Trait the Character Trait of Being Critical

Trait

The character trait of being critical or judgmental is one that is exhibited often, but which has a negative impact on human communication. Therefore, it may be helpful to devise ways of measure the trait of being critical or judgmental. The research on measuring the trait can be used in business environments, to understand how to foster better interpersonal relations and employee satisfaction.

To properly study the character trait of being critical or judgmental, it is necessary to first keep the target population relatively narrow. This would eliminate any potential for bias and increase the external validity and internal validity of any research based on the test. The target population could, for example, be white women between the ages of 18 and 24. It would be helpful to further narrow down this target population to white women who are between the ages of 18 and 24 and also from a wealthy socio-economic background -- which would be defined by a household income held by their parents throughout the course of the target population childhood.

Rauscher (2007) points out that verbalizations alone are not sufficient to measure the trait of being critical or judgmental of others. "Unconscious facial expressions or other subtle physical behaviors will almost always give us away," (Rauscher, 2007). Therefore, the test of this trait should incorporate measures of body language and other types of non-verbal communication. Self-reporting is easy and useful, but not as reliable as a more robust analysis of the target population.