Personality Theories

and Measurements
What is personality?
A sample definition:
◦ “Behaviors, style of thought, speech,
perception and interpersonal interactions
that are consistently characteristic of an
individual”

Personality does not predict individual

behaviors
Personality gives insight into the
psychological triad
 Content and Process of Personality
Content of personality consist of TRAITS
Traits are consistent and stable characteristics of individuals
Personality traits are divided into Broad and Narrow
Examples of narrow personality traits: obsessive-compulsive, curiosity,
grandiose, argumentative
Examples of broad personality traits: Big Five in the US (NEO-AC) (more about
this model later)
Alternative broad models: Story of Big Five, Super Three, and Magnificent Seven
 Process of Personality
Personality traits are consistent and stable across time and situations
Personality traits have been found to be consistent and stable across adulthood
(4-5 decades)
If an individual difference is not consistent and stable across time and situations,
it would not be considered personality
It could be attitudes, interests, values, etc
Speilberger’s STAI: Important distinction between State anxiety and Trait anxiety
Personality can change: Trauma, significant life event, psychotherapy
The Person vs. The Situation
Is personality the result of heredity or the
environment?
◦ Heredity refers to genetic factors
◦ The environment refers to our life experiences
and social contexts
◦ Do enduring personality traits exist?
◦ Do people differ across different situations?
 Dangers of Dualism (Perry)
Walter Mischel’s work showing the superiority of situations (vs personality) in predicting
behavior
Remember the goals of psychology is to describe, explain, PREDICT, and control behavior.
With situationalism’s superior predictive power, personality research fell out of favor and
fashion in Psychology for many decades
Problem was Mischel’s research used very broad constructs of personality (e.g. Neuroticism to
represent entire field of clinical psychology)
Another problem is the hierarchy of science (experimental psychology is believed to be superior
to differential psychology)
Personality research eventually regained a central position in Psychology.
 Dangers of Dualism (Perry)
Dualism is too simplistic…it is not situation vs personality but BOTH situation and
personality in predicting behavior.
Example: Aggressive personality traits and a bar fight
Similar problem in intelligence…is it genetics vs environment that determines
intelligence
Leona Tyler, leading researcher in Differential Psychology, said that it is not
genes or environment but genes AND environment
This has lead to better theories and models in behavioral genetics and
epigenetics
Personality Development over the
Lifespan
Personality changes across the
entire lifespan
Stability increases with age
◦ .31 in childhood
◦ .54 during college
◦ .74 between ages 50 and 70

Individual differences in
personality are generally
maintained throughout life
Self-Monitoring
Self-monitoring: how much do our
thoughts, feelings, and behaviors
vary across different situations
High self-monitors
◦ More reactive to situational cues
that tell them how to act
Low self-monitors
◦ More driven by personality traits
Relationships and Jobs
Personality predicts:
◦ Number of friends
◦ The extent to which people have successful and non-abusive relationships
◦ How much people will promote the goals of the organization for which they work
Self-Report (S) Data
A person’s evaluation of his or her own personality
◦ Typically surveys
◦ High face validity

Advantages
◦ Very easy to administer
◦ High quantity of information
◦ Awareness of your own thoughts and feelings
◦ Self-efficacy and goal-setting
◦ Self-fulfilling prophecies

Disadvantages
◦ Too easy to use
◦ Dependent on honesty
◦ Dependent on accuracy
Informant-Report (I) Data
A person’s evaluation about the
personality of another individual
Advantages
◦ Can still get a lot of information
◦ Ecological validity

Disadvantages
◦ Limited by the relationship with the
individual
◦ Cannot know someone’s true inner
thoughts or feelings
◦ Anecdotal evidence
Life Outcomes (L) Data
Real-life outcomes that can be related to a person’s psychology
◦ Public records or self-report data

Advantages
◦ High accuracy
◦ Objective
◦ Verifiable
◦ Intrinsically valuable

Disadvantages
◦ Access or privacy concerns
◦ Discounts situational factors
Behavioral (B) Data
Systematic and direct observation of behavior
Natural behavioral research methods
◦ Experience sampling
◦ Observers
◦ Audio or video recording

Advantages
◦ Measures real behaviors

Disadvantages
◦ Difficult
◦ Expensive
◦ Can’t control situational factors
Laboratory Behavioral Data
Experiments
Personality tests
Physiological measures
Advantages
◦ You control the context
◦ Higher objectivity, reliability
and precision
Disadvantage
◦ Judgments are subjective
◦ Artificial environment
 Myers-Briggs Type Indicator
The most widely used personality framework is the Myers-Briggs Type
Indicator (MBTI).
Individuals are classified as:
◦ Extroverted or Introverted (E or I)
◦ Sensing or Intuitive (S or N)
◦ Thinking or Feeling (T or F)
◦ Perceiving or Judging (P or J)
The Big Five Personality Traits
Discovery of the Big Five
◦ Lexical hypothesis: important aspects of life will be
labeled with words, and if something is truly
important and universal there will be many words
for it in all languages
◦ Look for traits that have the most words and are
the most universal across languages
◦ Factor analysis
The Big Five Model – Practical
Applications
 Culture and Personality
Problem of WEIRD Science
Cross-Cultural Psychology as one solution
Test for cultural validity and search for cultural specificity
Concept of Etic and Emic
Counter Dualism: Not either/or BUT both/an
Cheung, van de Vijver, and Leong, Combined Approach (American Psychologist)
 Commonly used Western
Personality Tests in Asia
MMPI-2
EPQ
NEO-PI-R
Measures of Depression – BDI, CES-D
Measures of Anxiety – STAI
 Ethnocentrism in Cross-Cultural
Personality Assessment
Marsella & Leong (1995)
Error of omission
Failure to conduct cross-cultural comparisons in reaching conclusions
about human behavior  imposition of inaccurate generalizations
Error of commission
Use of instruments and assessment methods that are not equivalent
for the groups under study
 Issues in Cross-Cultural
Personality Assessment
Gaps in culturally relevant constructs

Translated tests are imported Western measures – using

imposed etic concepts

Are the imposed etic personality constructs universally

applicable?
 Issues in Cross-Cultural
Personality Assessment
Gaps in culturally relevant constructs

Indigenous and culturally relevant constructs may be missing - emic

concepts

Are there personality characteristics that are important to the

understanding of mental health and personality in the local culture
that have been left out in Western measures?
 Development of the Chinese
Personality Assessment Inventory (CPAI)
Objective - To construct a comprehensive personality inventory
suited to the local needs while retaining the psychometric
standards of established assessment measures

A combined emic-etic approach –

includes both universal and indigenous personality constructs
 Development of the CPAI
Personality constructs derived from
Literature review
◦ Contemporary Chinese literature
◦ Research on Chinese personality

Empirical surveys of everyday life experience

◦ Surveys of interpersonal perception
◦ Street polls of self-descriptions

Focus group discussions

 Development of the CPAI
Scale Construction
◦ Items written to fit the derived constructs

Preliminary Study for Item Selection

◦ based on psychometric properties of items and
scales
 CPAI-2 Scales

28 personality scales

12 clinical scales

3 validity scales/index
 CPAI-2 Factor Structure
Four Normal Personality Factors

1. Social Potency (16.7%)

2. Dependability (16.5%)
3. Accommodation (12.2%)
4. Interpersonal Relatedness (10.0 %)

Total variance explained 55.4%

 Interpersonal Relatedness Factor

Traditionalism vs Modernity
Renqing (Relationship Orientation)
Social Sensitivity
Harmony
Discipline
Thrift-Extravagance
 Some Important Insights
Science of Psychology (Assumed neutrality in search of
Truth)
Psychology of Science: Science is a human enterprise
and Scientists are human beings
Cultural Positionality: Scientists are also cultural beings,
no human being is acultural
Therefore, it is important to view Science from a cultural
lens and examine implicit motives