Significant Others and Self-Evaluation

Inconsistent results have been obtained with respect to the congruence between perceived others' evaluations and the actual evaluations obtained from others when others have consisted of members of a peer group. In this study, 178 individuals described themselves as they believed significant others would describe them, and actual evaluations were obtained from one significant other for each of the 178 individuals. Under these conditions significant and consistent congruence was found for 53 personality traits between: (1) self-evaluations and perceived others' evaluations; (2) self-evaluations and actual evaluations obtained from one significant other; and (3) perceived others' evaluations and the actual evaluations by one significant other.