What Is Personality?

When someone says, 'He has a nice personality,' or 'She has no personality,' what do they mean?
How would you describe your personality? Psychologists and philosophers have studied personality
since ancient times, hoping to describe personality and explain how it develops.
Psychologists typically define personality as characteristic patterns of thought, feeling, and
behavior. When compared with mood, personality is similar to weather climate, while mood is more
like the daily weather. Personality is how you expect someone to behave across the long-term. A
personality trait is a broad behavioral element that describes your personality, such as kind,
outgoing, or impatient.
Where did your personality traits come from? Has your personality changed since you were young?
Psychologists who study personality answer questions about the stability of personality
characteristics over the long-term. There are several broad theories that attempt to explain how our
personalities develop.

Psychoanalytic Theories
Psychoanalytic psychologists like Sigmund Freud believed that personality was largely determined
by powerful but hidden unconscious forces and drives. Freud believed our personality is formed
when we are quite young, before the age of five or six, and he believed our personalities are shaped
by our environments up to that age.
Freud developed a stage theory of personality called the psychosexual stages of development.
Each stage poses a task or challenge, and how an individual completes that task determines some
of his or her personality characteristics later in life. Freud also proposed a three-pronged theory of
mind, describing unconscious elements of our personalities as the id, the superego, and the ego.
According to Freud, the id is our most primal part of ourselves, purely driven by our desires. The id
is like the devil sitting on our shoulder, telling us to take what we want when we want it.
The superego is like the over-active angel on our other shoulder and makes us feel guilty and
anxious when our id makes demands. The job of the ego is to balance the two; it moderates
between the needs of the id in relation to the rules of society.
Based on this theory of mind, someone with a strong id will demonstrate personality characteristics
that are selfish, unruly, and impulsive. An overly strong superego will lead to personality traits like
nervousness and anxiety. An overactive ego will demonstrate traits that seem unemotional and too
rational. While Freud's theories are interesting to study, they lack any way to be proven scientifically.

Neo-Freudian Theories
Other psychologists also believe in the importance of the unconscious mind, but they argue that
Freud left out a critical element in his theory of personality. These theorists, including Karen Horney,
Alfred Adler, and Erik Erikson, created theories on personality development that included the
importance of social forces in shaping our identities. Their theories came to be known as social
psychoanalytic theories and were much less animalistic than Freud's theories. Like Freud, they
think the unconscious influences personality greatly, and for that reason, they are often called neo-
Freudians.
The neo-Freudian theories center around our personas of feeling loved and worthwhile. They argue
that personalities develop in response to our need to feel valued. Adler's ideas related to
the inferiority complex and the way most of us strive for superiority in many situations. Horney's
theories were more feminist than many of Freud's and examined how many of us feel threatened
and helpless as children. To counteract those feelings, we learn how to show hostility or love to
others. Erikson created a stage theorythat moves each of us through various social situations
throughout our lifespan. Erikson's eight stages of psychosocial developmentare referred to often by
both personality and developmental psychologists.

noun. the configuration of personality traits and actions which includes a person's
individual acclimation to life, inclusive of primary traits, interests, motivations,
morals, self-concept, skills, and emotional trends. Character is usually seen as a
complicated, dynamic consolidation or entirety, formed by multiple forces, inclusive of:
genetic and constitutional propensities, physical growth- formative training-
identification with important people and groups- socially conditioned morals and roles-
and vital experiences and unions.

PERSONALITY: "I don't foresee us ever being friends- I just don't care for her
personality."

What is PERSONALITY? definition of PERSONALITY (Psychology Dictionary)

What exactly is personality? Where does it come from? Does it change as we grow older? These
are the sorts of questions that have long held the fascination of psychologists and which have
inspired a number of different theories of personality.

Defining Personality

While personality is something that we talk about all the time ("He has such a great personality!"
or "Her personality is perfect for this job!"), you might be surprised to learn that psychologists
do not necessarily agree on a single definition of what exactly constitutes personality.

Personality is broadly described as the characteristic patterns of thoughts, feelings, and behaviors
that make a person unique. In plain English, it is what makes you you.

Researchers have found while some external factors can influence how certain traits are
expressed, personality originates within the individual. While a few aspects of personality may
change as we grow older, personality also tends to remain fairly consistent throughout life.

Because personality plays such an important role in human behavior, an entire branch of
psychology is devoted to the study of this fascinating topic. Personality psychologists are
interested in the unique characteristics of individuals, as well as similarities among groups of
people.
10 Fascinating Facts About Personality

Characteristics of Personality

In order to understand the psychology of personality, it is important to learn some of the key
characteristics of how personality works.

 Personality is organized and consistent. We tend to express certain aspects of our

personality in different situations and our responses are generally stable.
 Although personality is generally stable, it can be influenced by the
environment. For example, while your personality might lead you to be shy in social
situations, an emergency might lead you to take on a more outspoken and take-charge
approach.
 Personality causes behaviors to happen. You react to the people and objects in your
environment based on your personality. From your personal preferences to your choice of
a career, every aspect of your life is affected by your personality.

How Personality Impacts Physical and Mental Health

Research Models

Now that you know a bit more about the basics of personality, it's time to take a closer look at
how scientists actually study human personality. There are different techniques that are used in
the study of personality. Each technique has its own strengths and weaknesses.

 Experimental methods are those in which the researcher controls and manipulates the
variables of interests and takes measures of the results. This is the most scientific form of
research, but experimental researchcan be difficult when studying aspects of personality
such as motivations, emotions, and drives. These ideas are internal, abstract, and can
be difficult to measure. The experimental method allows researchers to look at cause-
and-effect relationships between different variables of interest.
 Case studies and self-report methods involve the in-depth analysis of an individual as
well as information provided by the individual. Case studiesrely heavily on the
interpretations of the observer, while self-report methods depend on the memory of the
individual of interest. Because of this, these methods tend to be highly subjective and it is
difficult to generalize the findings to a larger population.
 Clinical research relies upon information gathered from clinical patients over the course
of treatment. Many personality theories are based on this type of research, but because
the research subjects are unique and exhibit abnormal behavior, this research tends to be
highly subjective and difficult to generalize.

Important Terminology

Classical Conditioning
Classical conditioning is a behavioral training technique which begins with a naturally occurring
stimulus eliciting an automatic response. Then, a previously neutral stimulus is paired with the
naturally occurring stimulus.

Eventually, the previously neutral stimulus comes to evoke the response without the presence of
the naturally occurring stimulus. The two elements are then known as the conditioned
stimulus and the conditioned response.

Operant Conditioning

Operant conditioning is a behavior training technique in which reinforcements or punishments

are used to influence behavior. An association is made between a behavior and a consequence for
that behavior.

Unconscious

In Freud’s psychoanalytic theory of personality, the unconscious mind is a reservoir of feelings,

thoughts, urges, and memories that are outside of our conscious awareness. Most of the contents
of the unconscious are unacceptable or unpleasant, such as feelings of pain, anxiety, or conflict.

According to Freud, the unconscious mind continues to influence our behavior and experiences,
even though we are unaware of these underlying influences.

Id

According to Freud’s psychoanalytic theory of personality, the id is the personality component

made up of unconscious psychic energy that works to satisfy basic urges, needs, and desires. The
id operates based on the pleasure principle, which demands immediate gratification of needs.

Ego

According to Freud, the ego is the largely unconscious part of the personality that mediates the
demands of the id, the superego, and reality. The ego prevents us from acting on our basic urges
(created by the id) but also works to achieve a balance with our moral and idealistic standards
(created by the superego).

Superego

The superego is the component of personality composed of our internalized ideals that we have
acquired from our parents and from society. The superego works to suppress the urges of the id
and tries to make the ego behave morally, rather than realistically.

Major Theories
Personality psychology is the focus of some of the best-known psychology theories by a number
of famous thinkers including Sigmund Freud and Erik Erikson. Some of these theories attempt to
tackle a specific area of personality while others attempt to explain personality much more
broadly.

Biological Theories

Biological approaches suggest that genetics are responsible for personality. In the classic nature
versus nurture debate, the biological theories of personality side with nature.

Research on heritability suggests that there is a link between genetics and personality traits. Twin
studies are often used to investigate which traits might be linked to genetics versus those that
might be linked to environmental variables. For example, researchers might look at differences
and similarities in the personalities of twins reared together versus those who are raised apart.

One of the best known biological theorists was Hans Eysenck, who linked aspects of personality
to biological processes.

Eysenck argued that personality is influenced by the stress hormone cortisol. According to his
theory, introverts have high cortical arousal and avoid stimulation, while extroverts had low
cortical arousal and crave stimulation.

Behavioral Theories

Behavioral theorists include B. F. Skinner and John B. Watson. Behavioral theories suggest that
personality is a result of interaction between the individual and the environment. Behavioral
theorists study observable and measurable behaviors, rejecting theories that take internal
thoughts, moods, and feelings play a part as these cannot be measured.

According to behavioral theorists, conditioning (predictable behavioral responses) occurs

through interactions with our environment which ultimately shape our personalities.

Psychodynamic Theories

Psychodynamic theories of personality are heavily influenced by the work of Sigmund Freud and
emphasize the influence of the unconscious mind and childhood experiences on personality.
Psychodynamic theories include Sigmund Freud's psychosexual stage theory and Erik
Erikson's stages of psychosocial development.

Freud believed the three components of personality were the id, ego, and superego. The id is
responsible for needs and urges, while the superego regulates ideals and morals. The ego, in
turns, moderates the demands of the id, superego, and reality.
Freud suggested that children progress through a series of stages in which the id's energy is
focused on different erogenous zones.

Erikson also believed that personality progressed through a series of stages, with certain conflicts
arising at each stage. Success in any stage depends on successfully overcoming these conflicts.

Humanist Theories

Humanist theories emphasize the importance of free will and individual experience in the
development of personality. Humanist theorists include Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow.

Humanist theorists promote the concept of self-actualization, which is the innate need for
personal growth and the ways that personal growth motivates behavior.

Trait Theories

The trait theory approach is one of the most prominent areas within personality psychology.
According to these theories, personality is made up of a number of broad traits. A trait is a
relatively stable characteristic that causes an individual to behave in certain ways. It is essentially
the psychological "blueprint" that informs behavioral patterns.

Some of the best-known trait theories include Eysenck's three-dimension theory and the five-
factor theory of personality.

Eysenck utilized personality questionnaires to collect data from participants and then employed a
statistical technique known as factor analysis to analyze the results. Eysenck concluded that there
were three major dimensions of personality: extroversion, neuroticism, and psychoticism.

Eysenck believed that these dimensions then combine in different ways to form an individual's
unique personality. Later, Eysenck added the third dimension known as psychoticism, which
related to things such as aggression, empathy, and sociability.

Later researchers suggested that there are five broad dimensions that make up a person's
personalities, often referred to as the Big 5 theory of personality.

The Big 5 theory suggests that all personalities can be characterized by five major personality
dimensions: openness, conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism,
collectively referred to by the acronym OCEAN.

Famous Figures in Psychology

Some of the most famous figures in the history of psychology left a lasting mark on the field of
personality. In order to better understand the different theories of personality, it can be helpful to
learn more about the lives, theories, and contributions to the psychology of these eminent
psychologists.

Sigmund Freud

Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) was the founder of psychoanalytic theory. His theories emphasized
the importance of the unconscious mind, childhood experiences, dreams, and symbolism. His
theory of psychosexual development suggested that children progress through a series of stages
during which libidinal energy is focused on different regions of the body.

His ideas are what as known as grand theories because they seek to explain virtually every aspect
of human behavior. Some of Freud's ideas are considered outdated by modern psychologists, but
he had a major influence on the course of psychology and some concepts, such as the usefulness
of talk therapy and the importance of the unconscious, are enduring.

Erik Erikson

Erik Erikson (1902-1994) was an ego psychologist trained by Anna Freud. His theory of
psychosocial stages describes how personality develops throughout the lifespan. Like Freud,
some aspects of Erikson's theory are considered outdated by contemporary researchers, but his
eight-stage theory of development remains popular and influential.

B. F. Skinner

B. F. Skinner (1904-1990) was a behaviorist best known for his research on operant
conditioning and the discovery of schedules of reinforcement. Schedules of reinforcement
influence how quickly a behavior is acquired and the strength of a response.

The schedules described by Skinner are fixed-ratio schedules, fixed-variable schedules, variable-
ratio schedules, and variable-interval schedules.

Sandra Bem

Sandra Bem (1944-2014) had an important influence in psychology and on our understanding of
sex roles, gender, and sexuality. She developed her gender schema theory to explain how society
and culture transmit ideas about sex and gender. Gender schemas, Bem suggested, were formed
by things such as parenting, school, mass media, and other cultural influences.

Abraham Maslow

Abraham Maslow (1908-1970) was a humanist psychologist who developed the well-
known hierarchy of needs. The hierarchy includes physiological needs, safety and security needs,
love and affection needs, self-esteem needs, and self-actualizing needs.

Carl Rogers
Carl Rogers (1902-1987) was a humanist psychologist who believed that all people have
an actualizing tendency - a drive to fulfill the individual potential that motivates behavior.
Rogers called healthy individuals fully-functioning, describing these individuals as those who are
open to experience, live in the moment, trust their own judgment, feel free and are creative.

A Word From Verywell

Personality makes us who we are, so it is no wonder why it has been the source of such
fascination in both science and in daily life. The various theories of personality that have been
proposed by different psychologists have helped us gain a deeper and richer understanding of
what makes each person unique.

By learning more about these theories, you can better understand how researchers have come to
know the psychology of personality as well as consider questions that future research might
explore.

Theories of Personality
Saul McLeod, updated 2017

What is this thing we call personality? Consider the following definitions, what do
they have in common?
"Personality is the dynamic organization within the individual of those
psychophysical systems that determine his characteristics behavior and thought"
(Allport, 1961, p. 28).
“The characteristics or blend of characteristics that make a person unique”
(Weinberg & Gould, 1999).
Both definitions emphasize the uniqueness of the individual and consequently
adopt an idiographic view.
The idiographic view assumes that each person has a unique psychological
structure and that some traits are possessed by only one person; and that there
are times when it is impossible to compare one person with others. It tends to use
case studies for information gathering.
The nomothetic view, on the other hand, emphasizes comparability among
individuals. This viewpoint sees traits as having the same psychological meaning
in everyone. This approach tends to use self-report personality questions, factor
analysis, etc. People differ in their positions along a continuum in the same set of
traits.
We must also consider the influence and interaction of nature (biology, genetics,
etc.) and nurture (the environment, upbringing) with respect to personality
development.
Trait theories of personality imply personality is biologically based, whereas state
theories such as Bandura's (1977) Social Learning Theoryemphasize the role of
nurture and environmental influence.
Sigmund Freud's psychodynamic theory of personality assumes there is an
interaction between nature (innate instincts) and nurture (parental influences).

Freud's Theory
Personality involves several factors:
– Instinctual drives – food, sex, aggression
– Unconscious processes
– Early childhood influences (re: psychosexual stages) – especially the
parents
Personality development depends on the interplay of instinct and environment
during the first five years of life. Parental behavior is crucial to normal and
abnormal development. Personality and mental health problems in adulthood
can usually be traced back to the first five years.

Psychosexual Development
People – including children – are basically hedonistic – they are driven to seek
pleasure by gratifying the Id’s desires (Freud, 1920). Sources of pleasure are
determined by the location of the libido (life-force).
As a child moves through different developmental stages, the location of the
libido, and hence sources of pleasure, change (Freud, 1905).
Environmental and parental experiences during childhood influence an
individual's personality during adulthood.
For example, during the first two years of life, the infant who is neglected
(insufficiently fed) or who is over-protected (over-fed) might become an orally-
fixated person (Freud, 1905).
Tripartite Theory of Personality
Freud (1923) saw the personality structured into three parts (i.e., tripartite), the
id, ego, and superego (also known as the psyche), all developing at different
stages in our lives.
These are systems, not parts of the brain, or in any way physical.

The id is the primitive and instinctive component of personality. It consists of all

the inherited (i.e., biological) components of personality, including the sex (life)
instinct – Eros (which contains the libido), and aggressive (death) instinct -
Thanatos.
It operates on the pleasure principle (Freud, 1920) which is the idea that every
wishful impulse should be satisfied immediately, regardless of the consequences.
The ego develops in order to mediate between the unrealistic id and the external
real world (like a referee). It is the decision-making component of personality
The ego operates according to the reality principle, working our realistic ways of
satisfying the id’s demands, often compromising or postponing satisfaction to
avoid negative consequences of society. The ego considers social realities and
norms, etiquette and rules in deciding how to behave.
The superego incorporates the values and morals of society which are learned
from one's parents and others. It is similar to a conscience, which can punish the
ego through causing feelings of guilt.

Trait Approach to Personality

This approach assumes behavior is determined by relatively stable traits which
are the fundamental units of one’s personality.
Traits predispose one to act in a certain way, regardless of the situation. This
means that traits should remain consistent across situations and over time, but
may vary between individuals. It is presumed that individuals differ in their traits
due to genetic differences.
These theories are sometimes referred to a psychometric theories, because of
their emphasis on measuring personality by using psychometric tests. Trait
scores are continuous (quantitative) variables. A person is given numeric score to
indicate how much of a trait the they possess.

Eysenck’s Personality Theory

Eysenck (1952, 1967, 1982) proposed a theory of personality based on biological
factors, arguing that individuals inherit a type of nervous system that affects their
ability to learn and adapt to the environment.
During 1940s Eysenck was working at the Maudsley psychiatric hospital in
London. His job was to make an initial assessment of each patient before their
mental disorder was diagnosed by a psychiatrist.
Through this position, he compiled a battery of questions about behavior, which
he later applied to 700 soldiers who were being treated for neurotic disorders at
the hospital (Eysenck (1947).
He found that the soldiers' answers seemed to link naturally with one another,
suggesting that there were a number of different personality traits which were
being revealed by the soldier's answers. He called these first-order personality
traits
He used a technique called factor analysis. This technique reduces behavior to a
number of factors which can be grouped together under separate headings, called
dimensions.
Eysenck (1947) found that their behavior could be represented by two
dimensions: Introversion / Extroversion (E); Neuroticism / Stability (N).
Eysenck called these second-order personality traits.
Each aspect of personality (extraversion, neuroticism and psychoticism) can be
traced back to a different biological cause. Personality is dependent on the
balance between excitation and inhibition process of the autonomic nervous
system (ANS).

Extraversion/introversion
Extraverts are sociable and crave excitement and change, and thus can become
bored easily. They tend to be carefree, optimistic and impulsive. They are more
likely to take risks and be thrill seekers. Eysenck argues that this is because they
inherit an under aroused nervous system and so seek stimulation to restore the
level of optimum stimulation.
Introverts on the other hand lie at the other end of this scale, being quiet and
reserved. They are already over-aroused and shun sensation and stimulation.
Introverts are reserved, plan their actions and control their emotions. They tend
to be serious, reliable and pessimistic.

Neuroticism/stability
A person’s level of neuroticism is determined by the reactivity of their
sympathetic nervous system. A stable person’s nervous system will generally be
less reactive to stressful situations, remaining calm and level headed.
Someone high in neuroticism on the other hand will be much more unstable, and
prone to overreacting to stimuli and may be quick to worry, anger or fear. They
are overly emotional and find it difficult to calm down once upset. Neurotic
individuals have an ANS that responds quickly to stress.

Psychoticism/normality
Eysenck (1966) later added a third trait / dimension -Psychoticism – e.g.,
lacking in empathy, cruel, a loner, aggressive and troublesome. This has been
related to high levels of testosterone. The higher the testosterone, the higher the
level of psychoticism, with low levels related to more normal balanced behaviour.
According to Eysenck, the two dimensions of neuroticism (stable vs. unstable)
and introversion-extroversion combine to form a variety of personality
characteristics.
Critical Evaluation
Twin studies can be used to see if personality is genetic. However, the findings
are conflicting and non-conclusive.
Shields (1976) found that monozygotic (identical) twins were significantly more
alike on the Introvert – Extrovert (E) and Psychoticism (P) dimensions than
dizygotic (non-identical) twins.
Loehlin, Willerman, and Horn (1988) found that only 50% of the variations of
scores on personality dimensions are due to inherited traits. This suggests that
social factors are also important.
One good element of Eysenck’s theory is that it takes into account both nature
and nurture. Eysenck’s theory argues strongly that biological predispositions
towards certain personality traits combined with conditioning and socialisation
during childhood in order to create our personality. This interactionist approach
may therefore be much more valid than either a biological or environmental
theory alone. It also links nicely with the diathesis stress model of behaviour
which argues for a biological predisposition combining with a environmental
trigger for a particular behaviour.

Eysenck Personality Inventory (EPI)

Cattell's 16PF Trait Theory

Cattell (1965) disagreed with Eysenck’s view that personality can be understood
by looking at only two or three dimensions of behavior.
Instead, he argued that that is was necessary to look at a much larger number of
traits in order to get a complete picture of someone’s personality.
Whereas Eysenck based his theory based on the responses of hospitalized
servicemen, Cattell collected data from a range of people through three different
sources of data.

 L-data - this is life record data such as school grades, absence from work,
etc.
  Q-data - this was a questionnaire designed to rate an individual's
personality (known as the 16PF) .
 T-data - this is data from objective tests designed to 'tap' into a personality
construct.

Cattell analyzed the T-data and Q-data using a mathematical technique called
factor analysis to look at which types of behavior tended to be grouped together
in the same people. He identified 16 personality traits / factors common to all
people.
Cattell made a distinction between source and surface traits. Surface traits are
very obvious and can be easily identified by other people, whereas source traits
are less visible to other people and appear to underlie several different aspects of
behavior.
Cattell regarded source traits are more important in describing personality than
surface traits.

Cattell produced a personality test similar to the EPI that measured each of the
sixteen traits. The 16PF (16 Personality Factors Test) has 160 questions in total,
ten questions relating to each personality factor.

Allport's Trait Theory

Allport's theory of personality emphasizes the uniqueness of the individual and
the internal cognitive and motivational processes that influence behavior. For
example, intelligence, temperament, habits, skills, attitudes, and traits.
Allport (1937) believes that personality is biologically determined at birth, and
shaped by a person's environmental experience.

Authoritarian Personality
Adorno et al. (1950) proposed that prejudice is the results of an individual’s
personality type. They piloted and developed a questionnaire, which they called
the F-scale (F for fascism).
Adorno argued that deep-seated personality traits predisposed some individuals
to be highly sensitive to totalitarian and antidemocratic ideas and therefore were
prone to be highly prejudicial.
The evidence they gave to support this conclusion included:
• Case studies, e.g., Nazis
• Psychometric testing (use of the F-scale)
• Clinical interviews revealed situational aspects of their childhood,
such as the fact that they had been brought up by very strict parents or
guardians, which were found of participants who scored highly on the F-
scale not always found in the backgrounds of low scorers.
Those with an authoritarian personality tended to be:
• Hostile to those who are of inferior status, but obedient to people with high
status
• Fairly rigid in their opinions and beliefs
• Conventional, upholding traditional values
Adorno concluded that people with authoritarian personalities were more likely
to categorize people into “us” and “them” groups, seeing their own group as
superior.
Therefore, the study indicated that individuals with a very strict upbringing by
critical and harsh parents were most likely to develop an authoritarian
personality.
Adorno believed that this was because the individual in question was not able to
express hostility towards their parents (for being strict and
critical). Consequently, the person would then displace this aggression / hostility
onto safer targets, namely those who are weaker, such as ethnic minorities.
Adorno et al. felt that authoritarian traits, as identified by the F-Scale, predispose
some individuals towards 'fascistic' characteristics such as:
• Ethnocentrism, i.e., the tendency to favor one's own ethnic group:
• Obsession with rank and status
• Respect for and submissiveness to authority figures
• Preoccupation with power and toughness.
In other words, according to Adorno, the Eichmanns of this world are there
because they have authoritarian personalities and therefore are predisposed
cruelty, as a result of their upbringing.
There is evidence that the authoritarian personality exists. This might help to
explain why some people are more resistant to changing their prejudiced views.

Critical Evaluation
There are many weaknesses in Adorno’s explanation of prejudice:
• Harsh parenting style does not always produce prejudice children / individuals
• Some prejudice people do not conform to the authoritarian personality type.
• Doesn’t explain why people are prejudiced against certain groups and not others.
Furthermore, the authoritarian explanation of prejudice does not explain how
whole social groups (e.g., the Nazis) can be prejudiced. This would mean that all
members of a group (e.g., Nazis) would have an authoritarian personality, which
is quite unlikely.
Cultural or social norms would seem to offer a better explanation of prejudice
and conflict than personality variables. Adorno has also been criticized for his
limited sample.
Also, Hyman and Sheatsley (1954) found that lower educational level was
probably a better explanation of high F-scale scores than an authoritarian.

Psychometrics and Personality Assessment

Test Theory
All scientific theories require measurement of the constructs underlying the field.
Personality theories are no different. Whether we are developing theories of species
typical behavior, of individual differences in behavior, or unique patterns of thoughts and
feelings, we need to be able to measure the responses in question. The fields of
psychometrics and personality assessment are devoted to the study of the
measurement of pscyhological constructs associated with personality.

Consider the case of differences in vocabulary in a particular language (e.g., English).

Although it is logically possible to organize people in terms of the specific words they
know in English, the more than 2^(500,000) possible response patterns that could be
found by quizzing people on each of the more than 500,000 words in English introduces
more complexity rather than less. Classical Test Theory (CTT) ignores individual
response patterns and estimates an individual's total vocabulary size by measuring
performance on small samples of words. Words are seen as random replicates of each
other and thus individual differences in total vocabulary size are estimated from
observed differences on these smaller samples. The Pearson Product Moment
Correlation Coefficient (r) compares the degree of covariance between these samples
with the variance within samples. As the number of words sampled increases, the
correlation of the individual differences within each sample and with those in the total
domain increases accordingly.

Estimates of ability based upon Item Response Theory (IRT) take into account
parameters of the words themselves (i.e., the difficulty and discriminability of each word)
and estimate a single ability parameter for each individual. Although CTT and IRT
estimates are highly correlated, CTT statistics are based on decomposing the sources
of variance within and between individuals while IRT statistics focus on the precision of
an individual estimate without requiring differences between individuals. CTT estimates
of reliability of ability measures are assessed across similar items (internal consistency),
across alternate forms, and across different forms of assessment as well as over time
(stability). Tests are reliable to the extent that differences within individuals are small
compared to those between individuals when generalizing across items, forms, or
occasions. CTT reliability thus requires between subject variability. IRT estimates, on
the other hand, are concerned with the precision of measurement for a particular person
in terms of a metric defined by item difficulty.

The test theory developed to account for sampling differences within domains can be
generalized to account for differences between domains. Just as different samples of
words will yield somewhat different estimates of vocabulary, different cognitive tasks
(e.g., vocabulary and arithmetic performance) will yield different estimates of
performance. Using multivariate procedures such as Principal Components Analysis or
Factor Analysis, it is possible to decompose the total variation into between domain
covariance, within domain covariance, and within domain variance. One of the most
replicable observations in the study of individual differences is that almost all tests
thought to assess cognitive ability have a general factor (g) that is shared with other
tests of ability. That is, although each test has specific variance associated with content
(e.g., linguistic, spatial), form of administration (e.g., auditory, visual), or operations
involved (e.g., perceptual speed, memory storage, memory retrieval, abstract
reasoning), there is general variance that is common to all tests of cognitive ability.

Statistical programs
Statistical techniques in personality measurement are available in a very powerful (and
open source) package, R. Although somewhat intimidating for the casual user, R is a
must have for all serious personality researchers. The R project, based upon the S and
S+ stats packages, has developed an extremely powerful set of "packages" that operate
within one program. Although described as merely "an effective data handling and
storage facility [with] a suite of operators for calculations on arrays, in particular,
matrices" R is, in fact, a very useful interactive package for data analysis. When
compared to most other stats packages used by psychologists, R has at least three
compelling advantages: it is free, it runs on multiple platforms (e.g., Windows, Unix,
Linux, and Mac OS X and Classic), and combines many of the most useful statistical
programs into one quasi integrated program. (R is free software as part of the GNU
 Project. That is, users are free to use, modify, and distribute the program, within the
limits of the GNU non-license). The program itself and detailed installation
instructions for Linux, Unix, Windows, and Macs are available
through CRAN (Comprehensive R Archive Network).
A guide to R for the personality researcher as well as a package of functions particularly
suited for personality measurement is now part of the personality project. The R suite of
programs includes many useful for the personality researcher, including factor analysis,
structural equation modeling, and multidimensional scaling. The psych package
includes basic tools for scale construction and analysis, including finding basic
descriptive statistics, using the Very Simple Structure (VSS) criterion for determing the
optimal number of factors , cluster analysis of items using the ICLUST algorithm,
hierarchical factor analysis with Schmid Leiman tranformations, and procedures for
estimating alternative measures of test reliablility (i.e., alpha, beta, and omega.) All of
these functions are available in the psych package which may be downloaded from
CRAN. First install R and then install.packages("psych").
Statistical packages for personality research are also commercially available in such
programs as SPSS, SYSTAT, or SAS. Bob Muenchen has developed a comparison of
the features of R with SAS and SPSS.
In addition, short courses on R have been offered at various personality and psychology
conferences. The readings for those provide more information about R for the
psychology student, with a particular emphasis upon those interested in personality.
General research methods
 B. Robins, C. Fraley, and R. Krueger (2007), Personality Research Methods, Guilford. is
a handbook on research in personality. Chapters include:
 Revelle, W. (2007) Experimental Approaches to the Study of Personality, in B. Robins,
C. Fraley, and R. Krueger, Personality Research Methods, Guilford. (includes an online
appendix simulating experimental data with a discussion of how to analyze it.)
Psychometric Theory
The measurement of individual differences is of primary concern to personality
psychologists. Issues in measurement include fundamentals of scaling, measures of
association, determining the relationship between observed and latent variables,
reliable measurement of variables, and validity of these measures. These topics are
addressed in as yet unfinshed text on psychometric theory with applications in R
(Revelle, in prep). Chapters currently available include:

 Chapter 1: Introduction
 Chapter 2: A theory of Data
 Chapter 3: The problem of scale
 Chapter 4: Correlation and Covariance
 Chapter 5: Multiple Correlation and Multiple Regression
 Chapter 6: Constructs, components, and factor models
 Chapter 7: Reliability
 Chapter 8: Item Response Theory (incomplete)
 Appendix A Getting Started (with R)
 Appendix B: R Commands (preliminary)
 Appendix E: Review of Matrix Algebra including using R for matrix operations
 Readings in Measurement
 Brief biographies of important figures in measurement are available from the University
of Indiana Intelligence project:
o Binet,
o Galton,
o James,
o Pearson,
o Spearman, and
o Yerkes.
 And from the Personality Project
o Charles Spearman
o Raymond Cattell
o Francis Galton
o Hans Eysenck
 Much of psychological measurement has been concerned with the measurement of
ability and intelligence. Relevant readings are discussed on the intelligence page.
 ERIC has a series of useful online tutorials in test construction and measurement: "This
is a set of on-line, full-text books and booklets addressing practical evaluation, research,
measurement, and statistical issues. The series started as a joint project of ERIC/AE
and Bruce Thompson, Texas A&M University. The ERIC Clearinghouse on Assessment
and Evaluation, and Bill Trochim's Center for Social Research Methods". This later
reference is a very good tutorial for basic multivariate concepts.

ERIC "How to series" including:

o Research Methods
o Measurement
o Statistics
 For an introduction to recent advances in Item Response Theory see:
o Lowman, R. L. (1996) What Every Psychologist Should Know about
Assessment. Psychological Assessment, 8, 339-340.
o Embretson, S.E. (1996) The New Rules of Measurement. Psychological Assessment,
8, 341-349.
o Reckase, M.D. (1996) Test Construction in the 1990s: Recent Approaches Every
Psychologist Should Know. Psychological Assessment, 8, 354-359.
o See also an example of how IRT techniques differ from conventional Factor Analytic
results when developing scales from dichotomous items.
Waller, N. G., Tellegen, A., McDonald, R. P., & Lykken, D. T. (1996). Exploring
Nonlinear Models in Personality Assessment: Development and Preliminary Validation
of a Negative Emotionality Scale. Journal of Personality, 64, 545-576.
o Software to do IRT is available as part of the ltm package in R.
 The SEMNET FAQ(The Structural Equation Net-- Frequently Asked Questions) includes
o What is Structural Equation Modeling
o The Form of Structural Equation Models
o Alternatives to Structural Equation Modeling and Confirmatory Factor Analysis
o Programs for doing Structural Equation Modeling include John Fox's sem package in R.
o Courses or readings in Structural Equation Modeling include
 Bollen, K.A. (2002) Latent variables in psychology and the social sciences. Annual
Review of Psychology.
 John Fox: York University: Structural Equation Modeling
 Kenny, D. University of Connecticut Structural Equation Modeling
 Revelle, W., Northwestern University Structural Equation Modeling
 An important discussion of the criteria used for evaluating SEM adequacy is found in the
May, 2007 issue of Personality and Individual Differences with a lead article by Paul
Barrett and commentaries by Peter Bentler, Roger Millsap, Stanly Mulaik, James
Steiger, and others. (For readers with access to the Science Direct journals, the URL
is http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/01918869 and then search for the May,
2007 issue.)
 Classic or well cited readings in personality assessment include:
o Rorer, LG. (1990). Personality Assessment: A Conceptual Survey. In LA Pervin
(Ed.), Handbook of Personality: Theory and Research (pp.693-720). New York:
Guilford.
o Wiggins, J.S. (1973) Personality and Prediction: Principles of Personality Assessment.
Reading, Ma: Addison-Wesley. Reprinted (1988) by Krieger Publishing, Malabar, FL.
o John, OP. (1990). The "Big Five" factor taxonomy: Dimensions of Personality in the
Natural Language and in Questionnaires. In LA Pervin (Eds.), Handbook of Personality:
Theory and Research . New York: Guilford. (See also Big 5 references)
o An introduction to Personality Measurement suitable for advanced undergraduates is
Briggs, S. R. Personality Measurement in In Derlega, V., Winstead, B.A., Jones,
W.H. Personality: Contemporary Theory and Research. (2nd Edition). Nelson Hall,
1999, Chicago.