The Universality of Generalized Personality Statements

Abstract

Researchers for three decades have assumed that generalized personality statements are nearly universally valid. In this study, undergraduate students indicated whether generalized personality statements were "true" or "false" as applied to themselves; then these same students and a group of graduate students estimated the percentage of college students who would answer each generalized statement "true." Only 7 of the 12 commonly-used, generalized personality statements were found to be nearly universally valid among the undergraduates; the other 5 were answered "true" by fewer than two-thirds of the undergraduates. Both groups undergraduates and graduate students were very accurate in estimating the percentage of students who would respond "true" to each statement. Thus, many supposed generalized statements are not nearly universally valid, and students are cognizant of the degree of universality of generalized statements. Results of prior research based on inappropriate assumptions about generalized statements must be viewed cautiously.