Personality

Personality

Unique long-term pattern of thinking, emotion, and behavior.

Consistency over time; shaped by talents, values, habits

Personality Terms

Self-concept: Perception of own traits guides attention & memory.

Self-esteem: Evaluation of worth.

Traits: Stable differences across situations; allow behaviour prediction.

Trait–situation interaction: Situations can modify trait expression.

Personality type: Cluster of common traits. 2 types: Introvert & extrovert.

Personality Theory

System of concepts, assumptions, ideas, and principles proposed to explain personality.

4 main: Trait, Psychodynamic, Humanistic, Behaviourist/Social-Learning.

Trait Theory

Identify traits & link them to behaviour & personality

Gordon Allport identified traits: Common, individual, Cardinal, Central traits.

Raymond B. Cattell:

Surface traits: Visible features of personality. Some traits may tend to cluster together to represent a more basic single trait.

Source traits: Deeper characteristics, or dimensions of personality.

Identified 16 source traits.

Big 5 factors: Extroversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Neuroticism, Openness.

Psychodynamic Theory

Behaviour driven by unconscious forces.

Psyche structures: ID, EGO & SUPEREGO.

Levels of awareness: Conscious, preconscious & unconscious.

Psychosexual Stages: Fixations influence adult traits.

Humanistic Theory

Emphasises free will, personal growth, subjective experience.

Maslow:

Self-Actualisation: Process of fully developing personal potentials.

Characteristics: Acceptance of others, spontaneity.

Promote self-actualisation: Encourage change, responsibility.

Rogers:

Fully functioning person: Lives in harmony with their impulses, open to experiences.

Self-image vs ideal-self → incongruence blocks growth.

Self: Flexible and changing perception of personal identity.

Personality Assessment

Interviews, Direct observation, Questionnaire, Projective tests.

Interviews

Face-to-face meeting designed to gain information.

Structured: Follows a prearranged plan using a series of planned questions.

Unstructured: Conversation is informal, topics are discussed as they arise.

Subject to bias & deception.

Direct Observation

Assessing behavior through direct surveillance.

Rating Scale: List of personality traits or aspects of behavior used to evaluate a person.

Behavioral Assessment: Recording the frequency of specific behaviors.

Situational Test: Realistic situations are simulated so that someone’s spontaneous reactions can be observed and recorded.

Questionnaire

Paper and pencil measures consisting of questions in which the examinee will rate.

MMPI-2: Widely used with 567 test items and sub-scales.

Big-5 Personality Tests

MBTI

DISC: Dominance, Influence, Steadiness, Conscientiousness.

Projective Tests

Tests that use unstructured stimuli; Person needs to describe the stimuli or make up stories about them.

Seeks to uncover deeply hidden wishes, thoughts and needs.

Rorschach Technique: 10 standardized inkblots.

Thematic Apperception Test (TAT): 20 drawings of various situations; make up stories about the drawings.