The Personal Acquaintance Measure: a tool for appraising one's acquaintance with any person

J Pers Soc Psychol. 2006 May;90(5):833-47. doi: 10.1037/0022-3514.90.5.833.

Abstract

The authors developed and evaluated the psychometric properties of the 18-item Personal Acquaintance Measure (PAM) and investigated how the PAM relates to self- other agreement in personality ratings. Results support that 6 factors represent the PAM (Duration, Frequency of Interaction, Knowledge of Goals, Physical Intimacy, Self-Disclosure, Social Network Familiarity), which showed evidence of internal consistency, test-retest reliability over 3 weeks, sensitivity to known group differences, discriminant validity from socially desirable responding, and convergent validity with other relationship inventories. Results also show that the PAM positively predicted self-other agreement. The authors discuss the implications of these findings for the PAM and research in person perception, although this measure may also be used in other research areas.

Publication types

  • Evaluation Study
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Analysis of Variance
  • Factor Analysis, Statistical
  • Female
  • Friends*
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Ontario
  • Personality
  • Psychological Tests*
  • Reproducibility of Results
  • Self Disclosure
  • Social Perception*
  • Time Factors