Introduction to Personality Research

Question 1

What are the main factors that most definitions of personality agree on?

Answer 1

Personality is behaviour and thinking that can be observed through action

Question 2

What is nomothetic?

Answer 2

Nomothetic THINK ‘Normal’

Factors that can be traced throughout a population.

Question 3

What is Idiographic?

Answer 3

Idiographic THINK ‘Individual’

Factors that are related to the individual, distinct from the general population.

Question 4

What two factors do most personality theories identify?

Answer 4

• Human Nature
  Which focuses on nomothetic and general factors of personality
• Individuality
  Which focuses on idiographic and specific factors of personality

Question 5

Do personality theories tend to focus on the separate parts that make up personality or the whole person?

Answer 5

Personality theories try to understand the whole person, through synthesising different areas of psychological research.

Question 6

What is psychopathology?

Answer 6

Psychopathology is the study of abnormal psychology

Question 7

Why is psychopathology important in understanding personality?

Answer 7

Psychopathology forms the foundation of understanding personality research. It outlines the abnormal functioning and therefore informs normal mental functioning and the requirements for mental health.

Question 8

What are the main conceptual issues in personality research?

Answer 8

Nature vs. Nurture

Free-will vs. Determinism

Question 9

Explain the Nature vs. Nurture debate.

Answer 9

Nature refers to the argument that our personality is influenced by the intrinsic characteristics that we are born with, our genes and other hereditary factors. Factors that are out of our control.

Nurture is the idea that our personality is influenced by the environmental factors that we encounter. Our childhood experiences, culture, social relationships and the beliefs and values we were raised with.

Question 10

Explain Free Will vs. Determinism debate.

Answer 10

Free will is the idea that we are able to have some choice in how we act, and assumes we are free to choose our behaviour irrespective of our circumstances.

Determinism is the idea that our behaviour is pre-determined, and is caused by preceding factors and is therefore predictable.

Question 11

What are the main two types of criticism that a theory can face?

Answer 11

Logical criticism and Empirical criticism

Question 12

What is Logical criticism?

Answer 12

Logical criticism assesses if there are contradictions or hidden assumptions within a theory, or piece of research.

Question 13

What is Empirical criticism?

Answer 13

Empirical criticism assesses if there is sufficient evidence to support the theory or research at hand.

Question 14

What is quantitative and qualitative data?

Answer 14

Quantitative data is associated with quantities or numbers. It can be objectively recorded and written down.

Qualitative data is information about qualities, which can’t be objectively measured.

Question 15

What are the three main methods of assessment used in personality psychology?

Answer 15

Case studies
Self-report questionnaires
Physiological assessments/measures

Question 16

What are case studies?

Answer 16

Case studies are an in depth study of a single person (e.g. Phineas Gage).

Question 17

What are the main advantages and disadvantages of case studies?

Answer 17

Advantages:

• They are excellent when rare cases occur.
• Useful to provide sources for further hypotheses.
• They can be useful for clinical or counselling environments.

Disadvantages:

• Tends to be a high amount of researcher bias, due to the length of time spent with the subject. Researchers can also manipulate their writing in order to align with their beliefs/theories.
• With a sample size of one, generalisability is often a highly contentious issue.

Question 18

What self-report questionnaires?

How many types are there? Explain them and give examples.

Answer 18

They are questionnaires that are filled out by the participant, about themselves. They can be either objective tests or projective tests.

Objective tests could be true/false, Likert response style. E.g. “I don’t like to draw attention to myself”. They give a forced choice to the participant. Often have a ‘correct’ or socially desirable answer.

Projective tests involve ambiguous stimuli. Individual interpretations will then reveal aspects of their personality. Rorschach inkblot tests is a famous example.
(What are they going to precisely reveal about a personality though?)
Projective tests have problems with interpretation, reliability and validity.

Question 19

What are physiological measures? Give examples for personality research.

Answer 19

Physiological measures assess biological items to try and understand personality. Examples of these could include brain research/scans and genetic testing.

Question 20

What are some major problems personality research faces?

Answer 20

• Defining personality as a construct
• Testability. Can we test human nature?
• Conflicting evidence. In personality research, some opposing theories are both back by empirical research.
• Are there multiple theories because there are multiple facets of personality? Or, are there just multiple levels of explanation? E.g. biological AND psychological.
• Ethnocentrism (evaluating a culture based on one’s own cultural norms) is present in much personality research. Are our theories universal, or reflections of specific cultures? More research must be done to see if the findings are different cross-culturally.
• Egocentrism (centred in or arising only from one’s own experience/ perspective) is what impacts on the generalisability of theories. Are our theories reflections of ourselves and how we see, experience the world.