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Personality Theory & AssessmentChapter 14
Part I
William G. Huitt
Last revised: May 2005
Personality Theorieshttp://www.ship.edu/~cgboeree/perscontents.html
Humanistic Personality Theories
• Abraham Maslow– Emphasized self-actualization and transcendence– Found self-actualizers to be accurate in perceiving reality, able
to judge honestly and to spot quickly the fake and the dishonest
• Carl Rogers– Focus on self-worth, self-esteem– Unconditional positive regard is designed to reduce threat,
eliminate conditions of worth, and bring the person back into tune with his or her true self
– Major goal of psychotherapy is to enable people to open themselves up to experiences and begin to live according to their own values rather than according to the values of others in order to gain positive regard
Humanistic Personality Theories
• Self-esteem– One source of variations in self-esteem arises from
comparisons of actual to desired traits– Another source is achievement compared to
expectations– Self-esteem is fairly stable from childhood through
the late adult years with the exception of early adolescence
Learning Theories and Personality
• Locus of control– A concept used to explain how people
account for what happens in their lives • internal locus of control—people see themselves
as primarily in control of their behavior and its consequences
• external locus of control—people perceive what happens to be in the hands of fate, luck, or environment
Learning Theories and Personality
• Social-cognitive theory– Reciprocal determinism
• Bandura’s concept that behavior, cognitive factors, and environment all influence and are influenced by each other
– Self-efficacy• A person’s belief in his or her ability to perform
competently in whatever is attempted
Trait Theories
• Early trait theories– Gordon Allport
• Claimed that each person inherits a unique set of raw materials for given traits, which are then shaped by experiences
– Raymond Cattell• Referred to observable qualities of personality as surface
traits• Found certain clusters of surface traits that appeared
together time after time• Believed these were evidence of deeper, more general,
underlying personality factors, which he called source traits• Cattell’s Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire,
commonly called the 16 PF, yields a personality profile
Trait Theories
• Factor models of personality– Five-factor Theory
• Surgency, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Emotional Stability, and Intellect
– Big Five• Extraversion, Agreeableness,
Conscientiousness, Neuroticism, and Openness to Experience (OCEAN).
Trait Theories
• Factor models of personality– Costa and McCrae
• Developed the NEO Personality Inventory and, more recently, the Revised NEO Personality Inventory, which are used to measure the Big Five dimensions of personality
• The NEO and other measures of the Big Five are currently being used in a wide variety of personality research studies
Nature, Nurture, and Personality
• Twin and adoption studies– Most studies have found similarity between identical
twins on several personality factors, regardless of whether they are raised together or apart
– Correlations similar to those for intelligence• Neurotransmitters and personality
– Researchers hypothesize that genes contribute to personality through their influence on the brain’s neurotransmitter production, transport, and reuptake systems
– Researchers propose that people who are emotionally unstable possess a serotonin system that is unusually sensitive to dangers and threats
Nature, Nurture, and Personality
• Personality and culture– Hofstede
• Analyzed questionnaire responses measuring the work-related values of more than 100,000 IBM employees in 53 countries around the world
• Factor analysis revealed four separate dimensions related to culture and personality
• Rank-ordered the 53 countries on each of the four dimensions
Nature, Nurture, and Personality
• Personality and culture– Power distance—the extent to which the less
powerful members of organizations and institutions (such as the family) accept and expect that power is distributed unequally.
– Uncertainty avoidance—a society’s tolerance for ambiguity.
– Individualism/collectivism—signifies a culture’s emphasis either on individuals or on social relationships
– Masculinity/femininity—the distribution of emotional roles between the sexes
Nature, Nurture, and Personality
Criterion Predictors Cumulative Adj.
R2
Neuroticism + Uncertainty avoidance 0.31
+ Masculinity 0.55
Extraversion + Individualism 0.39
– Masculinity 0.46
Openness to experience + Masculinity 0.13
– Power distance 0.29
+ Uncertainty avoidance 0.36
Agreeableness – Uncertainty avoidance 0.28
Conscientiousness + Power distance 0.24
Source: Hofstede, G., & McCrae, R. (2004). Personality and culture revisited: Linking traits and
dimensions of culture Cross-Cultural Research, 38(1): 52-88.
• Projective tests– A personality test in which people respond to
inkblots, drawings of ambiguous human situations, incomplete sentences, and the like, by projecting their own inner thoughts, feelings, fears, and conflicts onto the test materials
– Based on the assumption that the test taker will transfer (“project”) unconscious conflicts and motives onto an ambiguous stimulus.
Personality Assessment
The Rorschach Inkblot Test
• Ambiguous stimuli• Person is asked to
report what they see
Sample Rorschach Card
Thematic Apperception Test
• Person is asked to tell a story about the “hero” in the picture
• Based on Murray’s personality theory– People are distinguished
by the needs that motivate their behavior
Personality Assessment
• Observation, interviews, and rating scales– Using an observational technique known as
behavioral assessment, psychologists can count and record the frequency of particular behaviors
– Useful because they provide a standardized format, including a list of traits or behaviors to evaluate
Personality Assessment
• Personality inventories– A paper-and-pencil test with questions about
a person’s thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, which can be scored according to a standard procedure
– Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)• An inventory for classifying personality types
based on Jung’s theory of personality
Personality Assessment
• Personality inventories– Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory
(MMPI)• The most extensively researched and widely
used personality test• Used to screen and diagnose psychiatric
problems and disorders• Originally published in 1943• MMPI-2 was published in 1989• Does not reveal differences among normal
personalities very well
MMPI Score Profile
Personality Assessment
• Personality inventories– NEO PI-R™ (240 items)
• considered by many psychologists to be the best inventory for measuring traits within the Five Factor Model (FFM) of personality
– International Personality Item Pool (IPIP)