Identification Problems in Personality Psychology

Lex Borghans, Bart Golsteyn (), James Heckman and John Humphries

No 5/2011, Working Paper Series from Stockholm University, Swedish Institute for Social Research

Abstract: This paper discusses and illustrates identification problems in personality psychology. The measures used by psychologists to infer traits are based on behaviors, broadly defined. These behaviors are produced from multiple traits interacting with incentives in situations. In general, measures are determined by these multiple traits and do not identify any particular trait unless incentives and other traits are controlled for. Using two data sets, we show, as an example, that substantial portions of the variance in achievement test scores and grades, which are often used as measures of cognition, are explained by personality variables.

Keywords: identification problem; personality; psychology; achievement test; grades (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 21 pages
Date: 2011-03-25
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cbe and nep-ltv
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (81)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Identification Problems in Personality Psychology (2011)
Working Paper: Identification Problems in Personality Psychology (2011)
Working Paper: Identification problems in personality psychology (2011)
Working Paper: Identification problems in personality psychology (2011)
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