Kenneth H. Craik

Bio: Kenneth H. Craik is an academic researcher from University of California, Berkeley. The author has contributed to research in topics: Personality & Personality Assessment Inventory. The author has an hindex of 25, co-authored 51 publications receiving 2854 citations. Previous affiliations of Kenneth H. Craik include University of California, Davis.

The Act Frequency Approach to Personality

Abstract: The act frequency approach to personality is advanced in this article. Dispositions are viewed as summaries of act frequencies that, in themselves, possess no explanatory status. As sociocultural emergents, dispositions function as natural cognitive categories with acts as members. Category boundaries are fuzzy, and acts within each category differ in their prototypicality of membership. A series of studies focusing on indices of act trends and on a comparative analysis of the internal structure of dispositions illustrates this basic formulation. The act frequency approach is then placed within a taxonomic framework of the relations among act categories (horizontal dimension) and hierarchic classification (vertical dimension). Theoretical implications of the act frequency approach are examined. Dispositional consistency is distinguished from behavioral consistency and several act frequency indices (e.g., dispositional versatility, situational scope) are defined. Situational analysis and personality coherence are then viewed from the act frequency perspective. Discussion focuses on the possible origins and development of dispositional categories and implications of alternative middle-level constructs for act categorization and personality theory.

Do People Know How They Behave? Self-Reported Act Frequencies Compared With On-Line Codings by Observers

Abstract: Behavioral acts constitute the building blocks of interpersonal perception and the basis for inferences about personality traits. How reliably can observers code the acts individuals perform in a specific situation? How valid are retrospective self-reports of these acts? Participants interacted in a group-discussion task and then reported their act frequencies, which were later coded by observers from videotapes. For each act, observer-observer agreement, self-observer agreement, and self-enhancement bias were examined. Findings show that (a) agreement varied greatly across acts; (b) much of this variation was predictable from properties of the acts (observability, base rate, desirability, Big Five domain); (c) on average, self-reports were positively distorted; and (d) this was particularly true for narcissistic individuals. Discussion focuses on implications for research on acts, traits, social perception, and the act frequency approach.

The frequency concept of disposition: dominance and prototypically dominant acts^

Abstract: Three studies of dominance explore the frequency concept of disposition, which entails categories of acts that are topographically dissimilar but nonetheless considered to be manifestations of a common disposition. In the first study, 100 difierent acts presumably belonging to the category of dominance were generated through a nomination procedure. In the second study, expert and student panels rated how prototypically dominant each act is, defined in terms of centrality of membership in the category of dominant acts. In this manner, an internal structure of the act category was specified such that some acts are more prototypically dominant while others are more peripheral members. Substantial agreement in these ratings exists within and between panels. The third study found that a multipleact criterion based on prototypically dominant acts is predicted by personality scales with significantly greater success than are multiple-act criteria based on more peripheral acts within the dominance domain. Discussion focuses on specifying the appropriate act category for other frequency dispositions and follow-up field studies of them. Implications for altemative notions of disposition (e.g., purposive-cognitive concepts) are considered.

An empirical analysis of trends in psychology.

Abstract: The present research examined trends in the prominence of 4 widely recognized schools in scientific psychology: psychoanalysis, behaviorism, cognitive psychology, and neuroscience. The results, which replicated across 3 measures of prominence, showed the following trends: (a) psychoanalytic research has been virtually ignored by mainstream scientific psychology over the past several decades; (b) behavioral psychology has declined in prominence and gave way to the ascension of cognitive psychology during the 1970s; (c) cognitive psychology has sustained a steady upward trajectory and continues to be the most prominent school; and (d) neuroscience has seen only a modest increase in prominence in mainstream psychology, despite evidence for its conspicuous growth in general. The authors use these findings as a springboard for discussing different views of scientific prominence and conclude that psychologists should evaluate trends in the field empirically, not intuitively.

The act frequency analysis of interpersonal dispositions: Aloofness, gregariousness, dominance and submissiveness1

Abstract: A series of studies explores the act frequency analysis of personal dispositions, which entails the identification of categories of prototypical acts, delineation of internal structuring within act categories (from central to peripheral), and the assessment of individuals' dispositions in terms of the relative frequency of performing prototypical acts over a period of observation. These studies were designed to replicate the research of Buss and Craik (1980) on dominance. Through nomination procedures, 100 acts were assembled for each of three dispositions: aloofness, gregariousness, and submissiveness. The internal structure of these categories was examined through judgments of the degree to which each act is a prototypical member of the category. Prototypicality judgments for each act category by three independent panels display a substantial degree of composite reliability. Multiple-act criteria based on highly prototypical acts are predicted with significantly greater success by relevant personality scales than are multiple-act criteria based on more peripheral acts within each category. This finding holds for dominance, replicating the Buss and Craik study, and for aloofness and gregariousness. The multiple-act criteria for submissiveness, however, are not well predicted by matching personality scales. This anomaly is discussed in terms of the bipolarity of behavioral domains, the selection of matching personality scales for specific act categories, and the appropriate conceptualization of submissiveness.

A social-cognitive approach to motivation and personality

Abstract: Past work has documented and described major patterns of adaptive and maladaptive behavior: the mastery-oriented and the helpless patterns. In this article, we present a research-based model that accounts for these patterns in terms of underlying psychological processes. The model specifies how individuals' implicit theories orient them toward particular goals and how these goals set up the different patterns. Indeed, we show how each feature (cognitive, affective, and behavioral) of the adaptive and maladaptive patterns can be seen to follow directly from different goals. We then examine the generality of the model and use it to illuminate phenomena in a wide variety of domains. Finally, we place the model in its broadest context and examine its implications for our understanding of motivational and personality processes. The task for investigators of motivation and personality is to identify major patterns of behavior and link them to underlying psychological processes. In this article we (a) describe a research-based model that accounts for major patterns of behavior, (b) examine the generality of this model—its utility for understanding domains beyond the ones in which it was originally developed, and (c) explore the broader implications of the model for motivational and personality processes.

Personality structure: emergence of the five-factor model

Abstract: L'auteur discute un modele a cinq facteurs de la personnalite qu'il confronte a d'autres systemes de la personnalite et dont les correlats des dimensions sont analyses ainsi que les problemes methodologiques

Consumers and Their Brands: Developing Relationship Theory in Consumer Research

Abstract: Although the relationship metaphor dominates contemporary marketing thought and practice, surprisingly little empirical work has been conducted on relational phenomena in the consumer products domain, particularly at the level of the brand. In this article, the author: (1) argues for the validity of the relationship proposition in the consumer-brand context, including a debate as to the legitimacy of the brand as an active relationship partner and empirical support for the phenomenological significance of consumer-brand bonds; (2) provides a framework for characterizing and better understanding the types of relationships consumers form with brands; and (3) inducts from the data the concept of brand relationship quality, a diagnostic tool for conceptualizing and evaluating relationship strength. Three in-depth case studies inform this agenda, their interpretation guided by an integrative review of the literature on person-to-person relationships. Insights offered through application of inducted concepts to two relevant research domains — brand loyalty and brand personality — are advanced in closing. The exercise is intended to urge fellow researchers to refine, test, and augment the working hypotheses suggested herein and to progress toward these goals with confidence in the validity of the relationship premise at the level of consumers’ lived experiences with their brands.

Validation of the five-factor model of personality across instruments and observers.

Abstract: Two data sources--self-reports and peer ratings--and two instruments--adjective factors and questionnaire scales--were used to assess the five-factor model of personality. As in a previous study of self-reports (McCrae & Costa, 1985b), adjective factors of neuroticism, extraversion, openness to experience, agreeableness-antagonism, and conscientiousness-undirectedness were identified in an analysis of 738 peer ratings of 275 adult subjects. Intraclass correlations among raters, ranging from .30 to .65, and correlations between mean peer ratings and self-reports, from .25 to .62, showed substantial cross-observer agreement on all five adjective factors. Similar results were seen in analyses of scales from the NEO Personality Inventory. Items from the adjective factors were used as guides in a discussion of the nature of the five factors. These data reinforce recent appeals for the adoption of the five-factor model in personality research and assessment.

Heuristics and Biases: The Psychology of Intuitive Judgment

Abstract: A review is presented of the book “Heuristics and Biases: The Psychology of Intuitive Judgment,” edited by Thomas Gilovich, Dale Griffin, and Daniel Kahneman.