Assignment #7, Option 2: Brunswikian Lens Model

I used the Brunswikian Lens Model and the Five Factor Model to assess my friend’s personality through an online chat space. Although I speak with my friend both in person and over AIM quite frequently, I have never made actual personality judgments using specific models. On Saturday afternoon I spoke with my friend over AIM. We talked about the events of the previous night, as well as the school work that we should be doing. My friend was also asking for advice on whether or not she should IM a guy that she’s been interested in. Our conversation ended after about two hours, and I was then able to review the conversation and make personality assessments.

In terms of the Brunswikian Lens Model, I focused on the associations I drew about my friend in a judgmental context. First, I assessed our two hour AIM interaction on the basis of cue validity and utilization. Cue validity explains the cues that accurately describe someone’s personality characteristics; cue utilization explains the cues that are actually used to make judgments about others. My online conversation with my friend reached functional achievement because of the co-occurrence of both cue validity and utilization. My friend’s explanation of her behaviors and interests all appeared to be truthful and therefore very accurate of her personality characteristics; I used each of the cues to help me make assessments. I did not use the “context effects” feature of the Brunswikian Lens Model because speaking over AIM did not give me access to pictures or characteristics of any of my friend’s other friends or acquaintances which could have affected how I perceived her attractiveness.

The Brunswikian Lens Model also includes four mechanisms that link individuals to their environment that influenced the personality judgments I made. The first two mechanisms are identity claims. Self-directed identity claims are what a person purposefully does to show something about his or her identity and reinforce self-views. This includes a part of my friend’s AIM profile that includes a quote about friendship. The kindness and affection in this quote, that she chose to display, shows the agreeableness of her personality. Other-directed identity claims are when one displays symbols of their identity with shared meanings in order to communicate something to others. The little picture icon that my friend has decided to include in her IM box is a changing advertisement for the release of Jessica Simpson’s “Public Affair.” This is an other-directed identity claim because my friend is trying to express her love for Jessica Simpson and her fun dance music through a shared symbol of a popular artist that she idealizes. I am able to make the personality judgment that my friend is extraverted, seeking out exciting fun activities.

The final two individual-environment linking mechanisms are behavioral residues. Interior behavior residues are traces of a person’s behavior within the immediate environment that are left there. The immediate environment in the case of my conversation with my friend was AIM. During our conversation, the IM box told me that my friend’s “[screen name] is typing.” These were temporary traces of her typing behavior that were left in the AIM online space on and off throughout our conversation. Our entire conversation was also recorded in the IM box, which gave me the ability to scroll up and re-read her words; these lasting traces allowed me to back and make even more detailed personality assessments using the Five Factor Model. Exterior behavioral residues are behaviors that a person does outside of the immediate environment. These were expressed in the away message that my friend kept up while we were talking, which said “reading.” Although she was talking to me, she was also attempting to get some work done outside of AIM. This led me to make the personality assessments that my friend is moderately conscientious, as she was attempting to multi-task by working and having an AIM chat.

Using Hancock and Dunham’s Five Factor Model, I first rated my friend high on extraversion because she was talkative and assertive. She was very inquisitive, asking me many questions about what I had done the night before. I also rated her high on agreeableness because of her pro-social behavior; she didn’t try and challenge me or start any arguments. I rated her at a moderate level of conscientiousness because though she knew she had work to do and was planning out what she wanted to accomplish, she continued to procrastinate for two hours by talking to me. My friend’s openness rating was also high because of the variety of experiences she was recounting for me, and her great interest in all of them. Finally, I rated her at a moderate neuroticism level because of the anxiety she was experiencing over IMing a guy. I was able to make a detailed personality assessment with the combination of these five trait factors and the lens model.

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