Personality

• What is the definition of personality ?

  A pattern of thinking and behaviour that prevails across time and situations. It differentiates people. In terms of psychology , its a dynamic concept which describes a persons psychological system.
• What are the features of a nomothetic approach of personality?

  Scientific

  Empirical

  Personality is inherited

  Environment has little influence
• What are the features of an ideographic approach of personality?

  People are unique

  Personality develops gradually

  Upbringing and environment are very important

  Interactions are key
• What are the three determinants of personality?

  Hereditary

  Environment

  Situation
• What do trait theories / trait theorists believe?

  Personality consists of a collection of traits.

  We should be able to predict behaviour.

  Habitual patterns of behaviour , thought and emotion.
• Who created the big 5 model?

  Costa and McCrae

  
• Big 5 model

  A model of personality traits
• Openness

  • People who have high openness like working with ideas and possibilities and are ready to re-examine their attitudes and values
• Conscientiousness

  • People who have high conscientiousness describe themselves as being highly organised and thorough in their approach to tasks
• Extroversion


  • People who have high extroversion describe themselves as outgoing, lively, and sociable
• Agreeableness

  • People who have high agreeableness tend to describe themselves as being helpful and mindful of others feelings preferring cooperation to competition
• Neuroticism

  • People who have high neuroticism are prone to worry and self doubt, highly affected by their emotions in stressful situations
• What are the strengths of the big 5 model?

  Useful in describing the aspects of personality

  Twin studies/ genetics - traits especially extroversion, neuroticism and psychoticism are genetically linked 53 percent for extraversion, 41 percent for agreeableness, 44 percent for conscientiousness, 41 percent for neuroticism, and 61 for openness​

  Universal across 50+ cultures.
• What are the weaknesses of the big 5 model?

  May not be as accurate when predicting job performance​

  Limited to modern, literate, industrialised cultures

  Openness to experience dimension less well defined than others​
• Who created the 16 personality factors?

  Cattell

  Each person possesses these in varying degrees

  Less traits then Allport due to factor analysis

  Examples - warmth, reasoning, emotional stability and dominance
• What is a strength of Cattell's 16 personality factors?

  Explains individual differences
• What is a weakness of interviews ?

  Caution when interpreting results, projective tests are open to interpretation, often low in validity and reliability because of this. Different researchers can provide different responses on the same subject​
• What is a weakness of observations?

  Cannot be used alone, as a sole assessment tool, only to confirm/support other findings/data ​
• What is a weakness of projective personality tests?

  Self-report questionnaires = deception, social desirability, response bias. Long! People get bored. People cannot always accurately describe themselves, subjective and biased ​
• What is a strength of objective personality tests?

  Self-report questionnaires are generally higher in reliability and validity but still have their issues ​