Monthly Archives: September 2017

Marriages are very valuable as psychological symbioses so long as the partners do not attempt a mutual “psychological” understanding. Jung (1923) – Jonathan Gerber (The personality sentences)

If personality is a perspective on the world, a window on one part of reality, then it becomes easy to see Jung’s point: symbiosis is sometimes the art of having productive long-term relationships with people with whom you don’t see eye-to-eye. However, it’s very hard to find any direct evidence for Jung’s idea because the idea is so conditional, so “sometimes”. Jung made the case only for when partners have different personalities (e.g. his case of introverts and extroverts). Jung was not suggesting that people who are similar will not get along, we know that similarity between partners helps relationships1. We also know that perceived accuracy (not actual accuracy) helps relationships2. As Julie Fitness put it when I emailed her about this “as a couple’s illusion that they are simpatico gets stronger, the happier they are, I guess!” Jung’s statement is that, when people are different, they can have better relationships if they accept their differences. However, I haven’t heard of any direct test of this in the relationship literature, and I can’t find one in the personality literature. There is, however, is some suggestive evidence. Continue reading

The difference in ability to “size up” individuals … is very striking. – Allport (1937, p. 508) – Jonathan Gerber (The personality sentences)

What evidence can help you to decide whether personality exists? For example, how would I know if it’s possible to say that I could actually be a shy (or not shy) person? Or is shyness completely made up? You may have read or heard that personality does not exist. While the counter-arguments are many, in my experience there are only two pieces of evidence necessary to convince people that personality exists. The first is David Funder’s analysis of the person-situation debate in Chapter 4 of “The Personality Puzzle”. Read it! The second one is more forgotten, that some people are better than others at judging personality, whether that be from first impressions or after long acquaintances (click here for more details on the research). The existence of individual differences in the ability to judge personality is important. Do we ask about the existence of fine food by sampling every home cook in America? No, we look for people who are good at cooking: chefs. Continue reading

When It Comes To Decisions, Are You A Maximizer Or A Satisficer? – Rebecca Shiner

How did you pick where to eat the last time you had a craving for tacos? In the popular Netflix series Master of None, Dev Shah, a 30-year-old actor living in New York City, models one extreme approach: After deciding to get tacos with his friend Arnold, who opts for an “I’m good with whatever” approach, Dev spends 45 minutes frantically and meticulously searching the Internet for the best taco spot in New York. Dev finally selects a particular taco truck as the best option; upon arriving there, he grills the server about the most superior taco offered, only to discover that the taco truck is all out of tortillas. “What am I supposed to do now—go and eat the second-best taco?” Dev fumes.

What is “Spiritual Intelligence” Anyway? – Scott McGreal (Unique—Like Everybody Else)

If "spiritual intelligence" is a real thing, what might it consist of? Probably, elements of personality, intelligence, and altered states of consciousness.

Yes, Your Field Does Need to Worry About Replicability – Rich Lucas (The Desk Reject)

One of the most exciting things to happen during the years-long debate about the replicability of psychological research is the shift in focus from providing evidence that there is a problem to developing concrete plans for solving those problems. Whether it is journal badges that reward good practices, statistical software that can check for problems before papers are published, collaborative efforts to deal with limited resources and underpowered studies, proposals for new standards of evidence, or even entire societies dedicated to figuring out what we can do to make thing better, many people have devoted an incredible amount of thought, time, and energy to figuring out how we can fix any problems that exist and move the field forward.