Personality: Field Dependence & Field Independence

Some of the most interesting areas when looking into the cognitive/experiential domain of personality is perception, interpretation, and conscious goals. All this in the cognitive domain contributes to the way a person making sense or explaining various events that occurs to them, mostly by associating past experience or something of similar sorts. People mostly have different views towards events, for example, when you get involved in an accident. Some people may view it as a result of poor road conditions but some may view it as poor driving skill.

People often assumes that the reality out there is exact duplicate of what their perception of facts. In this case, it is untrue because a person can only create perception based on their mental representation but bearing in mind, that another person perceives the same reality differently. In this topic, we will further explore the processes and outcomes of field dependence and field independence of personality in the cognitive domain.

Some of the traits of field independence and field dependence types personality can be explained and compared in the table below;

Because of the differences in personalities, there is a blaring contrast on how people perceive and react to an event. Take for example the image below,

Some people on first glance will see an old looking lady but other people would see the back of a young woman.

Professor Herman Witkin devoted 30 years studying differences in perceptual styles. His research have founded certain traits within personality that determines whether a person is field independent or otherwise. Witkin devised a test called the Embedded Figures Test(EFT), this test shows that field dependent people have difficulty in discovering embedded images in comparison to field independent people who can quickly spot these images. This is because field independent people are able to see objects independently from the background. Scores and measures on field independence/dependence is stable over time and have consequences on educational and interpersonal relations (Witkin, 1977).

What type of personality are you? Take a test and see how long does it take to find all embedded images:

Solution:

Another research on field independence/dependence which correlates with the interpersonal relations, Witkin and Goodenough(1977) finds that field dependent people as might be predicted, relies on social information and frequently ask others opinion. They show strong interest in other people, attracted to social situations, likes getting physically close and get along well with others. In contrary, field independent people displays a more impersonal and detached orientation towards other. They keep distance from social situations, keep their distance from people and are not interested in others opinion.

Finally, lets look at the motivations that drives these two types of people;

By having an understanding between these two fields, we can reflect on which types of field do we belong to and by knowing, we can decide on issues such as career paths and understanding other people in our daily interactions.