2. • The term “Personality” originates from the Greek
word Persona, meaning a mask
• In the ancient Greek theater, the actors carried a
mask attached to a stick, it represented the
character they played
3. Definitions: J.P. Guilford (1959)
• “An individual’s personality, then, is his unique
pattern of traits.”
– A trait is “any distinguishable, relatively enduring
way in which one individual differs from others.”
4. Definitions: Mackinnon (1959)
• Personality refers to “factors” inside people
that explain their behavior
• The sum total of typical ways of acting,
thinking, and feeling that makes a person
unique.
5. Definitions: R.B. Cattell (1950)
• The personality of an individual is that which
enables us to predict what he will do in a given
situation”
6. 3 Facts to Consider When Defining
“Personality”
Individuals are unique
Individuals behave differently in different
situations
Although individuals are unique and
behave inconsistently across situations,
there is considerable commonality in
human behavior
7. Factors Determining Personality
Development
• Heredity
• Constitutional Factors :
• The constitution of an individual is an effective factor in determining
the type of his Personality. There can be 3 bodily types of personality-
(1) short and stout, (2) tall and thin, (3) muscular and well
Proportioned. One is always impressed by an individual who has a
muscular and a well proportioned body. Height, Weight, physical
defects, health and strength affect Personality.
• Biological Factors:
• The working of the nervous system, glands and blood chemistry
determines our characteristics and habitual modes of behavior. These
factors form the biological basis of our personality. Adrenal gland,
thyroid gland, pituitary gland and endocrine gland affect personality. It
is this ability which enables him to mould the social environment
according to his requirements.
8. Heredity
• Intelligence:
• Intelligence is mainly hereditary. Persons who are very
intelligent can make better adjustment in home, school
and society than those who are less intelligent.4.
• Sex Differences:
• Sex differences play a vital role in the development
of personality of individual. Boys are generally more assert
ive and vigorous. They prefer adventures. Girls are quieter
and more injured by personal, emotional and social
problems.
9. Environments
• The sociologists emphasize that the personality of the individual
develops in asocial environment. It is in the social environment,
that he comes to have moral ideas, social attitudes and interests.
This enables him to develop a social‘ self which is another term
for personality.
• Physical Environment:
• It includes the influence of climatic conditions of a particular
area or country on man and his living.
• Social Environment:
• The child has his birth in the society. He learns and lives there.
Hence, the social environment has an important say in
the personality development of the child.
10. Environments
• Family Environment:
• Family is the cradle of all social virtues. The first environment,
the child moves in, is his home. Here the child comes in
contact with his parents and other family member his likes,
dislikes, stereotypes about people, expectancies of security
and emotional responses all are shaped in early childhood.
The type of training and early childhood experiences received
from the family play an important role in the development of
personality.
11. Environments
• Cultural Environment:
• The cultural environment refers to certain cultural traditions, ideals,
and values etc., which are accepted in a particular society. All these
factors leave a permanent impression on the child's personality.
• School Environment:
• Schools play an important role in molding the personality of
the children because a significant part of a child's life is spent in
school between the ages of 6 and 20 years. In the school, the teacher
substitutes the parents. The school poses new problems to be solved,
new taboos to be accepted into the superego and new models for
imitation and identification, all of which contribute their share
in molding personality
12. Other determinants of personality
• Self Concept
• Inter-personal Relations
• Psychological Factors
• These include one’s motives, acquired interests, attitudes, will
and character, intellectual capacities such as intelligence i.e.,
the abilities
to perceive, to observe, to imagine, to think and to reason. Th
ese factors determine one’s reactions in various situations
and thus affect one’s personality, growth and direction. An
individual with a considerable amount of will power will be
able to make decisions more quickly than others.
13. Techniques of improving
Personality
• Appearance
• Communication Skills
• Self discipline
• Spontaneity, simplicity and naturalness
• Accepts and recognize weak points
• Attending social gathering
• Good listener
• Positive in thoughts
• Knowledge
14. • Confidence
• Avoids expressing envy and bitter criticism
• Keeps away anger and irritation
• Serves and helps others
• Avoid judging people
• Appreciate and praise others
• Developing courage
37. • “Personality” as a construct may include:
– Emotional responses
– Social behavior
– Emotional thoughts and behaviour
– Motivations
– Values
– Interests
• Methods of Measuring Personality:
– Paper & pencil tests: questionnaires, inventories
– Situational exercises
– Field or natural observations
– Projective measures
38. Value of Personality Questionnaires
• Value to the individual (face validity)
– Self-insight
– Points of discussion
– Norms provide comparison info
39. Value of Personality Questionnaires
• Value to research (construct validity)
– Study relationships of personality w/ other variables
– Study changes over time
• Value for Counseling
- marital therapy
- university counseling centers
• Value for personnel management
– Screening
– Prediction of success
– Placement & counseling
41. Two Main Personality Theories
1. Trait theory: people differ based on stable
attributes (called “traits”)
– characteristics lie on a continuum
– e.g., the Big Five
2. Type theory: people can be sorted into categories
(either one type or the other)
• There are many different personality inventories
that measure traits or types
42. The Big Five
• OCEAN
• Openness to Experience
• Conscientiousness
• Extraversion
• Agreeableness
• Neuroticism
43. The NEO PI-R (cont.)
• Examples of Items:
Neuroticism - Frightening thoughts sometimes come into my head.
Extroversion - I don’t get much pleasure from chatting with people.
Openness - I have a very active imagination
Agreeableness - I believe that most people will take advantage of
you if you let them.
Conscientiousness - I pay my promptly and in full.
44. The NEO PI-R (cont.)
• Example Neuroticism facet: Anxiety
• I am not a worrier.
• I am easily frightened.
• I rarely feel fearful or anxious.
• I often feel tense and jittery.
• I am seldom apprehensive about the future.
• I often worry about things that might go wrong.
• I have fewer fears than most people.
• Frightening thoughts sometimes come into my head.
45. • List of Domain and Facet Scores
Neuroticism Extraversion Openness
Anxiety Warmth Fantasy
Angry Hostility Gregariousness Aesthetics
Depression Assertiveness Feelings
Self-Consciousness Activity Actions
Impulsiveness Excitement-Seeking Ideas
Vulnerability Positive Emotions Values
Agreeableness Conscientiousness
Trust Competence
Straightforwardness Order
Altruism Dutifulness
Compliance Achievement Striving
Modesty Self-Discipline
Tender-Mindedness Deliberation
46. Type Theories of Personality
• Type A - Coronary-prone behavior pattern: aggressive, need
to achieve more and more, workaholic, hidden lack of self-
esteem (always need to prove self), always hurried, hostile
• Type B – easygoing, noncompetitive, relaxed
• People fall on a continuum somewhere between the two
• Myers-Briggs Type Indicator
47. Myers-Briggs Type Indicator
• Myers-Briggs: based on Jungian theory of
personality
– Classifies individuals along 4 theoretically
independent dimensions.
48. MBTI (cont.)
1. Introversion / Extroversion(E-I) : How is your general
attitude toward the world?
2. Sensing / Intuition (S-N) : How do you acquire
information?
3. Thinking / Feeling (T-F) : How is information processed?
4. Judging / Perceiving (J-P): How do you make decisions?
49. MBTI Scales
Extroversion-
Introversion Scale
E: Oriented primarily
toward the outer world;
focus on people and
objects
I: Oriented primarily
toward the inner world;
focus on concepts and
ideas
Sensing-Intuition Scale
S: Individual reports
observable facts through
one or more of the five
senses
N: Reports meanings,
relationships and/or
possibilities that have
been worked out beyond
the reach of the conscious
mind
50. MBTI Scales
Thinking-Feeling Scale
T: Judgment is impersonally
based on logical
consequences
F: Judgment is primarily
based on personal or
social values
Perception-Judging Scale
P: Preference for using a
perceptive process for
dealing with the outer world
J: Preference for using a
judgment process for
dealing with the outer world
51. MBTI Psychometrics
• Test-retest intervals range from:
1. Introversion / Extroversion(E-I) : .73 to .83
2. Sensing / Intuition (S-N) : .69 to .87
3. Thinking / Feeling (T-F) :.56 to .82
4. Judging / Perceiving (J-P): .60 to .87
Internal Consistency intervals range from:
1. Introversion / Extroversion(E-I) : .55 to .65
2. Sensing / Intuition (S-N) : .64 to .73
3. Thinking / Feeling (T-F) :.43 to .75
4. Judging / Perceiving (J-P): .58 to .84
52. MBTI (cont.)
• Uses:
– Career counseling
– Team building
– Family counseling
• Criticisms:
– Profiles generally positive
– Barnum effect
– Validation evidence is sticky
– Factor analysis shows Big Five solution
53. MMPI
• Minnesota Multiphasic Personality
Inventory
• MMPI-II – most widely used psychological
test
• 10 clinical scales and several Auxiliary
56. The MMPI (cont.)
• Scale Descriptor: Psychopathic Deviate
• Tend to act without considering consequences.
• Experience absence of emotional response.
• May feign guilt and remorse when in trouble.
• Are impulsive.
• Are not seen as overwhelmed by emotional turmoil.
57. The MMPI (cont.)
• Example Items:
• I am about as able to work as I ever was.
• I work under a great deal of tension.
• I am sure I get a raw deal from life.
• I find it hard to keep my mind on a task or job.
• I am certainly lacking in self-confidence
• I have difficulty in starting to do things.
• When in a group of people I have trouble thinking of the right
things to talk about.
• I cannot keep my mind on one thing.
58. Original MMPI
• Items on the clinical scales of the original MMPI were
selected on the basis of their ability to discriminate
between normal and clinical groups.
• Clinical groups were comprised of depressed, paranoid,
schizophrenic, hypomanic, hypocrondriacal
• Normal groups were comprised of University of Minnesota
students
• Initially items were selected from various sources – clinical
cases, textbooks, and previous tests
59. MMPI II
• MMPI-II was normed on a nationally representative
sample – 1138 men and 1462 women
• MMPI added several content and
supplementary scales
• A high score on a particular scale indicates the
likelihood that the individual possesses those
characteristics
61. The Projective Techniques
• Projective tests allow the examinee to respond to
vague stimuli with their own impressions
• Assumption is that the examinee will project his
unconscious needs, motives, and conflicts onto
the neutral stimulus
• Word association tests, inkblot tests, sentence
completion tests, storytelling in response to
pictures, etc.
62. The Projective Techniques (cont.)
• Three features:
- Disguised: no face validity
- Global: the whole personality
- Reveals unconscious aspects of personality
- Types:
- Inkblot: Rorschach
- Picture interpretation: TAT
- Sentence completion: Rotter Incomplete SB
- Picture construction: DAP
63. The Rorschach Inkblot Test
• The Rorschach Inkblot Test is the most
commonly used projective test
– In a 1971 survey of test usage, it was used in 91%
of 251 clinical settings survey
– It is one of the most widely used tests that exists
– It is widely cited in research
64. History
• The earliest use of inkblots as projective surfaces
was J. Kerner's (1857)
– He was the first to claim that some people make
idiosyncratic or revealing interpretations
• In 1896, Alfred Binet suggested that inkblots might
be used to assess personality (not psychopathology)
65. History
• Herman Rorschach, a Swiss
psychiatrist, was the first to
suggest (1911) the use of
inkblot responses as a
diagnostic instrument
– In 1921 he published his book
on the test, Psychodiagnostik
(and soon thereafter died, age
38)
66. History
• Rorschach's test was not well-received, attracting little
notice
– David Levy brought it to the United States - thought it was scientifically
unsound.
– His student, Samuel Beck, popularized its use here, writing several
papers and books on it starting with Configurational Tendencies in
Rorschach Responses (1933)
• Several other early users also published work on he
Rorschach
– Several offered their own system of administration, scoring, and
interpretation, leading to later problems in standardization
67. What is the Rorschach?
• The stimuli were generated by dropping ink onto a card and
folding it
– They are not, however, random: the ten cards in the current
test were hand-selected out of thousands that Rorschach
generated
• Ten blots – 5 black/white, 2 red/gray (II & III) and 3 color (VIII –
X)
• Thought to tap into the deep layers of personality and bring out
what is not conscious to the test taker
• The following are the inkblots
68.
69.
70.
71.
72. Administering the Rorschach
• The test is usually administered with as little instruction
and information as possible
– The tester asks 'What might this be? and gives no clues or
restrictions on what is expected as a response
– Anxious subjects often do ask questions, and vague answers are
offered
– Some advocate sitting beside the subject to avoid giving clues by
facial expression
– If only one response is given, some hint to find more may be
offered: "Some people see more than one thing.“
73. Administering the Rorschach
• The cards are shown twice:
–The first time responses are obtained - free
association phase
–The second time they are elaborated – inquiry
phase
74. Rorschach (cont.)
Exner’s Comprehensive Scoring System
1. Location
- W = whole (intellectual potential)
- D = subdivisions (common sense)
- Dd = details (compulsive tendencies)
- DW (confabulated detail)
2. Content (i.e., general class to where response belongs)
- people, part of a person, clothing, animal, part
of an animal, nature, anatomical
75. Rorschach (cont.)
3. Determinants (i.e., specific property of the blot)
- F = shape/outline (rational approach)
- M = movement (imagination)
- C = color (emotional reactions)
- Y = shades of grey (depression)
4. Form Quality
5. typical vs. unusual response
6. time
77. Psychometric Properties of the
Rorschach
• The Rorschach is a popular test, however, it has been
plagued by low reliability and validity.
• Obviously, it is difficult to measure any of the usual
psychometric properties in the usual way
– Validity and reliability are usually low because of the
open-ended multiplicity of possibility that is allowed and
by the lack of universally-accepted standardized
instructions, administration protocol, and scoring
procedure
78. Interpreting the Rorschach
• Uses norms for five groups: nonpatient, outpatient
nonpsychotic, inpatient character problem, inpatient
depressive, inpatient schizophrenics one
• Deviation from norms can mean an invalid protocol, or
brain damage, or emotional problems, or a low mental age
(or just an original person)
79. Psychometric Properties of the
Rorschach
• Reliability studies that have been done find r-values varying from 0.1 to 0.9
• Parker (1983) analyzed 530 statistics through meta-analysis (9 studies) and
found an internal reliability of .83
• W responses has been linked to general intelligence (r = 0.4); Movement
responses are said to suggest strong impulses or high motor activity; DW
(confabulatory) responses are taken as signs of a disordered state; low
response rate is associated with mental retardation, depression, and
defensiveness
• Overall, more research is needed to determine the reliability and validity of
the Rorschach.
80. Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)
• Construct a story about what you see on the
following picture
Describe:
- what led up to the scene
- what is happening
- what the characters in the story might think or
feel
- how the story will end
81.
82. Thematic Apperception Tests
• The Thematic Apperception Test (TAT): 30 grayscale
pictures + one blank for elicitation of stories – each
contain a dramatic event or critical situation
• Most subjects see 10-12 cards, over two sessions
• Based on Murray's (1938) theory of 28 social needs
(sex, affiliation, dominance, achievement, attitudes
etc.)
• People would project into their story their needs
• Attention is paid to the protagonist in each story and
his/her environmental stressors
• Many variations on this 'story-telling' test exist
83. TAT (cont.)
• Administration: not standardized
- Not the same 20 cards
- Not the same order
- Seldom 2 sessions
- Instructions differ
• Scoring is Minimal
• Low Reliability & Validity
84. TAT – scoring/interpretation
Scoring
• Congruence with picture stimuli
• Conformity with directions
• Conflict
Psychometric properties:
• internal consistency is low;
• high reliability but diminishes with time, 2 months, r = .80;
10 months r = .50;
• Inter-rater reliability vary with studies: range .3 to .9
85. Examples of Projectives
• Rotter Incomplete Sentences Blank (RISB)
Complete the following sentences to express your
real feelings:
- I like ……..
- My greatest fear ……..
- This PSY 3090.D instructor is ……..
86. RISB (cont.)
• Designed to screen for emotional maladjustment
• Info about wishes, desires, likes, dislikes, fears, and
locus of control
• 40 items: easy to administer (group or ind.)
• Rigorous scoring system: high interrater r
• Scoring ranges from 0 to 6
• Responses are scored as to the degree of conflict
expressed, optimism shown, length of responses,
omissions
• Psychometrically sound but less used
87. Draw-a-Person Test
- Originally to assess children’s intelligence
- Now: a screening procedure for emotional
disturbance
- Cannot constitute a diagnosis
- The administration:
• Draw a person
• Draw a person of the opposite sex
• Draw yourself
88. Draw-a-Person Test
• Administrator Asks:
- Can you please draw a person?
- Draw whatever you like in any way you like?
Administrator Then Asks:
- Draw a person of the opposite sex?
89. Draw-a-Person Test (cont.)
• Subjective vs. quantitative scoring system
• Clinician looks for:
– Sequence of body parts
– Verbalizations during the drawing process
– Size & placement of figures on the page
– Amount of action depicted
– Systematization in doing the task
– Number of erasures
– Shading
– Gender of picture
– Over attention to certain body parts
90. Draw-a-Person Test (cont..)
• Among the plausible but empirically untrue relations that
have been claimed:
- Large size = Emotional expansiveness or acting out
- Small size = emotional constriction; withdrawal, or
timidity
- Overworked lines = tension, aggression
- Distorted or omitted features = Conflicts related to that
feature
- Large or elaborate eyes = Paranoia
91. Other common projective tests
• CAT – Children Apperception Test – (Bellak, 1975)
• Word Association Test – Rapaport et al. (1946, 1968) – 60
words: neutral and traumatic – scored: popularity, RT,
content, test-retest responses
• Sentence Completion – Rotter Incomplete Sentences
Blank – 40 sentences – evaluated on 7 point scale by
“need for therapy” to “extremely good adjustment”
• House-Tree-Person Test (Buck, 1948) & Draw-A-Person
(Machover, 1949): Subject is asked to draw
– Scoring is on absolute size, relative size of elements, omissions
"If there is a tendency to over-interpret projective test data without
sufficient empirical grounds, then projective drawing tests are
among the worst offenders."
Kaplan & Saccuzo, Psychological Testing, 2001, p. 467
92. Sources of Inaccuracy in Personality
Testing
• Personality assessment largely depends on self-
report
• Response sets may affect personality results
93. Social Desirability
Some test takers choose socially acceptable answers
or present themselves in a favourable light
• People often do not attend as much to the trait
being measured as to the social acceptability of the
statement
• This represents unwanted variance
94. Social Desirability (cont.)
Example items:
– Friends would call me spontaneous.
– People I know can count on me to finish what I
start.
– I would rather work in a group than by myself.
– I often get stressed-out in many situations.
95. Faking
Faking -- some test takers may respond in a particular
way to cause a desired outcome
– may “fake good” (e.g., in employment settings) to create
a favourable impression
– may “fake bad” (e.g., in clinical or forensic settings) as a
cry for help or to appear mentally disturbed
– may use some subtle questions that are difficult to fake
because they aren’t clearly face valid
96. “Faking Bad”
– People try to look worse than they really are
• Common problem in clinical settings
– Reasons:
• Cry for help
• Want to plea insanity in court
• Want to avoid draft into military
• Want to show psychological damage
– Most people who fake bad overdo it
97. Random Responding
Random responding may occur when test takers are
unwilling or unable to respond accurately.
– likely to occur when test taker lacks the skills (e.g.,
reading), does not want to be evaluated, or lacks
attention to the task
– try to detect by embedding a scale that tends to yield
clear results from vast majority such that a different
result suggests the test taker wasn’t cooperating
98. Random Responding
– Detection:
• Duplicate items:
“I love my mother.”
“I hate my mother.”
• Infrequency scales:
“I’ve never had hair on my head.”
“I have not seen a car in 10 years.”
99. Impression Management
– Mitigating IM:
• Use positive and negative impression scales
(endorsed by 10% of the population)
• Use lie scales to “flag” those who score high
(e.g., “I get angry sometime”).
• Inconsistency scales (e.g., two different
responses to two similar questions)
• (Use multiple assessment methods (other than
self-report)
