tell.Another factor contributing to why our faces reflect our personalities is repetition of predominant expressions. Older people with a history of aggression tend to look angry even when displaying a neutral expression.[12] There is also evidence that spouses come to resemble each other over time, perhaps due to mirroring each other's expressions, or going through similar life experiences.[13] To some degree, we earn the faces we have, especially when we're older.In summary, past claims about what physical features suggest about our personalities are largely false, however humans appear to have an intuition that can predict personalities based on physical features better than chance, with some humans showing extraordinary skill. Such intuition may be a self-fulfilling prophecy, in which we systematically treat children in specific ways in response to our assumptions, teaching them to behave consistently with our expectations. Our expectations may also be in response to hormonal developments that are associated with particular facial features. We may also be identifying facial features that develop due to repeated use of expressions throughout our lives.[1] Walker, A. (1834) Physiognomy Founded on Physiology, and Applied to Various Countries, Professions, and Individuals: with an Appendix on the Bones of Hythe, and Sculls of the Ancient Inhabitants of Britain and its Invaders. Lond: Smith, Elder, & Co.[2] Galton, F. (1883) Inquiries into Human Faculty and its Development. London: Macmillan.[3] Cleeton, G.U. & Knight, F.B. (1924) The validity of character judgments based on external criteria.Journal of Applied Psychology 8: 215-231[4] Rule, N.O. & Ambady, N. (2008) The face of success: inferences from Chief Executive Officers’ appearance predict company profits. Psychological Science 19: 109–111.[5] Zebrowitz, L.A. (1997) Reading Faces: Window to the Soul? Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press.[6] Penton-Voak, I.S., Pound, N., Little, A.C. & Perrett, D.I. (2006) Personality judgments from natural and composite face images: more evidence for a ‘kernel of truth’. Social Cognition 24: 490–524.[7] Ibid[8] Boothroyd, L.G., Jones, B.C., Burt, D.M., DeBruine, L.M. & Perrett, D.I. (2008) Facial correlates of sociosexuality. Evolution and Human Behavior 29: 211–218.[9] Jang. K.L., W.J. & Vemon, P.A. (2006) Heritability of the Big Five personality dimensions and their faces: a twin study. Journal of Personality 64: 577-592.[10] Wiffen, B. (2007) What Makes Babies Cute? Testing Preferences for Masculinity and Femininity in Baby Faces. British Psychology Society Scottish Branch Undergraduate Conference, 14/3/07. University of Edinburgh.McCabe, V. (1988) Facial proportions, perceived age and care-giving. In: Alley, T.R. (ed.) Social and Applied Aspects of Perceiving Faces, pp.89–100. Hillsdale, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum.Zebrowitz, L.A., Kendall-Tackett, K. & Fafel, J. (1991) The influence of children's facial maturity on parental expectations and punishment. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology 52: 221-238[11] Carre, J.M. & McCormick, C.M. (2008) In your face: facial metrics predict aggressive behaviour in the laboratory and in varsity and professional hockey players. Proceedings of the Royal Society B 275: 2651–2656.[12] Malatesta, C.Z., Fiore, M.J. & Messina, J.J. (1987) Affect, personality and facial expression characteristics of older people. Psychology and Aging 2: 64–69.[13] Zajonc, R. B., Adelmann, P. K., Murphy, S. T., & Niedenthal, P. M. (1987). Convergence in the physical appearance of spouses.Motivation and Emotion Motiv Emot, 11(4), 335-346.General BibliographyPerrett, D. (2010). In your face: The new science of human attraction. Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan

Even for people who do not have borderline personality disorder, we all have emotional "baggage" that filters and distorts our perceptions of situations. As another writer encouraged, suspending your judgment and questioning your assumptions are good places to start in your effort to assess the validity of your feelings. Chris Argyris developed something called "the ladder of inference," which captures the ways in which we go from a simple fact to unsubstantiated conclusion to unjustifiable reaction. We have to make some generalized conclusions to get through the day. It's when our assumptions have some emotionally distorted content that we're in danger of misinterpreting other people's behaviors in ways that are harmful to us or them.I think it can be advantageous to apply what you know about your own bpd symptoms: e.g., fears of abandonment. Potentially, you grab on to new relationships quickly and overly optimistically then go to the opposite extreme equally quickly. Etc. When you are tempted to have an emotional reaction to a situation, you can use your bpd checklist and see if it's possible/likely that your own emotional filters and distortions are influencing your assumptions about others.As for worrying about whether your psychological disorder is keeping you from seeing what's "real," it's probably safer to assume it's you than that it's the other person. There are healthy ways to overcome the worst symptoms of borderline personality disorder. Support groups specific to BPD can be a great supplement to whatever medical interventions you have at your disposal.

I can understand where an individual might interpret that conclusion.It would come down to the validity of Jesus' claims and the individual interpreting those claims.When Jesus says, “not my will, but Thy Will”, “I speak what I hear”, this could be construed as behavior associated with schizophrenia.Considering the writings, also, talk about Jesus being resurrected, by G-d, after crucifixion, to infer the validity of claims to just support the diagnosis of schizophrenia, but reject the claims of resurrection, becomes subjective analysis.All of a sudden, the narrative is inferred with the conjecture of Jesus existed, but was not resurrected, and he suffered from a psychological disorder.Jesus claimed to be G-d's anointed spokesperson, whom G-d would put His Words [Logos] in the anointed [Christos/Mashiach] individual's mouth, based on a promise from the Torah. Jesus being brought back to life [resurrected] after an indisputable death, would validate that claim.Then it becomes a matter of the individual doing the assessment on Jesus, as projecting their own limitations or parameters on to Jesus. Simply, that could not happen, in my perception of reality, Jesus must be the one who is suffering a psychosis.[addendum: I should add, that according to the narratives, Jesus was very self-aware, as he states, “if you do not believe in me, believe in the miracles” (paraphrased: you saw the miracles, I am not “crazy” {“possessed by a demon”})]