DIFFERENTIAL CONVERGENCE OF SELF-REPORT AND INFORMANT DATA FOR MULTIDIMENSIONAL PERSONALITY QUESTIONNAIRE TRAITS - IMPLICATIONS FOR THE CONSTRUCT OF NEGATIVE EMOTIONALITY

Construct validation work on Tellegen's (1982) Multidimensional Person ality Questionnaire (MPQ) resulted in further inferences about Negativ e Emotionality. Two hundred thirty-two students were rated by three kn owledgeable informants, yielding a total of 928 participants. The medi an monotrait correlation of MPQ primary scores with summed observer ra tings was .48, and all were significant, p < .01. These data show high er self-report to informant rating convergences in the Positive Emotio nality (Extroversion) domain than in the Negative Emotionality (Neurot icism) domain. Furthermore, in the Negative Emotionality domain, peers , mothers, and fathers were not equivalent as classes of raters. Stres s Reaction ratings showed uniformly lower levels of convergence with s elf-report (relative to Positive Emotionality traits) across all rater classes. For Alienation, peer and maternal ratings were comparable, b ut paternal ratings correlated significantly less with self-report sco res than did maternal ratings. And finally, with Aggression, peer rati ngs correlated significantly higher with self-report than either mater nal or paternal ratings. These findings, taken in the context of the l iterature, have implications for a hierarchical model of Negative Emot ionality, support inferences about the display of cues of Negative Emo tionality, and offer new cautions for rating-based assessment.