PERSONALITY VARIABLES RELATED TO PEER SELECTION

Correlations are reported between scores on two booklets of the Edwards Personality Inventory (EPI) and ratings by peers of appli-cants for the position of resident assistant (RA) in the university dormitories. The peer ratings represented the collective judgment of the applicant’s potential as an RA by approximately ten other appli-cants and two group facilitators after a weekend of group inter-action. Thirty-one applicants completed the personality inventory prior to the group interaction. Seven correlations between EPI scores and peer ratings were significantly different from zero. The results indicate that the applicants are rated higher if they describe them-selves as having positive work-related and interpersonal traits. There was no relationship between their ratings and how they described themselves on negative traits. THE Edwards Personality Inventory (EPI) (Edwards, 1966) was developed to measure a large number of personality traits found in th