PERSONALITY ASSESSMENT

• Personality


  Depends on the theory that defines it
• Personality


  Depends on the approach taken by the theorist
• Personality


  • Has common elements
  • Has levels of analysis
• Each theorist sees personality from an individual reference point influenced by their life experiences and history

  1. Psychology of Science

  2. Looks at the personality traits of scientists

  3. Investigates: Impact of a scientist’s psychological processes and personal characteristics on the development of theories and research
• Harry Sullivan


  1. When Harry 8 ½ years old, he formed a close relationship with a 13-year-old boy named Clarence Bellinger

  2. They had much in common socially and intellectually

  3. Both later became Psychiatrists

  4. In his Interpersonal Theory’s Stages of Development: Preadolescent Period: Formation of Intimacy with a single chum, usually of the same sex and status
• Depends on the approach taken by the theorist

  1. Determinism VS Free Choice

  2. Pessimism VS Optimism

  3. Causality VS Teleology

  4. Conscious VS Unconscious Determinants of Behavior

  5. Biological VS Social Influences on Personality

  6. Uniqueness VS Similarities
• Common elements in most definitions of personality

  • Uniqueness of the Individual
  • Consistency of Behavior
  • Content and Process of Personality
• Fromm, 1947: 'Personality is the totality of individual psychic qualities, which includes temperament, one’s mode of reaction and character, and the object of one’s reaction'
• Allport, 1937: 'Personality is a dynamic organization within the individual of the psychological systems that determine his unique adjustment to his environment'
• Cattell, 1950: 'Personality is that which permits a prediction of what a person will do in a given situation'
• Sullivan, 1953: 'Personality is the relatively enduring pattern of recurrent interpersonal situations which characterize a human life'
• Structure of Personality

  • Freud: Id, Ego, Superego
  • Eysenck, Cattell, Costa and McCrae: Traits
  • Jung: Attitudes and Functions
• Dynamics of Personality


  • Freud: Anxiety
  • Maslow: Hierarchy Needs
  • Fromm: Human Needs
  • Horney: Neurotic Needs
  • Adler: Striving for Superiority or Success
• Levels of Personality Analysis

  • Level 1: Human Nature Level (like all others) //Cattell, Eysenck
  • Level 2: Level of Individual Differences or Group Differences (like some others) //Jung (Psychological Types)
  • Level 3: The Individual Uniqueness Level (like no others) // Erik Erikson (Psychobiography)
• Nomos


  Law
• Establishing laws or generalizations


  • Compare individuals in terms of traits or dimensions common to everyone
• Theories

  • Eysenck’s type
  • Raymond Cattell’s 16PF trait theories
• Methods

  Experiments, correlation, psychometric testing, quantitative measures
• Idios


  Own or private
• Establish


  Unique dispositions based on life experiences peculiar to ourselves