INDIVIDUAL-DIFFERENCES AND COMMON DIMENSIONS IN IMPLICIT PERSONALITY THEORY

This paper starts from the assumption that the dimensions of meaning revealed by studies on Implicit Personality Theory (IPT) are primarily determined by the particular traits under consideration; there are individual differences in the traits that are personally relevant to subjects and hence are an integrated part of their IPT. The study of collective trait sets selected by the researcher magnifies the emergence of 'universal' IPT dimensions and conceals individual differences in the dimensional structure of IPT. This argument is supported by the results of two studies. In the first study, subjects judged the perceived associations among their personally relevant attributes. Considerable individual differences were found in (a) the attribute sets; (b) the dimensions of judgement; and (c) the relations between these dimensions. In the second study, subjects judged a collective set of traits. Several structural analyses indicated that individual differences were virtually absent.