AFFECTIVE AND DENOTATIVE STRUCTURES OF PERSONALITY RATINGS

Investigated the influence of raters' affective responses on the factor structure of ratings in a personality rating task. The affective responses were indexed by including 12 typical semantic differential scales, measuring evaluation, potency, and activity, in a set of 47 personality rating scales. 2 factor structures from the same set of data, provided by 100 Ss who rated 25 personality concepts, were compared. The 1st structure included the 12 semantic differential scales, whereas from the 2nd structure the variance accounted for by these scales was eliminated by partialing them out from the intercorrelations of the remaining personality scales. In the 1st (unpartialed) structure the typical affective factors (evaluation, potency, activity) were dominant, whereas factors in the 2nd (partialed) structure indicated more denotative dimensions of personality ratings. The desirability of differentiating between the affective and denotative structures of personality ratings made by ordinary people is discussed. (15 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved). © 1969 American Psychological Association.