Introduction to Personality

Unit 4: Introduction to Personality

We all understand what is meant by personality, and our own opinions about how and why others behave as they do. These can be defined as lay theories of personality, which are distinct from psychological theories. The latter aim to conceptualise an agreed-upon construct in a way that is measurable, whilst also explaining how and why we behave as we do. There have been many attempts by psychologists to define and explain personality, and in this unit we shall look at the humanistic approach and Sigmund Freuds contributions in this area.

Freuds work is most closely linked in popular culture with the field of psychoanalysis. His name conjures up disapproval from scientific psychologists, including accusations of pseudoscience, an overzealousness and offensive disregard for his female patients, and cocaine addiction. He did, in fact, provide his fiance with the gift of a gram of cocaine to make her strong and give her cheeks a red colour (Byck, 1974, p7). The stories around Freud are part fiction and partly fact. He was not a pseudoscientist, but one of the first to adopt a documented and detailed, methodological approach to the study of the human mind. He published several important papers and books as well as founding the field of psychoanalysis. In his later years, Freud did begin to doubt the validity of some of his writings on the memories of his female patients, who were mostly upper class, Viennese women who had been possibly sexually abused.

This unit also covers the humanistic approach; an approach to personality that studies and emphasises the whole person, with a focus on the uniqueness of everyone. Personality studied from this perspective examines human behaviour through the eyes of both the observer and the person being observed. This is known as a phenomenological approach and it is different from Freuds approach because the shift is from the unconscious to how individuals perceive and interpret events. Rogers is particularly important because he redirected psychology towards the study of the self, and away from what were perhaps felt to be the dehumanising focuses of both behaviourism and psychodynamic approaches.

This week we shall:

• Introduce the concept of personality, along with lay theories of personality.
• Look at psychological definitions and aims of personality theories.
• Introduce two influential psychological theories of personality: Psychodynamic and humanistic.

On completion of this week you will be able to:

• Critically evaluate lay theories of personality.
• Define the psychological approach to personality theories.
• Explain the contribution made by Humanists and Freud to the field of individual differences.
• Critically evaluate the humanistic and psychoanalytical models of personality.
• Describe the major psychoanalytical personality constructs.
• Evaluate the contribution that the humanistic model has made towards person-centred therapy.

Lecturecast

In this lecturecast, we will cover:

• Critical evaluation of lay theories of personality.
• Defining the psychological approach to personality theories.
• Explaining the contribution made by Humanists and Freud to the field of individual differences.
• Critical evaluation of the humanistic and psychoanalytical models of personality.
• Describing the major psychoanalytical personality constructs.
• Evaluating the contribution that the humanistic model has made towards person-centred therapy.
• The personal construct theory of Kelly and Rogers.
• The psychodynamic work of Sigmund Freud.

Unit 5: Trait Theories of Personality

For practicing psychologists, trait theories of personality are often used to explain individual differences in preferences and behaviour partially because these theories lend themselves well to being measured using psychometric assessments (which we will learn more about in Unit 6), to see where people sit on a scale of personality traits. Raymond Cattell (1905-1998) was one of the first psychologists to use this mental model framework to make some categorisations about the traits that make up personality. Initially he started with thousands of traits, something known as the inductive-hypothetico-deductive spiral approach (Cattell, 1978), eventually condensing those vast numbers down into 16 primary traits using the statistical method of factor analysis. This created a sixteen personality factor questionnaire known as the 16PF.

This shifted thinking in the field away from grand theories of personality as a state, changing over time, towards a nomothetic trait definition of personality as a constant characteristic that remains more, or less constant over time. While Cattells 16 personality factors progressed the field of personality psychology into thinking about traits rather than states, researchers struggled to replicate so many factors of personality, and thus followed one of the most widely influential trait theories of personality, Goldberg (1980s) and Costa & McCraes Big 5:

Since then, theorists have considered a sixth factor of honesty/humility (Ashton & Lees 2007 HEXACO model).

On completion of this week you will be able to:

• Discuss the contribution that trait approach theories have made to the development of the field of individual differences.
• Critically evaluate trait theories of personality, including the 16PF and the Big Five models.
• Evaluate the contribution that 16PF and Big Five theories have made to the measurement of personality.

Reading

This week's reading focuses on chapter 7 of Maltby et al (2022), which is an excellent overview of the history of trait theories of personality; how they came about (the lexical approach), key theorists in the area and more recent thinking on the topic. Next, Bleidorn et al (2022) critiques the assertation often made by trait theorists that personality is stable over time and does not change during adulthood.

UNIT 6

Unit 6: Measurement of Personality and Psychometric Testing

Welcome to Unit 6. In this unit we will be introducing psychometric tests, and personality testing in particular. Psychometric tests can be described as A standardised sample of behaviour which can be described by a numerical scale or category system Cronbach (1984). This type of test comes in many forms, but most commonly they can be divided into assessments of intelligence, ability, personality and interest inventories.

For many years, psychometric assessments were mainly pencil and paper based tests, meaning that individuals would be asked a series of questions with a multiple-choice (e.g. choose from A, B, C or D) or Likert-scale (choose a position on the scale from 1: strongly disagree to 5: strongly agree) format. While such formats long ago migrated to online assessments, the question and answer structure of the psychometric tests remained much the same. More recently, however, psychometric tests have taken on different formats with the intention of being more engaging, immersive and even fun for test takers. Take a look at this weeks activities to see some examples of these types of psychometric tests.

However, no matter the format of psychometric tests, two vital considerations remain: the tests reliability and validity. These are covered in this weeks reading, as well as during the seminar.

This week we shall:

• Introduce the concept of psychometric testing.
• Consider key elements of psychometric test design.
• Review commonly used measures of personality.

On completion of this week you will be able to:

• Describe the key principles of psychometric test design.
• Discuss the importance of reliability and validity in psychometric tests.
• Describe some commonly used personality measures.
• Critique the use of personality tests in occupational settings.

Reading

This week's reading focuses on chapter 23 of Maltby et al (2022), which gives a worked example of developing a psychometric test of academic vindictiveness, which brings to life some of the concepts we have discussed in this unit. While video-based and game-based psychometrics may be different for the user to interact with, they should all have undergone the same development process behind the scenes as Maltby et al (2022) describes. Remember that psychometric tests can be used to assess a range of individual differences, including intelligence and ability, not only personality.

Occupational psychology is a discipline in which personality testing is particularly used. Hough and Oswalds (2008) paper provides an interesting summary of the history and use of personality tests in this field. Similarly, Remann and Nordin (2021) summarise some of the assumptions of personality testing in recruitment and give an overview and critique of some of the psychometric tests frequently used. Finally, Landers and Sanchezs (2022) article offers an in-depth critique about different approaches to gamifying assessments and the extent to which the evidence supports this practice.

Formative Activity

Ensure you complete the End of Module Essay Activity: Personality Test, which is relevant to your End of Module Essay, due in Unit 9.

UNIT 7

Unit 7: Individual Differences and Everyday Life

Welcome to Unit 7, where we will explore some ways in which individual differences can affect ones everyday life. It is probably evident to you by now from the topics we have covered so far in this module that the impact of intelligence and personality (traits or types) are far-reaching in real life settings. In this unit, we will explore a small subset of these; focusing mainly on their relationship with health and creativity although you may wish to read around any number of other elements of individual differences and every day life (note that we will look at workplace outcomes in unit 8).

Creativity is a concept that has been debated in the psychological literature, with some researchers categorising it as a trait and others suggesting it is an ability or specific intelligence (does this remind you of emotional intelligence at all?). We shall look in this unit at the relationship with the Big Five personality traits and creativity outcomes; one trait stands out above the others in consistently showing a positive correlation with creativity, while data on the other traits remain more mixed. A similar pattern can be found when we look at physical health, with some traits seeming to correlate consistently while others do not. However, an important consideration is this: while physical health is a crucial feature of every day lives (indeed, Steven Bartlett goes as far as saying that we are nothing without our health; it is only when we lose our health that we notice how important it is to us), to what extent is it actually beneficial to examine and measure the relationship between individual differences and physical health? We shall explore these concepts in your reading and the Lecturecast for this unit.

This week we shall:

• Explore the definitions of creativity.
• Consider the role of personality traits and motivation in creative outcomes.
• Look at how personality may impact physical health and vice versa.
• Explore which personality traits are most related to physical health.
• Consider the benefits and drawbacks of investigating individual differences in relation to ill health.

On completion of this week you will be able to:

• Define conceptualisations of creativity as a trait or ability.
• Describe the relationships between Big Five personality traits and creative outcomes.
• Critique the moderating role of motivation between personality and creativity.
• Explain the different ways that personality and physical health may be related to each other.
• Describe the relationships between Big Five personality traits and physical health.
• Critique the benefit of investigating individual differences in relation to ill health.

Lecturecast

In this lecturecast, we will cover:

• Defining conceptualisations of creativity as a trait or ability.
• Describing the relationships between Big Five personality traits and creative outcomes.
• Critiquing the moderating role of motivation between personality and creativity.
• Explaining the different ways that personality and physical health may be related to each other.
• Describing the relationships between Big Five personality traits and physical health.
• Critiquing the benefit of investigating individual differences in relation to ill health.

Reading

This week's reading focuses on creativity. Selby, Shaw and Houtzs (2005) article on The Creative Personality provides a very readable summary of theories of creativity over time, as they align to broader shifting personality paradigms. They discuss the conceptualisation and measurement of creative personalities and provide some thoughts on implications for this in talent development in education settings. After this, read Jirsek and Sudzinas (2020) survey-based study on the relationship between the Big Five Personality Traits and creativity, which provides a brief overview of research on this topic to date. Sung and Chois (2009) paper provides an overview of the literature on the moderating role of motivation in the relationship between the Big Five Personality Traits and creativity.

Moving onto health outcomes, chapter 22 of Maltby et al (2022) gives a thorough introduction to the topic of personality and health, and poses some interesting questions about how psychologists should use knowledge in this area to benefit individuals experiencing ill health.

UNIT 8

Unit 8: Individual Differences at Work and Leadership

In Unit 8 we will look at the impact of intelligence and personality in workplace settings, and how these are related to leadership. Decades ago, psychologists were largely of the opinion that general intelligence was the most important predictor of life success overall, including academic and workplace achievements. More recently, this viewpoint has been critiqued as evidence suggests that personality traits such as conscientiousness may provide incremental predictive validity for such outcomes over general intelligence scores.

We know from the last unit also that emotional intelligence is an important predictor of life outcomes including career and work success. However, there are a huge number of variables at play which can influence the strength of relationships between individual differences and workplace outcomes, and we will explore the complexities of this topic during this unit.

This week we shall:

• Explore the extent to which intelligence is an important predictor of workplace success.
• Examine how personality traits can influence the types of work people do, and how well they do it.
• Introduce key theories of leadership.
• Consider the role of individual differences in what makes workplace leaders great.

On completion of this week you will be able to:

• Critically evaluate the importance of intelligence in career and workplace success.
• Describe and critique the role of different personality traits at work.
• Analyse influential theories of leadership and the role of individual differences in these.

Reading

This week's reading focuses on chapter 15 of Maltby et al (2022), which provides a helpful introduction to this topic, including the nuances and challenges of using popular and validated measures of personality and intelligence in workplace settings. Touzes (2005) article, while a couple of decades old, still provides an insightful overview of the role of personality in predicting workplace performance, while Ritz et al's article (2023) considers personality conceptualisation and measurement in the workplace.

When it comes to intelligence and work success, the title of Schmidts (2012) chapter 1 summarises the research literature well, and this piece of reading provides a good grounding in the empirical literature on the topic of g in the workplace, and how to select candidates based on this. However, do not forget the debates we have covered in this module so far about the extent to which this may be changing with technology advancements and recall the reading from Woods and Patterson (2023) from Unit 1, which outlined why using tests of cognitive ability to select for job roles may not always be a good idea.

Looking at leadership, Nawaz and Khans (2016) article provides an excellent overview of theories of leadership and the theorised roles of individual differences. Finally, Ryan and Haslams (2007) paper provides an interesting take on the leadership roles women are appointed to in contrast to men and the implicit theories of leadership that favour men in such roles.

UNIT 9

Unit 9: Wellbeing and Personality Disorders

Welcome to the final unit of this module, where we will consider how personality impacts wellbeing more broadly and indeed what is meant by the term wellbeing. You will no doubt have your own implicit understanding of what wellbeing looks like for you, and perhaps also some theories about how your own personality traits may be related to this (note: this is important for your final assignment, so keep this in mind as you work through this units content!). An important reminder is that wellbeing is not simply the absence of ill health, nor is it necessarily about spa treatments and escaping ones day-to-day lives. We will look at two different philosophical and psychological approaches to the definition of wellbeing during this unit, as well as how personality traits are related to these.

So far in this module we have considered the range of personality types and traits that are broadly considered to be normal; i.e. not directly related to dangerous behaviour or mental ill health. However, personality disorders do exist (in some estimates for up to 20% of the general population, although the exact percentage is disputed), and so in this final unit we will consider types of personality disorders and how individuals may come to develop them.

This week we shall:

• Explore approaches to defining and measuring wellbeing.
• Consider how different types of wellbeing are related to the Big Five personality traits.
• Examine personality disorders and the ways in which these can be diagnosed.
• Look at biological (genetic) and social (environmental) predictors of personality disorders.

On completion of this week you will be able to:

• Describe the constructs of subjective wellbeing and psychological wellbeing and outline the differences between them.
• Explain how subjective and psychological wellbeing are related to personality.
• Define the main personality disorders as classified by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5).
• Discuss the various genetic and environmental influences on personality disorders.

Lecturecast

In this lecturecast, we will:

• Describe the constructs of subjective wellbeing and psychological wellbeing and outline the differences between them.
• Explain how subjective and psychological wellbeing are related to personality.
• Define the main personality disorders as classified by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5).
• Discuss the various genetic and environmental influences on personality disorders.