W. W. Norton & Company | The Personality Puzzle, 4th ed.

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Chapter 2: Clues to Personality: The Basic Sources of Data

Self-report: Make a list of your most prominent personality characteristics. Consider how your response to this question might be biased. Consider how your perspective might be most insightful (more than any other source of data about you).

Informant-report: Ask your closest friend to make a list of your most prominent personality characteristics. Ask your friend to explain to you how he/she might be biased. Ask your friend why he/she might be more insightful about you than you are about yourself.

Life data: Write about a major life event that happened to you recently. What does that event say about your personality (if anything)? Show the event, only the event itself, to a friend (a different friend than your informant who does not know about the event that happened to you). When you present the event to your friend, do not tell him/her who the event happened to and show him/her just the event (objectively). Ask that friend "What kind of people does _______ [insert event] happen to?" Note how events are perceived by others as related to personality. Consider the ways in which life events can be clues to someone's personality and how they might be misleading.

Behavioral data: It is not uncommon for actors and comedians to imitate a famous person. For example, comedians on late-night talk shows often imitate the president of the United States. Ask a friend this question, "If you were to imitate me, what behaviors would you have to change about yourself to imitate me well?" After that question is answered ask yourself: "What do those changed behaviors say about your personality?" and "What do those changed behaviors say about my friend's personality?"