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MAIN PERSPECTIVES:Psychometrics, observation, Behavioral Coding Systems

<< PERSONALITY MEASUREMENT:Observational Procedures, Rating Scales
SIGMUND FREUD: A PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORY OF PERSONALITY >>
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Personality Psychology ­ PSY 405
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Lesson 03
MAIN PERSPECTIVES
Personality is a commonly used term with no universally accepted definition. It refers generally to the
pattern of psychological and behavioral characteristics that distinguishes each person from everyone else.
Personality can be approached or studied using the four perspectives:
1-Psychodynamic
2-Dispositional
3-Behavioral
4-Humanistic
Personality assessment is done by following tools:
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Observation
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Interview
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Tests
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Objective Tests (e.g. MMPI-2)
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Projective Tests
Projective tests include:
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Rorschach inkblot test
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Thematic Apperception test-TAT
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Rotter's incomplete sentence blank-RISB
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word association test- WAT
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House Tree Person-HTP
Psychometrics:
Psychometrics, or psychological measurement, has significantly helped to make Psychology a science.
Before the advent of psychometrics, it was not possible, to measure aspects of human psychological
functioning, e.g., intelligence, aptitudes, interests, motives, personality traits. Now, within certain
limitations, such measurements can be obtained. When psychological testing was introduced, the field of
personality acquired the potential for quantification and measurement of its concepts. In brief,
psychometrics made possible meaningful research in personality.
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Why does a friendly person get nasty and mean?
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What makes a person confident and optimistic even under stressful situation?
To address these questions Psychologists employ assessment methods.
Personality measurement and assessment procedures are useful in understanding the person.
Personality assessment is done by following tools:
·
Observation
·
Interview
·
Tests
·
Objective Tests (e.g. MMPI-2)
·
Projective Tests
Projective tests include:
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Personality Psychology ­ PSY 405
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Rorschach inkblot test
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Thematic Apperception test-TAT
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Rotter's incomplete sentence blank-RISB
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word association test- WAT
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House Tree Person-HTP
1- observation:
The observation of people's behavior can be done with their permission
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Observation
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Home
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Visiting a home to observe family interactions at meal time
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School
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Watching children at play ground
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Self
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Asking people to keep a track of or monitor themselves by keeping a record
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Hospital
The hospital nurse or a family member is to observe the patient's behavior related to taking medicine, food
and responding to people
The clinician observes the person's behavior and the environment in which it occurs without attempting to
change the frequency or intensity of specific responses.
Although observations are often conducted in the natural environment, there are times when it is useful to
observe the person's behavior in a situation that the psychologist can arrange and control (laboratory).
Observational Procedures:
Observational skills play an important part in most assessment procedures.
Sometimes the things that we observe confirm the person's self-report, and at other times the person's overt
behavior appears to be at odds with what he or she says.
2. Interviews:
The interview is the most commonly used procedure in psychological assessment. Interviews provide an
opportunity to ask people for their own descriptions of their problems or personality. Interviews also allow
clinicians to observe important features of a person's appearance and nonverbal behavior. Interviews vary
with regard to the amount of structure that is imposed by the clinician.
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1-Some are relatively open-ended, or nondirective.
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2- some are directive
Structured interviews, in which the clinician must ask each patient a specific list of detailed questions, are
frequently employed for collecting information that will be used to make diagnostic decisions and to rate
the extent to which a person is impaired by psychopathology. Structured interviews list a series of specific
questions that lead to a detailed description of the person's behavior and experiences. Structured interview
schedules provide a systematic framework for the collection of important diagnostic information, but they
don't eliminate the need for an experienced clinician
3. Behavioral Coding Systems:
Rather than making judgments about where the person falls on a particular dimension, behavioral coding
systems focus on the frequency of specific behavioral events. Some adult clients are able to make records
and keep track of their own behavior--a procedure known as self-monitoring.
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Personality Psychology ­ PSY 405
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4. Personality Inventories/ personality tests (objective tests):
Personality inventories present an elaborate picture of an individual's overall personality including the
traits, the characteristics, the tendency and the styles that are thought to underlie behavior. The questions in
personality inventories are presented in form of statements. These statements are the items of personality
test. Many personality inventories are available such as MMPI Minnesota Multiphasic Personality
Inventory. This test was develop in 1940 and published in 1943. It is based on empirical approach i.e. the
collection and evaluation of data. The individual is presented with statements and the answers have options
like true, false and cannot say. Some of the statements from MMPI are following:
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I cry easily
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I am happy most of the time.
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I believe, I am being followed
MMPI consisted of 550 items. MMPI consists of ten clinical scales, meaning that it diagnosis people on
ten clinical disorders. It has got four validity scales,
Which include:
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Lie scale
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The F Scale Infrequency scale
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K scale-Defensiveness Scale
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The Can not say scale
The most extensively used personality Inventory is the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory
(MMPI). The inventory was revised several years ago, and it is currently known as the MMPI-2.The
MMPI-2 is based on 567 statements that cover topics ranging from physical complaints and psychological
states to occupational preferences and social attitudes. Scoring of the MMPI-2 is objective.
6. Projective Personality Tests:
Psychoanalytic personality theorists have developed several assessment measures known as projective
tests. They include a variety of methods in which ambiguous stimuli, such as pictures of people, or things
are presented to a person who is asked to describe what he or she sees. The theory here is that people
`project' their own personality, their needs, their wishes, their desires and their unconscious fears on other
people and things such as ink blots, pictures, sometimes vague and sometimes structure. Projective tests are
based on psychoanalytic theory. They have been and they still remain, controversial. Some of the most
widely used projective tests are Rorschach Ink Blot Test, the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT), House
Tree Person (HTP) and the Rotter's Incomplete Sentence Blank (RISB).
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In projective tests, the person is presented with a series of ambiguous stimuli.
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The known projective test, introduced in 1921 by Hermann Rorschach, a Swiss psychiatrist, is
based on the use of inkblots.
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Projective techniques such as the Rorschach test were originally based on psychodynamic
assumptions about the nature of personality and psychopathology.
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Considerable emphasis was placed on the importance of unconscious motivations --conflicts and
impulses of which the person is largely unaware.
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More recent approaches to the use of projective tests view the person's descriptions of the cards as
a sample of his or her perceptual and cognitive styles. This test consists of ten standardized ink blot
cards. That serves as ambiguous stimuli. The examiner presents the inkblots cards one by one to
the person being examined, who responds by telling what he or she sees.
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The therapists may encourage the subject to give more detailed answers and you may get different
responses on the same inkblot. Exner's system of administering and scoring the Rorschach inkblot
test specifies how the card should be presented, what should the examiner say and how the
responses should be recorded.
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Personality Psychology ­ PSY 405
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The Thematic Apperception Test (TAT): consists of a series of drawings that depict human figures in
various ambiguous situations.
The person is asked to describe the identities of the people in the cards and to make up a story about what is
happening. Morgan and Murray at the Harvard Psychological Clinic developed the TAT. It consists of 31
cards, 30 with pictures on them and one blank card. The picture card is shown to the subject and the
therapist asks the subject to tell a dramatic story about the picture. The instructions of the test begin `this is
a test of imagination, one form of intelligence. Let your imaginations have its way as in a fairy story and
tell what the people in the picture card are doing.' The story should have a title, a beginning, a middle part
and an end. The basic assumption is that most of the subjects will reveal their unconscious mental
processes, their needs, desires on the characters of their stories about the pictures. There have been several
variations of the TAT for different groups e.g. CAT- Children Apperception Test and SAT A Senior
Apperception Technique.
Rotter's Incomplete Sentence Blank Test
This test consists of a series unfinished sentences that people are asked to complete, usually it is considered
a good spring board to explore and pinpoint areas of an individual's life that are problematic or conflicting.
The sentences are usually, I wish _____. My father is ______. Girls are _____. Home is a place ________.
This test explores an individual's social, familial and general attitudes towards life. This test has 40 items
which are in form of incomplete sentences. This test has qualitative and quantitative scoring procedures.
House Tree and Person (HTP)
This is a test which tells us about the evaluations of the drawings based on the quality and shape of the
drawing, solidity of a pencil line, location of the drawing on the paper, the size of the figure, features of the
figures, use of the background and comments made by the respondent during the drawing task. The house
reflects individual's interpersonal relationships, the tree reflects ego development and functioning and the
Person reflects the individual self perception and perception of the other gender.
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Advantages of Projective Tests: Some people may feel more comfortable talking in an
unstructured situation than they would if they were required to participate in a structured interview
or to complete the lengthy MMPI. Projective tests can provide an interesting source of information
regarding the person's unique view of the world, and they can be a useful supplement to
information obtained with other assessment tools. To whatever extent a person's relationships with
other people are governed by unconscious cognitive and emotional events, projective tests may
provide information that cannot be obtained through direct interviewing methods or observational
procedures.
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Limitations of Projective Tests: Lack of standardization in administration and scoring is a serious
problem. Little information is available on which to base comparisons to normal adults or children.
Some projective procedures, such as the Rorschach, can be very time-consuming. The reliability of
scoring and interpretation tends to be low.
Personality can be approached or studied using the four perspectives:
·
1-Psychodynamic
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2-Dispositional
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3-Behavioral
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4-Humanistic
Perspectives of psychology
1- The psychodynamics approach was founded by Freud, who assumes that a human personality is
formed out of conflicts between basic needs and demands of the society. Most of these conflicts are at the
unconscious level and they affect our everyday behavior
Freud believed that personality has three components-id, ego and super ego. He also emphasized on the
role of ego defense mechanisms which keep these conflicts at the unconscious level. He further talked
about psycho sexual stages of development-such as oral, anal, phallic, latency and genital stage.
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Personality Psychology ­ PSY 405
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There are other psychodynamic theorists who differed from Freud such as:
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Jung
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Adler
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Karen Horney
2- The dispositional Approach:
This Approach assumes that personality is made up of a set of stable internal characteristics that guide
behavior. These characteristics are described as personality types but more often each person's unique
combination of traits, factors or needs. These inherited tendencies or traits are the raw material which is
molded into a unique personality by the environment.
3- The Behavioral Approach:
This Approach assumes that personality is a unique pattern of learned behavior that people display in
various situations. This perception is advocated by Watson and Skinner. There are certain behaviorists who
include the role of learned patterns of thinking as well-such ad cognitive-behavioral approach whish
emphasizes on behavior as the outcome of person-situation interactions.
4- The Humanistic Approach
It is based on the assumption that personality is determined by the unique ways in which each individual
views the world. These perceptions of the person form a personal vision of reality and guides behavior of
the person to reach its fullest human potential. This Approach is represented in the theories of Carl Rogers
and Maslow.
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Table of Contents:
  1. THE NATURE OF PERSONALITY THEORY:Objectives of Personality Psychology
  2. PERSONALITY MEASUREMENT:Observational Procedures, Rating Scales
  3. MAIN PERSPECTIVES:Psychometrics, observation, Behavioral Coding Systems
  4. SIGMUND FREUD: A PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORY OF PERSONALITY
  5. INSTINCT: WHAT MOTIVATES HUMAN BEHAVIOR?, The Oral Stage
  6. PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORY OF SIGMUND FREUD:The Ego, Free association
  7. THEORY OF CARL JUNG:Biographical Sketch, Principles of Opposites, The Persona
  8. THE PSYCHOLOGICAL TYPES:Childhood, Young Adulthood, Middle Ages
  9. ALFRED ADLER:Biographical Sketch, Individual Psychology, Feeling of Inferiority
  10. INDIVIDUAL PSYCHOLOGY:Fictional Finalism, Social Interest, Mistaken Styles of Life
  11. KAREN HORNEY:Adjustment to Basic Anxiety, Adjustment Techniques
  12. ADJUSTMENT TO BASIC ANXIETY:Moving Towards People, Moving Against People
  13. ERIK ERIKSON:Anatomy and Destiny, Ego Psychology, Goal of Psychotherapy
  14. ERIK ERIKSON:Human Development, Goal of Psychotherapy
  15. SULLIVAN’S INTERPERSONAL THEORY:Core Concepts, The Self-System
  16. SULLIVAN’S INTERPERSONAL THEORY:Cognitive Process, Tension
  17. CONSTITUTIONAL PSYCHOLOGY:The Structure of Physique, Evaluation
  18. SHELDON’S SOMATOTYPE THEORY:The Structure of Physique
  19. MASLOW’S THEORY:Self-Actualizers Aren't Angels, Biographical Sketch
  20. MASLOW’S THEORY:Basic Concepts of Humanistic Psychology, Problem Centering
  21. ROGERS PERSON CENTERED APPROACH:Humanistic, Actualizing tendency
  22. ROGERS PERSON CENTERED APPROACH:Fully functioning person
  23. ROGERS PERSON CENTERED APPROACH:Client Centered Therapy,
  24. KELLY’S COGNITIVE THEORY OF PERSONALITY THEORY:Biographical Sketch
  25. CORE CONCEPTS OF GEORGE KELLY’S COGNITIVE THEORY OF PERSONALITY
  26. GORDON ALLPORT: A TRAIT THEORY OF PERSONALITY:Personality as a
  27. GORDON ALLPORT: A TRAIT THEORY OF PERSONALITY:Secondary Traits
  28. FACTOR ANALYTIC TRAIT THEORY:Factor Analysis, The Nature of Personality
  29. FACTOR ANALYTIC TRAIT THEORY:The Specification Equation, Research Methods
  30. HENRY MURRAY’S PERSONOLOGY:Need, Levels of Analysis, Thema
  31. HENRY MURRAY’S PERSONOLOGY (CONTINUED)
  32. ALBERT BANDURA’S SOCIAL LEARNING THEORY:BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
  33. ALBERT BANDURA’S SOCIAL LEARNING THEORY:Reciprocal Determinism
  34. THE STIMULUS RESPONSE THEORY OF DOLLARD AND MILLER:Core Concepts
  35. THE STIMULUS RESPONSE THEORY OF DOLLARD AND MILLER:Innate Equipment
  36. SKINNER’S THEORY OF PERSONALITY:Biographical Sketch, Books
  37. SKINNER’S THEORY OF PERSONALITY:Positive Reinforcement, Generalization
  38. ALBERT ELLIS THEORY OF PERSONALITY:Biographical Sketch, Social Factors
  39. THE GRAND PERFECT THEORY OF PERSONALITY:Genes and Biology
  40. PERSPECTIVES OR DOMAINS OF PERSONALITY PSYCHOLOGY:Dispositional
  41. PERSPECTIVES OR DOMAINS OF PERSONALITY PSYCHOLOGY
  42. PERSPECTIVES OR DOMAINS OF PERSONALITY PSYCHOLOGY:Need
  43. THE GRAND THEORY OF PERSONALITY:Psychosexual Stages of Development
  44. PERSONALITY APPRAISAL:Issues in Personality Assessment
  45. PERSONALITY PSYCHOLOGY: NEW DIRECTIONS IN THE DISCIPLINE