Personality: structure, theories, measurement

1. Personality: structure, theories, measurement 9.10.2007

2. How would you describe yourself? • cool, reserved or warm, easy going • concrete thinking or abstract thinking • easily upset or calm, stable • not assertive or dominant • sober, serious or happy-go-lucky • expedient or conscientious • tough-minded or tender-minded • trusting or suspicious • practical or imaginative • forthright or shrewd • self-assured or apprehensive • conservative or experimenting • group-oriented or self-sufficient • undisciplined or self-disciplined • relaxed or tense, driven

3. Definition of personality • Personality consists of all the relatively STABLE and DISTINCTIVE styles of thought, behavior and emotional response that characterize a person’s adaptations to surrounding circumstances.

4. 2 questions • Why don’t people react in the same way to the same situation? • early life experiences • biological makeup • learning • Can we predict behavior? Does it depend on personality traits or on situation? • is personality assessment meaningful?

5. Different personality theories • psychoanalytic approach • trait theories • social cognitive approach • humanistic approach • evolutionary/biological approach

6. Psychoanalytic approach • Sigmund Freud • childhood experiences • the role of unconscious in motivating human actions

7. Trait theories • What are fundamental elements of personality? • A trait: any relatively enduring way in which one individual differs from another • stable in time • consistent over situations • their combination is the cause of the individual differences

8. Social cognitive approach • active, conscious aspects of our personality • different ways in which individuals interpret events • personality styles are shaped by observational learning • self-efficacy

9. Humanistic approach • emphasizes human potential for growth, creativity and spontaneity • self-concept

10. Biological approaches • evolutionary approach • behavioral genetic approach

11. The structure of the personality

12. Assessment of personality • observation • interview • rating… • personality inventory • projective techniques

13. History of personality assessment • Pseudosciences: phrenology, physiognomy, graphology

14. History of personality assessment • Type theories: • Galen – theory of body humors (sanguine, choleric, melancholic, phlegmatic type) • Kretschmer, Lombroso, Sheldon – body type theories

15. Contemporary assessment of personality • Trait theories: • Allport, Cattel… (factor analysis) • Hans Eysenck: 3 dimensions, biological basis of differences • Big Five • no theory of development • relies too heavily on simple mathematical techniques • exaggerate the consistency of human behavior • can lead to circular reasoning

16. Contemporary assessment of personality • Humanistic theories: • self concept scales • MMPI (empirical basis)

17. Projective Testing Techniques

18. Projective techniques • not psychometric instruments • used in clinical settings, special training • study of personality and adjustment • use symbolic, pictorial, verbal and expressive stimuli uncovering of covert, latent, unconscious aspects of personality

19. The concept of “projection” • unwittingly attributing one’s own drives, needs, perceptions, attitudes and style to others • giving meaning to relatively ambiguous or unstructured stimuli by drawing upon one’s own private desires, traits, fears, and experience

20. Projective techniques: disguised tests • no awareness of psychological interpretation • responses should be free of personal censorship • dominant psychological characteristics are “hidden” in the responses

21. Classification of “projectives” Frank, 1948 • what they require or seek to evoke from the subject • constitutive • constructive • interpretive • cathartic • refractive

22. Rorschach’s “Ink blot test”

24. Criticism • Lack of satisfactory internal consistency, or test-retest reliability. • Failure to provide cogent evidence for clinical validity. • Failure of the individual Rorschach scoring categories to relate to diagnosis. • Lack of prognostic, or predictive validity with respect to the outcome of treatment, or later behavior. • Individual differences between groups of normal subjects. • Failure to find any significant relationships between Rorschach scores and intelligence, or creative ability.

25. Draw a person test

26. TAT – Thematic apperception test (Murray, 1943)

27. Rozenzweig’s Picture-frustration Study

28. Make a Picture Story

29. Thank you for your attention!