How do people think about understanding personality—And what do such thoughts reflect?

Abstract We examined the dimensions people use when estimating their ability to understand personality—an ability we refer to as personal intelligence. In the first two studies (Ns = 434 and 393), a four-factor model fit people's self-estimates reasonably, with scales of the “Explained Self”, “Self-Understanding”, “Understanding Others,” and “Goals and Planning”. In Study 2 and in Study 3 (N = 482) we examined whether any of the specific self-estimated abilities more accurately indexed actual ability-based personal intelligence relative to overall estimates, and if not, what other personality traits they correlated with. To find out, the four factor-based scales of self-estimated abilities were correlated with the objective Test of Personal Intelligence and traits of the Big Five. None of the specific, self-estimated abilities correlated with actual ability any higher than earlier-used experimenter-provided global self-estimated scales; the participants' self-estimates were determined chiefly by dimensions of the Big Five relative to ability, at a ratio of “variance explained” of six to one. The studies provide new insights into how people view their skills at understanding personality, and the possible origins of such beliefs.