Personality

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Personality

A person’s general style of interacting with the world

People differ from one another in ways that are relatively consistent over time and place

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Study of Personality - Approaches

There are two main approaches to the study of personality –

1. Trait Approach2. Eclectic Approach

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Trait Approach

The trait approach to personality is one of the major theoretical areas in the study of personality. The trait theory suggests that individual personalities are composed broad dispositions. Consider how you would describe the personality of a close friend. Chances are that you would list a number of traits, such as outgoing, kind and even-tempered. A trait can be thought of as a relatively stable characteristic that causes individuals to behave in certain ways.

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Trait Approach – Contd.

Unlike many other theories of personality, such as psychoanalytic or humanistic theories, the trait approach to personality is focused on differences between individuals. The combination and interaction of various traits combine to form a personality that is unique to each individual. Trait theory is focused on identifying and measuring these individual personality characteristics.

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Types of trait theory

Gordon Allport’s Trait Theory Cardinal traits Central traits Secondary traits

Raymond Cattell’s Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire Eysenck’s Three Dimensions of Personality

Introversion/Extraversion Neuroticism/Emotional Stability Psychoticism

The Five-Factor Theory of Personality Extraversion Agreeableness Conscientiousness Neuroticism Openness

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Eclectic approach

The Eclectic Theory of Personality The eclectic theorists hold to the fact that no one theory

of personality can encompass each and every person. The mind is not like a mathematic formula that will react in a certain way given a certain stimuli. The mind is much more complex and cannot easily be understood. Thus we have Theories of personalities instead of the facts and empirical formulas of personality.

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Eclectic approach – Contd.

The Eclectic theorist believe in a synergistic personality theory. Synergism in the case of personality theory, is the belief that no one theory is entirely correct. It takes two or more theories to produce what one, by itself, cannot produce. Since personality theory is not an exact science it would seem ludicrous to narrow the field to what one or even two theorist believe to be true.

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Types of Eclectic Theory

Bob Cave believes that birth order is significant to the developing personality.

The Psychosexual and the Psychosocial stages are believed to be significant to the person's emerging personality. A balance is sought between the two.

Love and acceptance are the cornerstone of personality development. These supersede Maslow's safety needs as foundational for development.

Self-Actualization and the Psychospiritual model suggest that in order to be self-actualized a person must explore their spiritual nature and fill the void of worship.

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Psychoanalytic Approach: Freudian Psychoanalysis and Post-Freudian Theories

Eric Erikson’s theory

Personality Theories

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Psychoanalytic Approach

Developed by Sigmund FreudPsychoanalysis is both an approach to

therapy and a theory of personalityEmphasizes unconscious motivation - the

main causes of behavior lie buried in the unconscious mind

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The Structure of Personality

THE ID — The Demanding Child Ruled by the pleasure principle

THE EGO — The Traffic Cop Ruled by the reality principle

THE SUPEREGO — The Judge Ruled by the moral principle

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Psychoanalytic Divisions of the Mind

Id - instinctual drives present at birth does not distinguish between reality and fantasy operates according to the pleasure principle

Ego - develops out of the id in infancy understands reality and logic mediator between id and superego

Superego internalization of society’s moral standards responsible for guilt

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Defense Mechanisms

Unconscious mental processes employed by the ego to reduce anxiety

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Defense Mechanisms

Repression - keeping anxiety-producing thoughts out of the conscious mind

Reaction formation - replacing an unacceptable wish with its opposite

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Defense Mechanisms

Displacement - when a drive directed to one activity by the id is redirected to a more acceptable activity by the ego

Sublimation - displacement to activities that are valued by society

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Defense Mechanisms

Projection - reducing anxiety by attributing unacceptable impulses to someone else

Rationalization - reasoning away anxiety-producing thoughts

Regression - retreating to a mode of behavior characteristic of an earlier stage of development

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Post-Freudian Psychodynamic Theories

Karen Horney’s focus on securityObject relations theoriesAlfred Adler’s individual psychologyErik Erikson’s psychosocial developmentCarl Jung’s collective unconscious

Erik Erikson: The Father of Psychosocial Development

“Children love and want to be loved and they very much prefer the joy of accomplishment to the

triumph of hateful failure. Do not mistake a child for his symptom”-Erik Erikson

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Who is Erik Erikson? Born in Germany on June 15th 1902. He was an artist and a teacher in the late

1920s when he met Anna Freud, an Austrian psychoanalyst. With Anna’s encouragement, he began to study child psychoanalysis at the Vienna Psychoanalytic Institute.

He immigrated to the US in 1933 and taught at Yale and Harvard University.

It was at this point in his life that he became interested in the influence of society and culture on child development. To satisfy his curiosity, he studied groups of American Indian Children to help formulate his theories. Studying these children enabled him to correlate personality growth with parental and societal values.

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Field of Research He studied groups of Aboriginal children to

learn about the influence of society and culture on child development. From this, he developed a number of theories, the most famous being his psychosocial development.

He believed that humans have to resolve different conflicts as they progress through each stage of development in the life cycle.

Erikson’s theory consists of eight stages of development. Each stage is characterized by a different conflict that must be resolved by the individual. If a person is unable to resolve a conflict at a particular stage, they will be confront and struggle with it later in life.

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Erikson’s Psychosocial DevelopmentAge

(Years)

Stage Psychosocial Crisis Psychosocial Strength

Environmental Influence

1 Infancy Trust vs. Mistrust Hope Maternal

2-3 Early childhood Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt

Willpower Both parents or adult substitutes

4-5 Preschool Initiative vs. Guilt Purpose Parents, family and friends

6-11 Middle Childhood Industry vs. Inferiority

Competence School

12-18 Adolescence Identity vs. Role confusion

Fidelity Peers

18-35 Young adulthood Intimacy vs. Isolation Love Spouse, lover, friends

35-65 Middle age Generativity vs. Stagnation

Care Family, society

Over 65 Old age Integrity vs. Despair Wisdom All humans

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Erikson’s Contributions

He made major contributions in the area of child development by studying groups of Native American children and developed the concept of identity crisis.

He was concerned with the relationship between society/culture and child development, which he termed “psychosocial development”.

This interest led him to develop the Eight Stages of Development.

In each stage, the individual encounters a developmental crisis.

In order to move on to the next stage, the individual must resolve the crisis.

Personality Assessment

The Objective and Projective Measurement of Personality

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Development of Personality Testing

• Initial attempts to measure personality first emerged at the turn of the 20th century.

- Theory-driven, not empirically derived, pyschometric properties (e.g., reliability, validity) were not established

• World War I ushered along the evolution of personality tests- importance of predicting adjustment of new recruits

to the military based on single dimensions of personality and behavior

• Within two decades following WWI, tests evolved to measure multiple dimensions of personality

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Development of Personality Testing

• During the 1930’s and 1940’s personality testing evolved further and diverged along two measurement methodologies

- Projective tests1. theory-driven2. Designed to probe deeper dimensions

of personality

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Development of Personality Testing

Empirically derived tests (Objective Measures)1. measures designed using factor-analysis2. measures created around pre-determined

criteria (criterion-referenced)

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Objective Personality Measures

• Objective measures utilize highly structured response formats

• Consist of unambiguous stimulus items- Forced choice (e.g., true/false)- Likert scale ratings

• Result in a quantitative score that can be compared with normative score data

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Objective Personality Measures

• The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (mmpi)

1. The original MMPI inventory was published in 1953 by Starke Hathaway and J.C. McKinley

2. Designed to assess and diagnose mental disorders in University of Minnesota Hospitals - became one of the most widely distributed and used measure of psychopathology both domestically and internationally

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MMPI

3. Scale development: items for each scale were chosen based on ability to statistically discriminate between clinical subgroups & control groups

4. Efforts to revise the inventory spanned a decade or so; were structured to address psychometric & practical flaws (e.g., need for improved normative sample, need to update items deemed inappropriate/outdated given contemporary culture, need to devise a version uniquely suited to assessing adolescent population)

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MMPI

5. In 1989 development of the MMPI-2 was completed (Bucher et al.) incorporating an updated 2,600-person stratified normative sample

6. This was shortly followed by the production of the MMPI-A measure for adolescents

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MMPI

7. Contains 10 scales yielding complex profile analyses that integrate the following clinical dimension of pathology and personality: Hypochondriasis, Depression, Hysteria, Psychopathic Deviate, Masculinity-Femininity, Paranoia, Psychasthenia, Schizophrenia, Hypomania, and Social Introversion• Scaled scores yield 2 or 3-point code type descriptors

that provide information regarding symptoms/behaviors, personality characteristics, and predictions/dispositions for the above-mentioned profiles

• Contains built-in lie scales to assess response patterns that pose a threat to internal validity (e.g., defensive responding, exaggerated responding, random responding)

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MMPI

8. Allows for a variety of administration and scoring methods (e.g., computerized administration, abbreviated forms, computer scoring, mail-in scoring)

9. Amenable to the development and use of coding indices that allow for specialized interpretation of clusters of selected scales (e.g., Goldberg Index, Megargee Classification System for Criminal Offenders, The Welsh Code, the Harris-Lingoes Content Interpretation Approach)

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1. I love/loved my mother.2. I like to wear brown shoes.3. Everything tastes the same.4. I often feel as if there is a tight band around my head.5. I like to read mechanics magazines.6. Rules should be followed “to the letter of the law.”7. I would certainly enjoy beating criminals at

their own game.

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THE ICE CREAM TEST

based on the mmpi…What is your favorite flavor of ice cream from this list of

possible flavors?

1. Mint chip2. Vanilla3. Butter pecan4. Coffee5. Rocky Road6. Strawberry

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Face validity – items make sense, given what the test measures.

The MMPI and ice cream test have low face validity because the items areempirically derived, not rationally derived.

Empirically derived - subgroups of people are given a test, only the items that differentiate the groups are retained for the final version.Rationally derived – items with face validity are chosen by the authors of the test.

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Objective Personality Measures• Sixteen Personality Factors Test

1. Raymond Cattell (1949, 1982)2. Unique development: Cattell and colleagues surveyed all

English language words descriptive of personality 3. Followed up with factor analyses, yielding 16 first-order

factors of personality and four second-order factors4. Multiple forms, can be used as a component of the Clinical

Analysis Questionnaire to simultaneously assess personality and pathology

5. 187 items rated on a 3-point Likert scale6. Psychometric properties: large, stratified normative

sample, excellent reliability (internal consistency) and validity (construct)

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Objective Personality Measures

Also the NEO-PI Based on five factor model

Lew goldberg’s BIG FIVE adjective checklists -Based on the whorfian hypothesis: that the values of any

society are determined by its lexicon. the most important constructs in our society are those that have the highest numbers of words to describe them.

- native american languages - 60 different words for green- over 1000 shades of red tile in the back of the vatican

stained glass/mosaic school! the most important personality aspects are encoded into the

lexicon.

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Objective Personality Measures• California Psychological Inventory (1987)

1. 462 true/false items grouped into 20 scales2. Target population: adolescents and adults3. Scores are used to interpret an examinee’s position

within a three-dimensional construct of personality (interpersonal orientation, normative perspective, and level of realization)

4. Very little psychometric data exists to validate this measure, but recent factor analyses suggest that the 20 scales of the CPI map onto four major personality dimensions (i.e. extraversion, control, flexibility, and consensuality)

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Projective Measures of Personality

• Utilize ambiguous, unstructured or semi-structured stimuli (e.g., inkblots) to allow the examinee to project covert personality characteristics into responses on test items

• Overall, little to no psychometric data have been established on projective measures- Despite a lack of empirical support, these measures have

provided the impetus for more in-depth theoretical and applied research in the area of personality

- Can provide important qualitative information and outcomes to be used in clinical practice with individual clients

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Projective Measures of Personality

• Rorschach Inkblot Test1. Developed by Hermann Rorschach, 19212. Consists of 5 black and white symmetrical

inkblots, 2 red and grey inkblots, and 3 multicolored inkblots

3. Examinees are presented each card and asked to express and describe everything they see in the images they are shown

4. Responses are coded and compared with diagnostic patterns (e.g., emotionality, movement, anxiety, etc.) for clinical subgroups

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Projective Measures of Personality• Rorschach Inkblot Test (continued)

5. Psychometric properties: attempts have been made to improve the psychometric properties of this measure• Holtzman technique: Utilizes 45 inkblots,

demonstrates moderate inter-scorer reliability and predictive validity

• Exner scoring system: Standardized scoring and interpretive system, has increased the promise of improved reliability and validity

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Rorschach Test

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Projective Measures of Personality• Thematic Apperception Test

- Developed by Henry Murray, 1943- Examinees are presented a series of picture cards

(usually depicting human action and/or interaction) and are asked to tell a brief story about each card

- Responses are coded along dimensions measuring constructs such as needs, emotions, conflicts, attitudes, etc.

- Psychometric properties: little to no data exist supporting the reliability or validity of this measure

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Thematic Apperception Test

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Projective Measures of Personality (example)

• Rotter Incomplete Sentences Blank- Developed by Julian Rotter et al., 1947 and 1950- Derived from the work of Ebbinghaus that had been

completed in the early 20th century- Originally designed for use in the military, later adapted

for use with college students and adults- Unique application: unlike the Rorschach and TAT, this

quasi-empirical measure was intended only to screen for emotional maladjustment

- Semi-structured measure of 40 items (sentence stems) that can be administered individually or in a group setting

- Yields a total score that captures emotional adjustment and the content of individual responses for more subjective clinical interpretation

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Projective Measures of Personality (example)• Draw-A-Person Test

1. Karen Machover, 19492. Examinees are asked to draw two figures, which are

thought to represent projections of the examinee’s impulses, desires, anxieties, etc.• The first task requires the examinee to draw a figure• The second task requires the examinee to draw a

figure of the opposite sex3. The examiner records key aspects of each drawing (e.g., order

of body parts drawn, prominence or absence of features, expression, etc.)

4. Psychometric properties: newer scoring procedures have established preliminary data on reliability, but little to no empirical evidence exists to validate this measure

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Psychometrics of Assessment• Stratified, representative normative/norming samples• Reliability: Consistency of assessement results

- internal consistency of test items- Split-half- Test-retest reliability- Alternate forms

• Validity: Ability to appropriately draw conclusions or generalize from results

- Construct validity- Content validity- Concurrent validity- Predictive validity- Discriminative validity