Personality & Its Assessment
Personality is the dynamic organisation within the individual of those psychophysical systems that determine their unique adjustment to the environment (Allport). It is the integrated, characteristic pattern of a person's thoughts, feelings, and behaviour. The word comes from Latin persona (mask).
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Start here: what do you already know?
Personality — true or false?
6 statements · 9s each
Sort the theorists by their basis
Type theories (classify people into categories)
| Basis | Theorist | Types |
|---|---|---|
| Body fluids (humours) | Hippocrates | Sanguine, Choleric, Melancholic, Phlegmatic |
| Sociability | Jung | Introvert, Extrovert (Ambivert – later) |
| Body build | Kretschmer | Pyknic, Asthenic, Athletic, Dysplastic |
| Body build | Sheldon | Endomorph, Mesomorph, Ectomorph |
Trait theories (personality = combination of traits)
- Allport: cardinal, central, and secondary traits.
- Cattell: identified 16 Personality Factors (16 PF) using factor analysis; distinguished surface vs source traits.
- Eysenck: three dimensions — Introversion–Extraversion, Neuroticism–Stability, Psychoticism.
- Big Five (OCEAN): Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, Neuroticism.
Psychoanalytic view — Freud
Personality has three structures:
| Structure | Principle | Role |
|---|---|---|
| Id | Pleasure principle | Primitive drives, instant gratification |
| Ego | Reality principle | Balances id and superego realistically |
| Superego | Morality principle | Conscience, ideals, "should/should not" |
Freud also gave defence mechanisms (repression, projection, sublimation, rationalisation) and psychosexual stages (oral, anal, phallic, latency, genital).
Assessment of personality
- Subjective: interview, questionnaire, self-report inventories.
- Objective / observational: rating scales, situational tests.
- Projective techniques: Rorschach Ink-Blot Test, TAT (Thematic Apperception Test) — reveal hidden/unconscious aspects.
Freud's three structures
Tap through the three in order and watch how the ego is squeezed between the other two — that tension is Freud's model:
Type theories at a glance
Exam tip: Introvert/Extrovert → Jung; 16 PF → Cattell; Id-Ego-Superego → Freud; Rorschach & TAT are projective tests.