Evaluating Theories of Personality: Overview

• Evaluation framework

  
• Evaluation Criteria


  • Description: a theory should bring order into the complexity of behaviours that have been observed and measured. It should help simplify, identify and clarify important issues.
  • Explanation: A theory should help in understanding the “why” of behaviour. Does the theory explain how and why individual differences in commonly observed instances of behaviour occur?
  • Value – Should stimulate interest in a research area. Should lead to beneficial changes – does it provide a qualitative leap in knowledge in a particular area? Does it take a new approach to solving problems?
• Testable Concepts


  Can the concepts in the theory be operationalised so that they can be tested – can the concept be defined precisely enough to enable it to be reliably measured?
• Reliability


  free from unsystematic error – the degree to which an assessment tool can produce stable and consistent results.

  Some things we can consider include:

  • Test-retest reliability: Does the test give similar results at different times?
  • Parallel forms: Do equivalent test forms yield the same answer?
  • Split-half reliability: Cronbach's alpha: tests all possible halves and calculates the average correlation between halves