Psychology: Personality: Theory and Measurement

Big Five Personality Test 

This self-report test measures the big five personality traits using the IPIP Big-Five Factor Markers.

 

Myers-Briggs/Jung Test 

This is an interactive version of the Open Extended Jungian Type Scales 1.2, an alternative to the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator.

 

Personality Tests 

Information about personality tests along with various links of different forms of tests

 

16-Type Jungian Personality Test 

16-Type Jungian Personality Test from psychcentral.com

 

Jung Typology Test™ 

This free personality test is based on Carl Jung’s and Isabel Briggs Myers’ personality type theory.

Personality Theories 

Information on various theories of personality

 

The Big Five Personality Traits 

Information and history behind The Big Five Personality Traits

 

Introduction to Personality 

course on Introduction to Personality

 

Behavioral Theory of Personality 

Information on behavioral theory

 

Big Five Personality Traits: The OCEAN Model Explained 

Information on the Big five personality traits along with various theories of personality

 

The Balance of Personality

Contributor: Allen

Publisher: Portland State University Library

Personality: Theory and Measurement

Personality is the relatively stable constellation of psychological characteristics and behavioral patterns that account for our individuality and consistency over time. 

Psychodynamic Perspectives

Sigmund Freud's Theory of psychoanalytic theory 

psychoanalytic theory: Freud’s theory of personality that holds that personality and behavior are shaped by unconscious forces and conflicts. 

This theory is broken down into four main concepts:  levels of consciousness, structure of personality, defense mechanisms, and stages of psychosexual development.

Levels of Consciousness: 

• conscious: To Freud, the part of the mind corresponding to the state of present awareness.
• preconscious: To Freud, the part of the mind whose contents can be brought into awareness through focused attention.
• unconscious: To Freud, the part of the mind that lies outside the range of ordinary awareness and that holds troubling or unacceptable urges, impulses, memories, and ideas. 

pleasure principle: In Freudian theory, a governing principle of the id that is based on demand for instant gratification without regard to social rules or customs.

reality principle: In Freudian theory, the governing principle of the ego that takes into account what is practical and acceptable in satisfying basic needs. 

 

The Structures of Personality:

• Id: Freud’s term for the psychic structure existing in the unconscious that contains our baser animal drives and instinctual impulses.
• Ego: Freud’s term for the psychic structure that attempts to balance the instinctual demands of the id with social realities and expectations.
• Superego:  Freud’s term for the psychic structure that corresponds to an internal moral guardian or conscience. 

 

defense mechanisms: 

In Freudian theory, the reality-distorting strategies of the ego to prevent awareness of anxiety-evoking or troubling ideas or impulses. 

• repression: In Freudian theory, a type of defense mechanism involving motivated forgetting of anxiety-evoking material.
• denial: In Freudian theory, a defense mechanism involving the failure to recognize a threatening impulse or urge
• rationalization: In Freudian theory, a defense mechanism involving the use of self-justification to explain away unacceptable behavior, impulses, or ideas.
• projection: In Freudian theory, a defense mechanism involving the projection of one’s own unacceptable impulses, wishes, or urges onto another person.
• sublimation: In Freudian theory, a defense mechanism involving the channeling of unacceptable impulses into socially sanctioned behaviors or interests.
• regression: In Freudian theory, a defense mechanism in which an individual, usually under high levels of stress, reverts to a behavior characteristic of an earlier stage of development.
• displacement: In Freudian theory, a defense mechanism in which an unacceptable sexual or aggressive impulse is transferred to an object or person that is safer or less threatening than the original object of the impulse. 

 

personality develops through five psychosexual stages of development which according to frued are psychosexual in nature because they involve changes in how the child seeks physical pleasure from sexually sensitive parts of the body

erogenous zones: Parts of the body that are especially sensitive to sexual or pleasurable stimulation. 

fixations: Constellations of personality traits characteristic of a particular stage of psychosexual development, resulting from either excessive or inadequate gratification at that stage.

 

stages of psychosexual development:

• oral stage: In Freudian theory, the first stage of psychosexual development, during which the infant seeks sexual gratification through oral stimulation (sucking, mouthing, and biting).

 

• anal stage: In Freudian theory, the second stage of psychosexual development, during which sexual gratification is centered on processes of elimination (retention and release of bowel contents). 
  • anal-retentive personality: In Freudian theory, a personality type characterized by perfectionism and excessive needs for self-control as expressed through extreme neatness and punctuality.
  • anal-expulsive personality: In Freudian theory, a personality type characterized by messiness, lack of self-discipline, and carelessness.

 

• phallic stage: In Freudian theory, the third stage of psychosexual development, marked by erotic attention on the phallic region (penis in boys, clitoris in girls) and the development of the Oedipus complex. 
  • Oedipus complex: In Freudian theory, the psychological complex in which the young boy or girl develops incestuous feelings toward the parent of the opposite gender and perceives the parent of the same gender as a rival.
  • Electra complex: The term given by some psychodynamic theorists to the form of the Oedipus complex in young girls.
  • castration anxiety: In Freudian theory, unconscious fear of removal of the penis as punishment for having unacceptable sexual impulses.
  • penis envy: In Freudian theory, jealousy of boys for having a penis. 

 

• latency stage: In Freudian theory, the fourth stage of psychosexual development, during which sexual impulses remain latent or dormant.

 

• genital stage: In Freudian theory, the fifth and final stage of psychosexual development, which begins around puberty and corresponds to the development of mature sexuality and emphasis on procreation. 

Analytical Psychology

Developed by Swiss psychiatrist Carl Gustav Jung, which he believed that people possess both a personal unconscious, which consists of repressed memories and impulses, and a collective unconscious, or repository of accumulated ideas and images in the unconscious mind that is shared among all humans and passed down genetically through the generations.

archetypes: Jung’s term for the primitive images contained in the collective unconscious that reflect ancestral or universal experiences of human beings.

 

 Individual Psychology 

Alfred Adler's theory of personality, which emphasizes the unique potential of each individual. He believed conscious experiences played a greater role in personality.

creative self: In Adler’s theory, the self aware part of personality that organizes goal-seeking efforts.
inferiority complex: In Adler’s theory, a concept involving the influence that feelings of inadequacy or inferiority in young children have on their developing personalities and desires to compensate.

drive for superiority: Adler’s term for the motivation to compensate for feelings of inferiority. Also called the will-to-power. 

 

 First Voice of Feminine Psychology 

Karen Horney, a German physician and early psychoanalyst accepted Freud’s belief that unconscious conflicts shape personality, but she focused less on sexual and aggressive drives and more on the roles of social and cultural forces. She also emphasized the importance of parent–child relationships.

 

basic anxiety: In Horney’s theory, a deep seated form of anxiety in children that is associated with feelings of being isolated and helpless in a world perceived as potentially threatening and hostile due to parents being harsh or uncaring 

basic hostility: In Horney’s theory, deep feelings of resentment that children may harbor toward their parents.

•  children repress their hostility toward their parents out of fear of losing them or suffering their reprisals

Trait Perspective

 believe that personality consists of a distinctive set of relatively stable or enduring characteristics or dispositions called traits. They use personality traits to predict how people are likely to behave in different situations.

 

Earliest dated perspective: Greek Physician Hippocrates:

He believed traits were embedded in bodily fluids or what he called "humors"

• Yellow bile: choleric or quick tempered disposition
• Blood: sanguine or warm and cheerful disposition
• Phlegm: phlegmatic or sluggish, calm, or cool disposition
• Black bile: melancholic or gloomy or pensive temperament

Disease was an imbalance among the "humors"

 

Gordon Allport 

personality traits are inherited but are influenced by experience. He claimed that traits could be ranked within a hierarchy in relation to the degree to which they influence behavior.

cardinal traits: Allport’s term for the more pervasive dimensions that define an individual’s general personality. Highest level

central traits: Allport’s term for personality characteristics that have a widespread influence on the individual’s behavior across situations.

secondary traits: Allport’s term for specific traits that influence behavior in relatively few situations.
 

Trait theorist, Raymond Cattell

believed that there are two basic levels of traits 

surface traits: Cattell’s term for personality traits at the surface level that can be gleaned from observations of behavior.

source traits: Cattell’s term for traits at a deep level of personality that are not apparent in observed behavior but must be inferred based on underlying relationships among surface traits. 

 Constructed a paper-and-pencil personality scale to measure 16 source traits, which he called the Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire, or 16PF

 

 British psychologist, Hans J. Eysenck

constructed a simpler model of personality. This model describes personality using three major traits

• introversion–extraversion: Tendencies toward being solitary and reserved on the one end or outgoing and sociable on the other end
• neuroticism: Tendencies toward emotional instability, anxiety, and worry.
• psychoticism: Tendencies to be perceived as cold and antisocial. 

 

The Five-Factor Model of Personality:  The “Big Five” 

The dominant contemporary trait model of personality, consisting of five broad personality factors: neuroticism, extraversion, openness, agreeableness, and conscientiousness

Social-Cognitive Perspective

 A contemporary learning-based model that emphasizes the roles of cognitive and environmental factors in determining behavior. 

 

Psychologist Julian Rotter 

Rotter believed that our ability to explain and predict behavior depends on knowing an individual’s reinforcement history as well as the person’s expectancies, subjective values, and perceptions of control.

Expectancies: In social-cognitive theory, personal predictions about the outcomes of behavior.

Subjective value: In social-cognitive theory, the importance individuals place on desired outcomes.

locus of control: In Rotter’s theory, one’s general expectancies about whether one’s efforts can bring about desired outcomes or reinforcements.
 

Psychologist Albert Bandura

 His model of reciprocal determinism holds that cognitions, behaviors, and environmental factors influence each other. Bandura focuses on the interaction between what we do (our behavior) and what we think (our cognitions).

emphasized the role of observational learning, or learning by observing and imitating the behavior of others in social contexts. He also emphasized the importance of two cognitive variables: 

• outcome expectations: Bandura’s term for our personal predictions about the outcomes of our behavior.
• efficacy expectations: Bandura’s term for the expectancies we have regarding our ability to perform behaviors we set out to accomplish. 

 

Psychologist Walter Mischel

Argued that behavior is influenced by both situation variables, which are environmental factors such as rewards and punishments, and person variables, or internal personal factors.

 Person variables:

• expectancies: personal predictions about the outcomes of behavior.
• subjective values: the importance individuals place on desired outcomes.
• Competencies: the knowledge and skills we possess
• Encoding strategies: personal perceptions of events
• Self-regulatory systems and plans: ability to plan a course of action to achieve our goals and to reward ourselves for accomplishing them

Humanistic Perspective

 To humanistic psychologists, are movements are not controlled by strings pulled by the unconscious mind or the environment; rather, we are endowed with the ability to make free choices that give meaning and personal direction to our lives. 

 

 American psychologists Carl Rogers's Self-theory

 believed that each of us possesses an inner drive that leads us to strive toward self-actualization. Focuses on developing self-esteem. People shape themselves through free choice and action.

Self-concept: impressions of ourselves and our evaluations of our adequacy; unique frames of reference

• unconditional positive regard: Valuing another person as having intrinsic worth, regardless of the person’s behavior at the particular time.
• conditional positive regard: Valuing a person only when the person’s behavior meets certain expectations or standards. 
• self-ideals: Rogers’s term for the idealized sense of how or what we should be.
• Conditions of Worth: standards by which the value of a person is judged

 

Abraham Maslow

 believed in an innate human drive toward self-actualization—toward becoming all that we are capable of being

 

collectivistic culture: A culture that emphasizes people’s social roles and obligations.

individualistic culture: A culture that emphasizes individual identity and personal accomplishments.

Self Actualization: in humanistic theory, the innate tendency to strive to realize one's potential

Sociocultural Perspective

The view that focuses on the roles of ethnicity, gender, culture, and socioeconomic status in personality formation, behavior, and mental processes

 

individualists: a person who defines herself or himself in terms of personal traits and gives priority to her or his own goals

collectivists: a person who defines herself or himself in terms of relationships to other people and groups and gives priority to group goals

acculturation: the process of adaptation in which immigrants and native groups identify with a new, dominant culture by learning about that culture and making behavioral and attitudinal changes

Measurement of Personality

phrenology: eighteenth and nineteenth centuries view that one can judge a person’s character and mental abilities by measuring the bumps on his or her head.  now-discredited 

Personality tests: Structured psychological tests that use formal methods of assessing personality

• Validity: in psychological testing, the degree to which a test measures what it is supposed to measure
• reliability: in psychological testing, the consistency or stability of test scores from one testing to another
• Standardization: in psychological testing, the process by which one obtains and organizes the test scores from various population groups, so that the results of a person's completing a test can be compared to those of others of his or her gender, in his or her age group, etc.

self-report personality inventories:  Structured psychological tests in which individuals are given a limited range of response options to answer a set of questions about themselves.

objective tests: Tests of personality that can be scored objectively and that are based on a research foundation. 

• Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI): true false format, constructed to help clinicians diagnose mental disorders
  • standard scores: Scores that represent an individual’s relative deviation from the mean of the standardization sample.

projective tests: Personality tests in which ambiguous or vague test materials are used to elicit responses that are believed to reveal a person’s unconscious needs, drives, and motives

•  Hermann Rorschach: The Rorschach test is based on the assumption that people project aspects of their own personalities onto their responses to ambiguous figures, such  as inkblots.
• Harvard psychologist Henry Murray developed the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT). The test consists of a set of pictures depicting ambiguous scenes that may be interpreted differently. The subject is asked to tell a story about the scene, what led up to these events, and what the eventual outcome will be.