The concept that perceptual and intellectual (that is, cognitive) tasks may serve in the assessment of broad, salient dimensions of personal functioning is a long-standing one in the history of psychological testing. Ever since the introduction of intelligence tests, patterns of abilities revealed in test performance have been used in clinical appraisals of ego functioning. Similarly, perceptual tests like the Rorschach, in use for many years in clinical assessment, have also followed the rationale that form the way in which an individual perceives particular stimuli, inferences may be shown about his personality.
The specific rationale for using the EFT to access broad dimension of personal functioning comes from cognitive-style theory and the evidence accumulated in the course of its extensive research application. In brief, cognitive styles are the characteristic, self-consistent modes of functioning which individuals show in their perceptual and intellectual activities. These cognitive styles are manifestations in the cognitive sphere of still broader dimensions of personal functioning which cut across diverse psychological areas. The emphasis in research on cognitive style has been on the adaptive functions served by cognitive processes in the psychological economy of the individual. This emphasis has led to a search for connections and consistencies from one psychological area to another, and to the finding of formal stylistic similarities across many psychological areas. The result is a more integrated, holistic view of personality.
The premise of cognitive-style theory that broad dimensions of personal functioning may be “picked up” in the individual’s cognitive activities has important methodological implications for psychological assessment, as we shall see later. Cognitive styles may be evaluated by controlled laboratory procedures, thereby providing an experimental, objective approach to personality study and assessment.