Dear Mohammad,

You want to know if different mental states in individuals (for example, their level of mood or anxiety) lead them to attribute different traits to others.

If I am not wrong, you are using two terms (i.e., states and traits) as if they were synonymous and they aren't. State refers to a transient form of feeling or thinking (e.g., I feel happy/unhappy; I am in a positive, negative or neutral mood), where trait refers to a permanent characteristic of one's personality (e.g., to be introvert vs to be extrovert).

The issue you raise is a highly debated topic in social psychology. it has been found that people often attribute to others their mental states. If, for example, you are in a good or positive mood it is liked that you think that others are also in a good or positive mood. This tendency is more frequently observed in young than older children, adolescents or adults. This is so, because young children are, say, more egocentric than older children, adolescents and adults and, hence, they have some difficulty to attribute to others mental states different from their own. However, it is not always the case that individuals attribute to others their mental states or even their personality traits. Have you ever heard of the fundamental attribution error? It has been found that, when attributing causes to their and others' behaviors, individuals tend to explain their failures in terms of external causes (" I got a D" -- an exam low mark -- because the exam was too difficult" ) and others' failures in terms of internal causes ("S/he got a D because s/he is not intelligent"). As for successes, individuals tend to explain their successes in terms of internal causes ("I got an A -- an exam high mark--because I am quite intelligent"), and others' successes in terms of external causes ("S/he got an A because of luck"). These two manifestations of the fundamental attribution error, are known as the self-deserving bias or a bias in favor of one's self.

Thus, dear Mohammad, for your research project to get ahead, I would urge you to be relatively acquainted with the attribution theory. And good luck for your project.

Kind regards,

Orlando.

PS. This is a short answer to your question. Even so, I hope it helps

hi, of course it will because the nature of observation and qualitative research projects. perceiving , understanding and interpreting data is conducted by the researcher . it cannot happen in a vaccum; it is dependent on the context of data gathering including the researchers' mental status.

best regards

Hallo Mohammad,

I would look through the extensive literature on "mood effects". For instance some contributions of Joseph Forgas, such as: Article Mood and judgment: The Affect Infusion Model (AIM)

Article Mood Effects on Person-Perception Judgments

and so forth

Hello Dear Mohammad,

I think you got the answer. Above three researchers have rightly replied.

So it is unanimously presumed that one's mental state affect assessment of others.

However, two issues I would like to bring on the table.

1) Who is assessing, is it a Common/Naive person or an Expert/Professional/Trained and skilled fellow?

Mental state of professionals would not cast tangible effect on assessment. Common person would be highly vulnerable to be affected by their own mental states.

2) Issues of Transference and Counter Transferance must be taken into account before deciding whether assessment is biased or neutral.

Last comment. Any assessment must be conducted with the help of standard psychological scales to avoid such personal or human errors.

If so , one wonders why worry about mental state of assessor, let's focus on mental state of assessee. Mental state of assessee would adversely affect or cause errors.

Isn't it?

😊

Farangis Shahidzade , Madhav Gajananrao Raje

Thank you so much.

your answers helped me a lot.

Dear Orlando M Lourenço, Thank you for the information, especially the part about egocentrism was useful. Actually, I want to know is there some evidence suggest that people with situational specific psychological characteristics, tend to perceive others with certain personality traits?

If you know any documents, please tell me.

with respect.

Dear, Guido Peeters, Thank you very much. Those two articles were very helpful. I'll use them.