case study theories of personality

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Chapter 1: Introduction to Personality

Part 2: methods of studying personality.

In all types of research, we need to consider two closely related concepts:  hypothesis vs. theory .  A hypothesis can loosely be defined as an educated guess about some relationship or circumstance that we have observed, and the purpose of the hypothesis is to explain what we have experienced and to provide a starting point for further research.  When a set of observations seem to come together, especially as the result of testing our hypotheses, we might then propose a theory to bring those observations together. However, a theory is not necessarily our endpoint, since the theory itself may generate new hypotheses and more research.  In this way, all scientific endeavors continue to develop, expand, clarify, change, whatever the case may be, over time. As a result, we have many different personality theories, since different theorists have viewed the human condition differently, and they have also used different techniques to study personality.

A variety of methods have been used to study personality.  Much of the early research was based on clinical observations, which were not done according to strict experimental methods.  Today, ethical restrictions on the types of research we can conduct with people limit our ability to re-evaluate many of those classic studies.  So we are left with a field that is rich in theory, but somewhat poor in the validation of those theories. Of course some personality theorists have approached personality in a more scientific manner, or at least they have tried, but that has limited the questions they have been able to ask.  Since a detailed analysis of experimental psychology and research design is beyond the scope of this book, we will only cover this topic briefly (though it may come up again within individual chapters).

Case Studies

Many of the best-known personality theorists relied on case studies to develop their theories.  Indeed, it was after seeing a number of patients with seemingly impossible neurological complaints that Freud began to seek an explanation of psychological disorders.  Basically, the case study approach relies on a detailed analysis of interesting and unique individuals. Because these individuals are unique, the primary criticism of the case study approach is that its results may not generalize to other people.  Of greater concern is the possibility that early theorists chose to report only those cases that seemed to support their theories, or perhaps they only recognized those elements of a patient’s personality that fit their theory? Another problem, as mentioned above, is that two different theorists might view the same cases in very different ways.  For example, since Carl Rogers worked initially with children, he found it difficult to accept Freud’s suggestions that even children were motivated primarily by sexual and aggressive urges. Consequently, Rogers sought a more positive view of personality development, which led to the establishment of the humanistic perspective. Thus, the case study approach can lead to very different conclusions depending on one’s own perspective while conducting research.  In other words, it can easily be more subjective than objective, and psychologists who focus on our field as a scientific discipline always strive for more objective research.

Correlational Designs

When conducting correlational research, psychologists examine the relationships that exist between variables, but they do not control those variables.  The measure that is typically used is the correlation coefficient , which can range from –1.0 to 0.0 to +1.0.  A value close to zero suggests that there is no relationship between the variables, whereas a value closer to –1.0 or +1.0 suggests a strong relationship, with the direction of the relationship determining whether the value is positive or negative.  It is important to remember that the strength of the correlation is determined by how far the correlation coefficient is from zero, not whether it is positive or negative. For example, we would most likely find a positive correlation between the number of hours you study for a test and the number of correct answers you get (i.e., the more you study, the more questions you get right on the test).  On the other hand, the exact same data will give us a negative correlation if we compare the number of hours you study to the number of questions you get wrong (i.e., the more you study, the fewer questions you get wrong). So the way in which you ask the question can determine whether you have a positive or negative correlation, but it should not affect the strength of the relationship.

Since the investigator does not control the variables in correlational research, it is not possible to determine whether or not one variable causes the relationship.  In the example used above, it certainly seems that studying more would lead to getting a better grade on a test. But consider another example: can money buy happiness?  There is some evidence that wealthy people are happier than the average person, and that people in wealthy countries are happier than those in poorer countries. But does the money affect happiness?  Certainly a million dollars in cash wouldn’t help much if you were stranded on a desert island, so what can it do for you at home? People with money can live in nicer, safer communities, they have access to better health care (so they may feel better physically), they may have more time to spend with their family and friends, and so in many ways their lives might be different.  We can also look at the correlation the other way around; maybe happy people get more money. If you ran a company, and were going to hire or promote someone, wouldn’t you want to find someone who is friendly and outgoing? Wouldn’t you look for someone who other people will enjoy working with? So, maybe happy people do find it easier to be successful financially. Either way, we simply can’t be sure about which variable influences the other, or even if they influence each other at all.  In order to do that, we must pursue experimental research.

Experimental and Quasi-Experimental Designs

The experimental design is usually preferred within psychology, as with any other science.  The goal is to control every aspect of the experiment and then manipulate a single variable, thus allowing us to attribute the results to that single manipulation.  As a result, experiments allow us to make cause-and-effect statements about the relationships between the variables.

A simple experiment begins with defining the independent variable , the factor that will be manipulated, and the dependent variable , the factor that will be measured.  Ideally, we then select our subjects in a random fashion, and assign them randomly to a control group and an experimental group .  The experimental group is then exposed to the independent variable, whereas the control group is not.  If we have successfully controlled all other variables through random selection of subjects (i.e., all subjects in a specified population have an equal chance of being selected for the study) and random assignment to the control and experimental groups (so that hopefully each group has an equal representation of gender, race, age, intelligence, personal habits, etc.), we should see a difference in the dependent variable that was caused by the independent variable.

Unlike the natural sciences, however, we can seldom control human behavior in the precise ways that true experimental designs require.  For example, if we want to study the effects of prenatal exposure to cocaine on personality development, we certainly cannot ask pregnant women to use cocaine.  Unfortunately, there are pregnant women who abuse cocaine and other illegal drugs. Therefore, we can try to identify those women, and subsequently study the development of their children.  Since a variety of other factors led these women to abuse illegal drugs, we lose the control that is desired in an experiment. Such studies are called quasi-experimental, because they are set up as if we did an experiment, and can be analyzed in similar ways.  The quasi-experimental approach has many applications, and can provide valuable information not available otherwise, so long as the investigators keep in mind the limitations of the technique (for the classic discussion of this design see Campbell & Stanley, 1963).

Cross-Cultural Approaches to the Study of Personality

Cross-cultural approaches to studying personality do not really represent a different type of research, but rather an approach to research that does not assume all people are influenced equally by the same factors.  More importantly, cross-cultural psychologists recognize that seemingly common factors may, in reality, be quite different when viewed by people of very different cultures. The most obvious problem that arises when considering these issues is the potential difference between cross-cultural and multicultural research.  Cross-cultural research is based on a comparison of cultures; two well-known categorizations are Eastern vs. Western perspectives and the somewhat related topic of individualistic vs. collectivistic cultures. However, a multicultural approach tells us that we must consider the true complexity of the human race. What is “Eastern?” Is it Asia, China, Japan, does it include India, and what about Muslim groups of people?  Should Buddhism be viewed as an Eastern perspective or a religious perspective? The list goes on and on, because there are so many different cultures in the world. And finally, is it practical to really try coming up with a theory of personality that can encompass all the different groups of people throughout the world? Only by pursuing an understanding of different cultures can psychology truly be considered a global science, and that pursuit has only just begun.  Since we have a long way to go, the future is ripe for new students to pursue careers in psychology and the study of personality.

Supplemental Materials

Personality Research Methods

In this video [9:11], personality research methods are explored.  Advantages and disadvantages of each method is discussed, as well as exciting new developments in the field.

Source: https://youtu.be/lSab-wtpVnQ

Text: Kelland, M. (2017). Personality Theory. OER Commons. Retrieved October 28, 2019, from https://www.oercommons.org/authoring/22859-personality-theory.  Licensed under CC-BY-4.0. Supplemental Material: Personality research methods. Society for Personality and Social Psychology.  Retrieved from https://youtu.be/lSab-wtpVnQ. YouTube Standard License.

Application of Personality Theory-Assessing Personality

As in the section above on research methods, an extensive discussion of personality assessment is beyond the scope of this textbook.  However, this is such an important issue that we will look at it briefly here, and then will take a closer look in some of the chapters throughout the rest of the book.

Personality assessment most commonly occurs in a clinical setting, when an individual is seeking help for some problem, whether it is an adjustment disorder or a potential mental illness.  Assessing personality goes beyond this singular role, however. Certainly a clinical psychologist would be using personality assessment in order to understand a patient’s symptoms, provide a diagnosis (if appropriate), and recommend a preferred course of therapy.  Similarly, school psychologists use assessment to identify any possible learning disorders and/or adjustment issues as they pertain to the educational environment. But other psychologists use personality assessment for a variety of reasons as well. Industrial/organizational psychologists use personality assessment to identify preferred candidates for particular jobs, career counselors use these assessments in order to provide valid recommendations regarding the choice of a career path, and research psychologists use assessment in their ongoing efforts to correlate certain personality types to observable behavior or other measures.  Thus, the assessment tools used to describe and/or understand personality have a wide range of potential applications.

Reliability, Validity, and Standardization

A particular personality assessment is of little value if it has no reliability or validity and if it is not presented in a standardized format. Reliability refers to the likelihood that a test will give essentially the same result on different occasions, or that two versions of the same test will give similar results. Validity refers to whether a test actually measures what it purports to measure. Standardization refers to the manner in which a test is given, which must be the same for every person receiving the test if there is to be any value in comparing the results among different people.

Determining the reliability and validity of a test can be a long and complicated process, involving a variety of statistical methods to confirm the results. During this process the psychologist(s) developing the test will also typically establish norms. Norms are consistent ways in which particular groups score on a test. For example, on measures of aggressiveness, the “normal” level for men may be quite different than the “normal” level for women.  Standardization is quite a bit simpler to establish, since the test can include precise instructions dictating the manner in which it is to be given.

Assessing Personality with Objective Tests

The most famous self-report inventory is the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (or MMPI ).  The MMPI is also probably the most widely used psychological test in the world, and it has stood the test of time (it is currently in its second version, a 1989 revision of the 1943 original).  The current version consists of 567 true-false questions, which address not only normal personality traits, but psychopathology and the accuracy of the test-taker as well. The test has several built in “lie” scales in case a person were trying to fake a mental illness (e.g., if they were trying to fake an insanity defense to avoid responsibility for a crime) or minimize any symptoms they may actually be experiencing. The questions themselves range from rather simple (e.g., I enjoy drama.) to rather strange (e.g., I am a prophet of God.), but when put all together they provide a highly valid assessment that can easily be scored by computer (hence the popularity of the test, for both reasons).  NOTE: Those are not actual questions from the MMPI, but they are based on real questions. The MMPI is an empirically based instrument. That is, interpretations are based on the pattern of responding obtained by various psychiatric samples. Since the standard MMPI was developed for adults and is rather lengthy, an abbreviated version was developed for use with adolescents: the MMPI-A.

A number of alternatives to the MMPI have been developed.  The California Psychological Inventory has been available almost as long as the MMPI and, more recently, the Personality Assessment Inventory has become popular.  Another important test is Millon’s Clinical Multiaxial Inventory (the MCMI), which was developed in accordance with Millon’s own theories on personality development and personality disorders.  The MCMI was designed with certain advantages in mind, including being relatively short compared to the MMPI and being connected with a specific clinical theory.  However, since the test was designed specifically to distinguish amongst psychiatric populations, it is not as useful when assessing “normal” individuals (Keller et al., 1990; Groth-Marnat, 2003).

Behavioral assessment and thought sampling are techniques designed to gain an appreciation of what an individual actually does and/or thinks on a day-to-day or moment-to-moment basis.  In each case, observers are trained to make precise observations of an individual at precise times. This provides a statistical sample of the individual’s actual behavior and/or thoughts over time.  Naturally, the only person who can record an individual’s thoughts is that person himself or herself, but as long as they are carefully informed of the procedure and are fully cooperating, the technique works fine.  When applied correctly, the great value of these techniques is that they are truly objective, in other words, they record actual behaviors and actual thoughts.

Assessing Personality with Projective Tests

The two most famous projective tests are the Rorschach Inkblot Technique and the Thematic Apperception Test (or TAT ).  Both tests involve the presentation of ambiguous stimuli in an attempt to draw out responses from a patient, responses reflecting impulses and/or thoughts that the patient may not even be aware of (i.e., the patient projects their own thoughts and feelings onto the ambiguous stimuli, even if those thoughts and feelings are subconscious).

The Rorschach Inkblots are just that, inkblots on a piece of paper that can look like most anything.  An individual being tested is first asked to say what each inkblot looks like, and then they are asked to explain how they saw what they identified.  The answer to a single inkblot is not particularly informative, since any one inkblot may remind the person of some particular thing. However, as the patient goes through all 10 inkblots, trends should become apparent to the psychologist that reflect the dominant issues affecting the personality of the patient (again, even if those issues are subconscious and not available to the conscious awareness of the patient).  Initially, the Rorschach was reviewed unfavorably and then ignored. Rorschach became depressed, and died only 9 months after the test was published. Eventually, however; the test became more and more popular, and today is certainly one of the most widely recognized psychological tests. However, studies comparing the Rorschach and the MMPI have shown the latter to be far more valid. In an effort to improve both the reliability and validity of the Rorschach technique, there is now a standardized scoring system.

The TAT is similar to the Rorschach, except that it involves actual pictures of people (although they are still very ambiguous drawings) and the patient is asked to tell a story about the people in the picture.  There is no objective scoring system for the TAT, so reliability and validity remain arguable, and the test is more famous than popular as an assessment tool. However, it has been shown to have high validity for certain specific research studies, such as studies on the need for achievement, and continues to serve a function in clinical formulations.

Clinical Interviews

As valuable and informative as the well-established psychological tests are, there is certain vital information that simply cannot be addressed with most tests, such as: a person’s appearance, their attitude, facial expressions, ability to communicate with another person, etc.  In addition, tests often lead to further questions, or the need for clarification or explanation. In order to address such issues, both in general and in greater detail, clinical interviews are an essential part of the overall personality assessment. Although the results of an interview are somewhat subjective, when viewed in the context of the psychologist’s clinical experience, along with the results of an assessment tool, they provide psychologists with a much more complete understanding of the person whom they are evaluating.

Inkblot (Rorschach) and TAT (Thematic Apperception Tests)-Projective Tests

This video [5:48] explains the Rorschach and Thematic Apperception Tests and describes how they are used in the field of personality psychology.

Source: https://youtu.be/HJVwA6_sqdQ

Personality Assessment | Psychology

This video [3:56] explores different types of projective and objective tests used to assess personality, including the MMPI, Rorschach Inkblot and Thematic Apperception Test.

Source: https://youtu.be/5tsbb-B8Rs0

Personality Assessment and Judgement

This video [7:24] reviews various ways for assessing and making judgments of personality, as well as methods for increasing the accuracy in personality judgments.

Source: https://youtu.be/5Tr3dMWDsdc

Text: Kelland, M. (2017). Personality Theory. OER Commons. Retrieved October 28, 2019, from https://www.oercommons.org/authoring/22859-personality-theory.  Licensed under CC-BY-4.0.

Practical Psychology.  (2019, July 1). Inkblot (Rorschach) and TAT(Thematic Apperception Tests)-Projective Tests.[Video File]. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/HJVwA6_sqdQ.

Course Hero.  (2019, March 15).  Personality Assessment | Psychology.  [Video File]. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/5tsbb-B8Rs0.

Society for Personality and Social Psychology.  (2018, June 6). Personality assessment and judgement.  [Video File]. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/5Tr3dMWDsdc.

Cultural Studies in the Field of Psychology

In the first section we briefly examined the concern of many psychologists that the field of psychology has been slow to embrace the value of cross-cultural research (see Lee et al., 1999; Sue, 1999; Triandis & Suh, 2002).  This concern is by no means new. In 1936, Ralph Linton wrote that “different societies seem to show differences in the relative frequency of occurrence of the various psychological types” (pg. 484), and in 1973, Robert LeVine suggested that “this is a moment at which even those who are skeptical about the value of culture and personality study might consider stretching their curiosity in this direction” (pg. ix).  Throughout this textbook we will examine a number of theorists who emphasized studying cultural differences as a significant part of their careers and, often, their personality theories as well.

However, it remains true that cross-cultural studies in psychology have only recently moved closer to the mainstream of psychological research and clinical practice.  As of 2002, the American Psychological Association has “Guidelines on Multicultural Education, Training, Research, Practice, and Organizational Change for Psychologists.”  To cite just a few examples of the range of current interest in cross-cultural psychology, we now have a Dictionary of Multicultural Psychology (Hall, 2005) and books on the relationships between culture, mental illness, and counseling (Axelson, 1999; Castillo, 1997), as well as on the relationships between race, class, and the social and personal development of women (Jordan, 1997b; Pack-Brown, Whittington-Clark, & Parker, 1998).  There are also major new texts on African American psychology (Belgrave & Allison, 2006) and racism, prejudice, and discrimination in America (Miller & Garran, 2008; Whitley & Kite, 2006).

The fact that studying cross-cultural factors in personality has always been present in the careers and theories of certain individuals, while not becoming a mainstream focus of attention, is more than just a historical curiosity.  By emphasizing biological factors (i.e., genetics), Freud’s theory did not allow for cultural differences. Behavioral theorists emphasized environmental factors, a seemingly cultural approach, but they did not allow themselves to address factors beyond immediate scientific control.  Thus, they defined with great precision the role of reinforcement, punishment, discriminative stimuli, etc., while not allowing for the richness of cognition and cultural experiences. Likewise, cognitive theorists clung to the scientific approach of the behaviorists, rather than embracing the potential of sociocultural perspectives.  In other words, because strict Freudian theorists, as well as behavioral and cognitive theorists, believed that their theories applied to all people equally, they typically chose not to address differences between people. Thus, those who wished to bring sociocultural perspectives on the development of personality into the field of personality theory faced a degree of direct opposition.  And yet, their perseverance is now being fulfilled.

In this section we will briefly examine some of the issues facing personality psychologists who wish to examine personality development in a sociocultural context.  The United States, Canada, and Western Europe represent only about one tenth of the world’s population. Ralph Linton, a renowned anthropologist with an interest in cultural influences on personality (see Linton, 1945), also edited a book entitled Most of the World: The Peoples of Africa, Latin America, and the East Today (Linton, 1949).  Thus, it is essential that we consider the influence of different cultures around the world if we are going to claim that we have really examined human personality in all its variations.

Since the 1990s, a number of general books on psychology and culture have been available (e.g., Brislin, 2000; Lonner & Malpass, 1994; Matsumoto, 1994, 1997; Matsumoto & Juang, 2004; Okun, Fried, & Okun, 1999; Price & Crapo, 2002; Segall et al., 1990).  Although all of these books address topics such as the “self” and person-perception, and other various aspects of personality, only a few of them devote an actual chapter or section to the topic of personality itself (Matsumoto & Juang, 2004; Price & Crapo, 2002; Segall et al., 1990), and in each case the topics are fairly specific.  There is, however; some older literature on the relationships between culture, society, and personality. We will examine that research in the second part of this section. First, let us examine some of the general principles of incorporating cross-cultural perspectives into the study of personality.

The Challenges of Cultural Research

The first problem faced by those who are interested in the study of culture and personality is the question:  What exactly is to be studied? At the most basic level, there are two types of research. Cross-cultural research typically refers to either parallel studies being conducted in different cultures, or similar concepts being studied in different cultures.  In contrast, intercultural research is the study of individuals of different cultures interacting with one another (Brislin, 2000; Matsumoto & Juang, 2004; Segall et al., 1990).  As you will see in later chapters, some personality theorists consider interpersonal relationships to be the only true domain for studying individual personality.  While most of the research done in psychology has been cross-cultural, as the world becomes more and more of a global community the opportunity for, and importance of, intercultural research is rapidly expanding.

Another fundamental problem with the study of culture is our attention to it, or rather, the lack of attention we pay to something that is so deeply ingrained in our daily lives.  Richard Brislin suggests the following exercise: write down three answers for someone from a different culture who asks “What should I know about your culture so that we can understand each other better?” (pg. 10; Brislin, 2000).  Because we simply take our cultural influences for granted, it proves quite difficult for us to think that they need to be identified or explained. For example, freedom of speech is a cherished right in America. Consequently, we often speak our minds.  If I am upset about some new college policy, I might say very negative things about the administration of our college, even about particular administrators. It does not mean I intend to be disrespectful, or that I dislike those individuals, or that I won’t say positive things about them when I agree with the next new policy.  It is simply an expression of one of the great freedoms in our society: the right to speak out. However, someone from a different culture, particularly a collectivist culture, might be shocked at my apparent disrespect toward my “superiors.”

The next important issue is the difference between emic and etic tasks or behaviors.  Simply put, emic tasks are those that are familiar to the members of a given culture, whereas etic tasks are common to all cultures.  In an elegantly simple, yet revealing study, Irwin, Schafer, & Feiden (1974) demonstrated these phenomena in two cultures:  American undergraduates and Mano rice farmers (from Liberia). The American college students were consistently better at performing the Wisconsin Card Sort, a well-known psychological test measuring cognitive reasoning skills, which relies on geometric shapes and color.  The Mano farmers, however; were consistently better at sorting different categories of rice. Thus, the ability to sort items into categories appears to be an etic task (most likely common to all humans, regardless of culture), whereas the more specific abilities to sort by geometry and color (common to American college students) or type of rice grain (common to Mano farmers in Liberia) is an emic task that requires familiarity.  Thus, if we made a judgment about the Mano farmers’ cognitive abilities based on the Wisconsin Card Sort, we would clearly be making a mistake in comparing them to Americans, due to the unfamiliarity of the particular task.

Another important aspect of cross-cultural research, which may involve applying our understanding of etics and emics, is the issue of equivalence.  Is a concept being studied actually equivalent in different cultures?  In other words, does a concept mean the same thing in different cultures; is the comparison valid?  For example, an etic related to intelligence is the ability to solve problems. So how might we compare different cultural groups?  Would the speed with which they solve a problem make sense as a measure of intelligence? Such an answer would be emic, and therefore valid, in America (where we typically value independence and competition).  However, among the Baganda of Uganda, slow and careful thought is the emic. Among the Chi-Chewa of Zambia, the emic is responsibility to the community, i.e., solving the problem in order to best get along with other people.  Thus, the speed at which people solve problems is conceptually equivalent, since it is the way in which people in each culture identify those individuals who are considered intelligent (Brislin, 2000). However, we cannot compare the actual speed of reporting a solution to others, as this is viewed quite differently in each culture.

One particular type of equivalence that raises a very interesting problem is that of translation equivalence.  Psychologists often want to use tests developed in their own language with people of a different culture who speak a different language.  Translating a test from one language to another can be a difficult task. The best way to assess translation equivalence is through back translation.  In this procedure, one person translates the test, or survey, into the foreign language, and then a different person translates the foreign language test back into the original language.  The original test can then be compared to the back translated test to see how closely they are worded. Ideally they would be identical, but this is seldom the case. To give you a simple example, when I was in graduate school, we had a student from Taiwan join our research group.  One day I asked her to translate my last name, Kelland, into a Chinese character. When she had done that, I asked her how she would translate that particular Chinese character into English for someone who was not Chinese. She translated the character as Kwang. Despite the first letter, I hardly consider Kwang to be a reasonable translation of Kelland, but she didn’t seem to think of this as much of a problem (perhaps revealing another cultural difference!).  When the process of back translation is used successfully, which may involve working back and forth with the translations, it has the effect of decentering the test from the original language.  Specifically, that means that the test should be free of any culturally emic references or aspects that interfere with the translation equivalence of the different versions of the test (Brislin, 2000; Matsumoto & Juang, 2004).

While the list of issues pertaining to cross-cultural research goes on, let’s consider just two more specific issues: cultural flexibility and cultural response sets.  Cultural flexibility refers to how individuals are willing to change, or adapt, in situations in which they know there are cultural differences.  For example, American businesspeople can stand about 15 minutes of small talk before getting down to business. Their Japanese counterparts, in contrast, consider it important to get to know their business partners, and they are comfortable with hours of conversation about a variety of topics.  This would, of course, be an important consideration for anyone studying the relationship between individual personality and success in business situations in this intercultural setting. Cultural response sets refer to how a given culture typically responds.  If a given culture is more reserved, and they are asked to rate the importance of some value in comparison to how a more open culture rates that value, a difference in the rating may reflect the cultural difference in responding, rather than the degree to which people in each culture value the variable being measured (Brislin, 2000; Matsumoto & Juang, 2004).

Finally, in light of these challenges, it may be particularly important to conduct cross-cultural validation studies.  Rather than testing hypotheses about specific cultural differences, cross-cultural validation studies are used to examine whether a psychological construct that was identified in one culture is meaningful and equivalent in another culture (Brislin, 2000; Matsumoto & Juang, 2004).  For example, as we will see later in the reading, Erik Erikson did not feel confident in proposing his eight stages of development (the psychosocial crises) until he had confirmed his observations in two separate Native American tribes. He was able to gain the trust of these groups, and thus able to closely observe their child-rearing practices, thanks to the anthropologists who introduced him to the tribes they had been studying for a long time.

Anthropologists have done much more for psychology than merely introducing some psychologists to cultural issues and unique cultural groups.  Some of them have had their own interests in personality. Many anthropologists, as well as some psychologists, have relied on ethnographies to report detailed information on the customs, rituals, traditions, beliefs, and the general way of daily life of a given group.  They typically immerse themselves in the culture, living for an extended period of time with the group being studied (this helps get past the anxiety of being observed or any lack of cultural flexibility).  Comparing the ethnographies of different groups can help guide cross-cultural psychologists in determining the likelihood that their cross-cultural studies are valid (Matsumoto & Juang, 2004; Segall et al., 1990).

Personality and Culture

This video [7:42] explores the following three concepts:  Conceptualization of personality across cultures; Cross-cultural research informing our understanding of personality; Future research in culture and personality.

Source: https://youtu.be/YC7LxSSrJYE

Kelland, M. (2017). Personality Theory. OER Commons. Retrieved October 28, 2019, from https://www.oercommons.org/authoring/22859-personality-theory.  Licensed under CC-BY-4.0.

Society for Personality and Social Psychology.  (2018, June 6). Personality and culture. [Video File].  Retrieved from https://youtu.be/YC7LxSSrJYE. Standard YouTube License.

PSY321 Course Text: Theories of Personality Copyright © by The American Women's College Psychology Department and Michelle McGrath is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

Personality: Definitions, Approaches and Theories

• First Online: 04 November 2020

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• Ewa Piechurska-Kuciel   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-6690-231X 3  

Part of the book series: Second Language Learning and Teaching ((SLLT))

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The main objective of this chapter is to describe the concept of personality and approaches to researching it. For this reason, first a view on outlining the field of personality psychology in its present form, then the key term—personality—is discussed. The next section contains a synopsis of the main approaches to the study of personality, including psychoanalytic, learning and humanistic perspectives. The objective of the second part is to present the main theoretical directions in personality studies, which are divided into two basic trends. The first one is represented by type theories that focus on qualitative differences and discrete categories. The other direction is composed of trait theories that aim to formulate the latent structure of personality on the basis of statistical procedures, this has led to the development of the trait model adopted as the groundwork of this volume—the Big Five. The last section of this chapter is devoted to a general description of the most important theories exploring the development of personality across a lifespan (psychosexual, psychosocial, cognitive, and social cognitive).

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Piechurska-Kuciel, E. (2020). Personality: Definitions, Approaches and Theories. In: The Big Five in SLA. Second Language Learning and Teaching. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-59324-7_1

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The 4 Major Personality Perspectives

Psychoanalytic perspective, humanistic perspective, trait perspective, social cognitive perspective.

The study of personality is one of the significant topics of interest in psychology. Numerous personality theories exist, and most major ones fall into one of four major perspectives. Each of these perspectives on personality attempts to describe different patterns in personality, including how these patterns form and how people differ on an individual level.

This article discusses four of the major perspectives on personality, the theorists associated with each theory, and the core ideas that are central to each perspective. Learning more about these theories can give you greater insight into the many different aspects of human personality.

The psychoanalytic perspective of personality emphasizes the importance of early childhood experiences and the unconscious mind . This perspective on personality was created by psychiatrist Sigmund Freud who believed that things hidden in the unconscious could be revealed in a number of different ways, including through dreams, free association, and slips of the tongue.

Neo-Freudian theorists , including Erik Erikson, Carl Jung, Alfred Adler, and Karen Horney, believed in the importance of the unconscious but disagreed with other aspects of Freud's theories.

Major Theorists

Below are the most prominent psychoanalytic perspective theorists:

• Sigmund Freud : Stressed the importance of early childhood events, the influence of the unconscious, and sexual instincts in the development and formation of personality.
• Erik Erikson : Emphasized the social elements of personality development, the identity crisis , and how personality is shaped over the course of the entire lifespan.
• Carl Jung : Focused on concepts such as the collective unconscious , archetypes , and psychological types.
• Alfred Adler : Believed the core motive behind personality involves striving for superiority, or the desire to overcome challenges and move closer toward self-realization. This desire to achieve superiority stems from underlying feelings of inferiority that Adler believed were universal.
• Karen Horney : Focused on the need to overcome basic anxiety, the sense of being isolated and alone in the world. She emphasized the societal and cultural factors that also play a role in personality, including the importance of the parent-child relationship.

Modern Relevance

Classical Freudian psychoanalysis is viewed with skepticism and there has been an overall decline in the approach in recent years. While many of Freud's theories have fallen out of favor, the psychodynamic tradition is still an essential part of psychology.

Research has shown that psychodynamic approaches can be an effective tool for self-examination. This approach to treatment can also help foster long-term emotional growth.

The humanistic perspective of personality focuses on psychological growth, free will, and personal awareness. It takes a more positive outlook on human nature and is centered on how each person can achieve their individual potential.

The following are the most influential humanistic perspective theorists:

• Carl Rogers : Believed in the inherent goodness of people and emphasized the importance of free will and psychological growth. He suggested that the actualizing tendency is the driving force behind human behavior.
• Abraham Maslow : Suggested that people are motivated by a hierarchy of needs . The most basic needs are centered on things necessary for life such as food and water, but as people move up the hierarchy these needs become centered on things such as esteem and self-actualization.

Humanistic psychology continues to have a tremendous influence today, particularly in psychotherapy. The field of positive psychology, which is focused on helping people live better lives, has also grown out of the humanist tradition.

Humanistic therapy can effectively treat various mental health conditions, including anxiety, depression, substance use, interpersonal issues, and personality disorders.

The trait perspective of personality is centered on identifying, describing, and measuring the specific traits that make up human personality . By understanding these traits, researchers believe they can better comprehend the differences between individuals.

Below are the most important trait perspective theorists:

• Hans Eysenck : Suggested that there are three dimensions of personality: 1) extraversion-introversion, 2) emotional stability-neuroticism, and 3) psychoticism.
• Raymond Cattell : Identified 16 personality traits that he believed could be utilized to understand and measure individual differences in personality.
• Robert McCrae and Paul Costa: Introduced the big five theory , which identifies five key dimensions of personality: 1) extraversion, 2) neuroticism, 3) openness to experience, 4) conscientiousness, and 5) agreeableness.

Trait theory is still a standard approach for understanding human personality. Today, many experts agree that personality is composed of a number of broad dimensions, although they don't completely agree on the labels for each dimension.

However, modern researchers are now also interested in understanding more about how these traits develop and how understanding them can help improve mental well-being.

For example, research has found that while people may have certain traits, these qualities don't necessarily serve as accurate predictors of behavior. Contemporary research may focus more on understanding how these traits shape people's behavior rather than just labeling the existing traits.

The social cognitive perspective of personality emphasizes the importance of observational learning , self-efficacy, situational influences, and cognitive processes.

According to this approach, personality is shaped by observation, imitation, and modeling. Cognitive factors such as attention, attitudes, motivation, and emotion also play a pivotal role. The interaction between the individual, their environment, and their thoughts contributes to their personality and behavior.

The main proponent of the social cognitive perspective is:

• Albert Bandura : Emphasized the importance of social learning, or learning through observation. His theory emphasized the role of conscious thoughts including self-efficacy , or our own beliefs in our abilities.

The social cognitive perspective remains relevant today in understanding how learning occurs in social contexts. It also allows researchers and educators to consider the dynamic between the individual, their environment, and their behavior. 

Social cognitive theory is also utilized in the field of public health to develop programs aimed at health promotion. Understanding how observational learning and self-efficacy influence health behaviors allows researchers to create programs that foster healthier behaviors and choices.

A Word From Verywell

Many theories have been proposed to describe and explain human personality. Four of the most prominent are the psychoanalytic, humanistic, trait, and social-cognitive perspectives.

One important thing to remember is that no single theory alone explains every aspect of personality. Instead, each of these theories has played a part in adding to our understanding of different aspects of personality, their causes, and how they shape behavior and individual experiences.

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Osafo hounkpatin H, Wood AM, Boyce CJ, Dunn G. An existential-humanistic view of personality change: co-occurring changes with psychological well-being in a 10 Year cohort study . Soc Indic Res. 2015;121(2):455-470. doi:10.1007/s11205-014-0648-0

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Boyle GJ, Stankov L, Martin NG, Petrides KV, Eysenck MW, Ortet G. Hans J. Eysenck and Raymond B. Cattell on intelligence and personality . Personality and Individual Differences . 2016;103:40-47. doi:10.1016/j.paid.2016.04.029

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Smith Y, Garcia-Torres R, Coughlin SS, et al. Effectiveness of social cognitive theory-based interventions for glycemic control in adults with type 2 diabetes mellitus: Protocol for a systematic review and meta-analysis .  JMIR Res Protoc . 2020;9(9):e17148. doi:10.2196/17148

By Kendra Cherry, MSEd Kendra Cherry, MS, is a psychosocial rehabilitation specialist, psychology educator, and author of the "Everything Psychology Book."

Theories of Personality

Reviewed by Psychology Today Staff

From Aristotle to Sigmund Freud and Abraham Maslow, countless theories and concepts for understanding personality have been proposed. Throughout history, these and other great minds sought to answer questions not only about what personality is and how best to describe it, but also what causes personality differences, including those that make people more or less functional and resilient.

Some theories are still being tested, while others have fallen out of favor. Some compete while others complement one another. A look at some major ideas in personality psychology, both historical and recent, offers a sense of the many ways to think and talk about this complex subject.

On This Page

• Five-Factor Theory
• Social Investment Theory
• Cognitive-Affective Theory
• Narrative Identity
• Psychodynamic Theories
• Humanistic Theories

Using the Big Five traits (or five-factor model) as a foundation, Five-Factor Theory proposes that the development of common personality traits is largely determined by biological factors, especially genetics. This view was inspired in part by research indicating that ratings on measures of personality are influenced by one’s genes and that other, non-genetic developmental factors (such as adoptive parents) seem to play a surprisingly small role.

The theory’s creators distinguish enduring personality traits from “characteristic adaptations,” such as attitudes or strivings, that are shaped by one’s innate disposition as well as external forces.

The theory was first proposed in the 1990s by psychologists Robert McCrae and Paul Costa Jr. McCrae and Costa also created the NEO Personality Inventory in the 1970s

Though they have similar names, the model (which is embraced by many researchers) is a way of describing how personality traits are organized—that is, into the Big Five personality dimensions. The theory is a way of explaining how personality traits develop and change. 

While personality traits are clearly related to genetics, one’s inheritance does not account for all personality differences. The environmental influences shared by siblings, such as a certain kind of parenting or childhood household, appear to play a minor part. Other factors, potentially many, must be at work.

One view, sometimes called Social Investment Theory, proposes that individuals’ personal investment in new social roles, such as by becoming a spouse or starting a job, helps explain personality development and change over time. In new roles, people are exposed to costs and benefits of behaving in certain ways, potentially shifting a person’s way of being over time—even given that the person’s personality is influenced by genetics.

Multiple researchers have helped develop it. One proponent is psychologist Brent Roberts, who with colleagues in the ’00s, wrote about a “social investment principle." (They have also called their concept the Neo-Socioanalytic Model.)

In a new job, one may be rewarded for being punctual and putting in work to complete tasks, or incentivized to get along with others. Interpersonal or familial roles, such as being in a new relationship, may also affect personality traits.

Yes: The social investment view suggests that people with certain traits will be more drawn to and more likely to invest in certain kinds of roles. The experience of inhabiting those roles may in turn influence their personality, potentially by reinforcing existing tendencies—for example, a conscientious person might choose a career that ultimately makes her more conscientious. 

Even someone who shows certain tendencies—to act aggressively or passively compared to others, for example—won’t necessarily behave the same way in every situation or kind of social interaction. (The authority of the person one confronts, or whether one is in public, may make a difference.) Some personality theorists have sought to weave situational factors into how personality is conceived.

In one theory, the cognitive-affective personality system (CAPS), “cognitive-affective mediating units” are thought to interact with each other and with the characteristics of different situations to produce the patterns of behavior that distinguish individuals. These “units” may include psychological factors such as an individuals’ expectations and beliefs, goals and values, and emotional responses.

CAPS was developed by psychologists Walter Mischel and Yuichi Shoda in the 1990s. They sought to resolve an apparent conflict between findings of both a level of consistency in individual characteristics and variability in behavior across different situations.

No. A person may be more aggressive, reserved, or energetic in some situations and less so in others. But across many different situations, the person may still tend to be, generally speaking, more or less aggressive, reserved, or energetic than other people are.

While traits are widely accepted as fundamental to personality, theorists often combine them with other elements as part of a multi-level view. Narrative identity is one of these elements. In short, some propose that the particular narrative details of a person’s important life experiences—and how the person relates them to each other and derives meaning from them—fills out the complex portrait of who one is compared to others. While each person’s self-composed life story contains countless pieces of information, researchers have tried to identify common factors that differentiate these narratives.

The psychologist most associated with narrative identity is Dan McAdams. In the 1990s, he developed a view of personality in which three levels coexisted: dispositional traits relevant to general tendencies; how one deals with challenges and tasks in specific contexts; and an identity based on stories about the self.

In a recent study, proponents of the narrative identity view offered evidence for a tentative “Big Three” factors: autobiographical reasoning, or change in one’s understanding of one’s self or past; structural aspects, including overall coherence of the life story; and motivational and affective themes, encompassing aspects like positive or negativity and sense of agency.

In contrast to modern trait theories, those rooted in psychoanalytic ideas have tended to emphasize the potential role of early development in shaping personality. Sigmund Freud , the father of psychoanalysis, described personality, in part, as comprising three components: the instinct-driven “id,” the morality-bound “super-ego,” and the relatively temperate “ego.” The interactions between these elements were proposed to help explain an individual’s behavior. He also believed that childhood experiences have a major impact on a person’s personality.

Many theorists who followed Freud (and whose thinking is often described using the term psychodynamic rather than psychoanalytic) refined or branched out from his ideas. One of them was Carl Jung, who proposed psychological “types” that inspired the popular test known as the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator .

While they have influenced popular understanding of personality, they generally lack the empirical support of contemporary theories and do not have a central place in current personality science. However, some researchers continue to work in areas informed by psychodynamic ideas—such as those who study attachment orientation and the extent to which it relates to childhood.

Traumatic events or internal conflicts during early development were proposed as influences on personality. Identification, or adopting characteristics of someone else in one’s life, was another factor thought to play a role.

Freud-inspired theorists have emphasized different proposed factors in personality formation. For example, “Neo-Freudians” such as Jung, Alfred Adler, and Karen Horney challenged Freud’s emphasis on sexual and aggressive impulses, focusing more on social and cultural factors.

Humanistic psychology, developed in the mid-20th century by figures such as Abraham Maslow and Carl Rogers, focused the spotlight on individuals and their positive qualities, including their drive to achieve their full potential.

Maslow is famously known for his hierarchy of needs, with basic needs, such as nourishment and safety, toward the bottom, and self-actualization at the top. He argued that people who reach self-actualization—activating their self-perceived human potential, exhibit what he called a “coherent personality syndrome.” Rogers framed a healthy personality as the result of a match between one’s perceived self and the self one should be.

Among other characteristics, Maslow proposed that self-actualized people tended to be creative, compassionate, realistic, and drawn to helping others. As he described it, self-actualization is a relatively rare achievement—he cited historical figures such as Lincoln and Einstein as examples of self-actualized people.

The ideas of humanistic psychologists bear similarities to existential psychologists (such as Viktor Frankl)—theorists in both fields share an interest in the capacity of individuals to shape their own lives. Humanistic psychology also helped inspire positive psychologists, who have sought to focus attention on individuals’ character strengths and virtues.

Very few writers have weighed in on the various instances in which being friendly isn’t particularly welcome—or might be downright rejected or frowned upon.

Personal Perspective: Whether to diagnose is a controversial topic. It masks three problems: people wishing to avoid criticism, therapist collusion, and therapists who shame.

Children of difficult parents are doubly likely to resemble their parents, due to both genes and environment. How do some people far exceed expectations?

Your personal brand is a critical part of your career management; it is the perception others have of you and it can impact your career trajectory in significant ways.

Think you can guess what somebody drives? You may be right.

In pars pro toto thinking, the part is taken for the whole. This type of thinking is a hallmark of severe personality disorders, such as borderline personality disorder.

Discover how low conscientiousness can be an unexpected advantage, fueling creativity and innovation in top-performing teams. Cognitive diversity drives real success at work.

Why do parenting practices that worked well with one child not work for the other children? Individual differences and child temperament likely hold the answer.

Research sheds light on shared personality traits of people with strong moral character.

People have three common modes of thinking, but a fourth one makes the first three more effective.

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Personality Pedagogy

A compendium of resources for the teaching of personality psychology

Case Studies

Bertha Pappenheim, Freud’s Anna O. , during her stay at Bellevue Sanatorium in 1882. The name Anna O. was constructed by shifting her initials B.P. one letter back in the alphabet to A.O. Pappenheim 1882 by Albrecht Hirschmüller: Physiologie und Psychoanalyse im Leben und Werk Josef Breuers. Jahrbuch der Psychoanalyse, Beiheft Nr. 4. Verlag Hans Huber, Bern 1978. ISBN 3456806094. Licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons

Dodge Morgan (1932-2010), at the age of 54, sailed solo around the world in 150 days. During the trip, he participated in an intensive psychological case study including psychological testing, the results of which were published in an entire special issue of the Journal of Personality (by William Nasby and Nancy Read, December 1997, Volume 65(4), 757-1111, with an editorial introduction by Dan McAdams and Steve West). Read about his remarkable life in The Lives They Lived year-end retrospective from the New York Times (December 21, 2010) and in his New York Times obituary (September 17, 2010). Results were also presented by Charles Palus, Bill Eaton, and Randy Eaton in an article in the Journal of Applied Behavioral Science (1990, 26, 501-527), and in a book, Understanding Executive Performance: A Life-Story Perspective by Charles J. Palus (1991).

Freud: The Case of Herr E Doug Davis of Haverford College, reconstructed this case study from Freud’s Correspondence with Wilhelm Fleiss. Filled with self-analysis and counter-transference, the case reveals as much about Freud himself as about Herr E .

Freud: The Case of Little Hans Mark Holah posts a brief synopsis of this classic case study in which Freud aims to cure a 5-year old boy of his phobia of horses. The case is a good example of the Oedipus complex and development during the Phallic Stage.

Freud’s Case of Little Hans; A BBC Special BBC radio host Claudia Hammond presents a series on case studies that have made a significant contribution to psychological research. In this episode, which originally aired May 28 2008, she describes background and new findings related to the case of Little Hans, a.k.a. Herbert, the child of Freud’s colleague Max Graff. Information recently released from the Freud Archive suggests that problems in the Graff family — rather than an Oedipus Complex — could explain Hans’ fear of horses. Includes a discussion of the implications for therapy with children today. (29 minutes; listen on line).

In Character: Tricksters, Vamps, Heros, Scamps From Darth Vader to Scarlett O’Hara, the best fictional characters reflect something about who we are and how we got here. In Character , a [2008] six-month series from NPR, explores indelible American characters from fiction, folklore and pop culture. Hear experts discuss the psychology of characters such as Vernon Waters ( A Soldier’s Story ), Willie Stark ( All the King’s Men ), Charlotte ( Charlotte’s Web ), Auntie Mame, Uncle Tom, Henry Fleming ( The Red Badge of Courage ), The Joker, Norman Bates, Nancy Drew, Jo March ( Little Woman ), King Kong, Mr. Spock, Carrie ( Sex and the City ), Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Ricky Ricardo, Charlie Brown, Fred Sanford, Indiana Jones, Dora the Explorer, Mama Rose, Hanibal Lecter, Portnoy, Eric Cartman ( South Park ), Walter Mitty, Catwoman, Blanche DuBois , Captain Ahab, Barbie, Harriet the Spy, Hester Prynne ( The Scarlet Letter ), Elmer Gantry, Darth Vader, Gordon Gekko ( Wall Street ), Charlie Chaplin’s Little Tramp, Cookie Monster, George Jefferson, Willy Loman ( Death of a Salesman ), Huckleberry Finn, Scarlett O’Hara, Pollyanna, Holden Caulfield, The Lone Ranger, Lassie, Bugs Bunny, and others.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy: A Case Study Using CBT The Australian Institute of Professional Counselors presents this excerpt from a counseling session of an actual client to illustrate the four basic steps of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy: identify the automatic thought, question the validity of the automatic thought, and challenge core beliefs. Posted March 22, 2010.

CBT in Action: A Case Study Dr. Nicholas Jenner, a counseling psychologist, illustrates how the use of Daily Mood Sheets can help clients see the the feelings, emotions, caused by a triggering event. He presents this case study of “Jodie” and how she was able to recognize her problematic thought patterns and where they came from through therapy.

DreamBank Welcome to The DreamBank , a collection of over 16,000 dream reports in English (and another 6,000 in German). The reports come from a variety of different sources and research studies, from people ages 7 to 74. They can be analyzed using the search engine and statistical programs built into this site. Based on the research of Adam Schneider and G. William Domhoff Psychology Department, at UC Santa Cruz. Includes transcriptions of the dream journals of real people including Freud and Jung and others here .

The Five Factor Model: Johnny Carson Marianne Miserandino, Arcadia University, noticed that the obituary of Johnny Carson is filled with personality descriptors making it a useful illustration of the five factor model of personality, personality stability, personality change, and personality coherence. (For the full description of how to utilize this obituary as a case study see Miserandino, M. (2007) Heeeere’s Johnny: A Case Study in the Five Factor Model of Personality, Teaching of Psychology, 34(1) , 37-40.See also this NPR interview with documentary filmmaker Peter Jones Johnny Carson: ‘King Of Late Night,’ A Man Unknown . May 14, 2012 (runs 9 minutes, 33 seconds).

The Five Factor Model: Nicholas Claus: Big Five for the Big Guy Heather A. Haas wrote this humorous “case study” of Santa Claus using the big five. Find out whether the big guy is high or low on Extraversion Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Neuroticism and Openness and the “evidence” she used to make her judgements in Dialogue , the newsletter of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, volume 19 (1), Spring 2004, p. 24-25, 21.

Grant Study Men: Interview With Two Participants . Former Washington Post editor Ben Bradlee and historian Donald Cole reflect on their lives, careers, and experiences as participants in the Grant Study. (Ben Bradlee was known as Frederick in Vaillant’s book “Adaptation to Life”).

Horney: The Aggressive Personality of Donald Trump . Donna Ashcroft created this slide presentation describing Horney’s concept of the Aggressive Personality and provides evidence to illustrate this personality with examples from Donald Trump’s behavior and personality.

Identity Crisis: David Doug Davis, Haverford College, shares these notes from his Foundations of Personality class. This study is based on a case applying Erikson’s theories from M.B. Bowers. (1974). Retreat from sanity: The structure of emerging psychosis . Baltimore: Penguin.

Identity Crisis: Nancy Doug Davis, Haverford College, shares these notes from his Foundations of Personality class. This study is based on a case applying Erikson’s theories from M.B. Bowers. (1974). Retreat from sanity: The structure of emerging psychosis . Baltimore: Penguin.

This image is in the public domain from Wikimedia .

Letters from African-American Women The Duke University Libraries has had a long-standing reputation for their digitization projects, and this collection is certainly one of their best. This particular segment of their work focuses on the lives of African-American women, and it contains the full-text memories of Elizabeth Johnson Harris, slave letters from Hannah Valentine, and a rather unusual stand-alone letter from Vilet Lester. Hannah Valentine was born in 1867 to former slaves, and visitors can read her 85-page handwritten memoir here. In her memoir, she talks about the importance of religion in her life, and there are also a few poems by her as well. The letters from Hannah Valentine, a house slave, reveal a rare firsthand glimpse into the lives of slaves in Virginia. Finally, the very unique letter from Vilet Lester offers just a slight, but revealing glimpse, into her life in Bullock County, Georgia in 1857. [KMG] (Copyright 2010 Internet Scout Project – http://scout.wisc.edu The Internet Scout Project, located in the Computer Sciences Department at the University of Wisconsin – Madison, provides Internet publications and software to the research and education communities under grants from the National Science Foundation, the Andrew W. Mellon foundation, and other philanthropic organizations. Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of any of our publications or web content provided this paragraph, including the above copyright notice, is preserved on all copies.)

Narcissism: Vladimir Putin, Narcissist? Writing for the The Atlantic , Joseph Burgo examines how the concept of narcissism might provide insight into the Russian leader. Published April 15, 2014.

Narrative Psychology: Courtship Narratives The University of Texas PAIR Project, according to their website, is a long-term study of courtship and marriage that began in 1981 with 168 newlyweds. We collected information on the couples’ courtships and early marital experiences, and followed couples across the years to their eventual relationship destinations. The site presents excerpts from the case studies of 7 couples who later divorced. The narratives are from their courtship period.

Needs: Earnst Doug Davis at Haverford posted these notes, described as Robert White’s biographical presentation of “Earnst,” a subject in the classic study Explorations in Personality, by H.A. Murray’s group at the Harvard Psychological Clinic in the 1930s . Includes a brief background, autobiography and responses to selected Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) cards. Illustrates Murray’s theories, needs, press, and the TAT.

NPR: Radio Diaries The NPR project Radio Diaries encourages teenagers, seniors, prison inmates and others whose voices are rarely heard to document their lives for public radio. Their stories are often powerful, surprising, intimate, and timeless, illustrating many aspects of the self, including self-concept, self-esteem, and social identity.

Personality Disorders in the Media The Psychology in Action webpage, presents this look at famous characters who may fit the criteria of a personality disorder. Summarizes the criteria and the evidence for schizoid, schizotypal, antisocial, borderline, histrionic, narcissistic, and dependent personality disorders. Posted October, 2013.

Research Methods: The Great Parking Debate: A Research Methods Case Study The National Center for Case Study Teaching in Science presents this vignette to teaching principles of hypothesis testing: Two friends debate whether people leave their parking spaces faster if others are waiting. They decide to see if they can design a study to test their ideas. In this interrupted case study, students develop a research question and hypothesis and consider how to test a hypothesis. Students read about what researchers have done to answer the research question and identify and evaluate different research designs. Students are also asked to evaluate data. Developed for a use in an introductory psychology course to cover terms and concepts related to research methods, the case could be used in other introductory science classes, early in research methods courses, or in upper-level social science courses. Includes teaching notes and answer key.

Richard III: Psychopath or Mere Control Freak? Psychologists Weigh In Was England’s King Richard III (1452–85) a murderous psychopath? Thanks to Shakespeare’s play, the hunchbacked monarch has gone down in history as the heartless ruler who ordered the murders of the brother and young nephews who stood between him and the throne. However, psychologists Mark Lansdale and Julian Boon of the University of Leicester re-analyzed Richard’s character using biographies and other written accounts. They conclude that the king likely suffered from anxiety, not psychopathy. in this summary from the APA Monitor on Psychology , June 2013.

Sex and Gender: Who Was David Reimer? In 1967, an anonymous baby boy was turned into a girl by doctors at Johns Hopkins Hospital. For 25 years, the case of John/Joan was called a medical triumph — proof that a child’s gender identity could be changed — and thousands of “sex reassignments” were performed based on this example. But the case was a failure, the truth never reported. Now the man who grew up as a girl tells the story of his life, and a medical controversy erupts. See also a transcript of the NOVA program Sex: Unknown from October 30, 2001 and the article Being Brenda , and a story about David’s suicide .

Therapy Case Notes Psych Central presents Therapy Case Notes a new blog where Joseph Burgo highlights interesting interactions in psychotherapy sessions — things that shed light on a particular issue or dynamic within the therapy session. The purpose is to try and demystify psychotherapy, and demonstrate the powerful healing abilities of the process.

Twilight Deconstructed Drawing on classic theorists including Carl Jung, Karen Horney, Erik Erikson, Abraham Maslow, Carl Rogers and others, Donna Ashcraft takes a psychological and feminist approach to understanding the Twilight characters in her book Deconstructing Twilight: Psychological and Feminist Perspectives on the Series . Thanks to her publisher, Peter Lang Publishing, Inc., you can read and download a PDF of Chapter 7 in which she uses Karen Horney’s 10 neurotic needs to understand the dynamics between Bella and her parents, Bella and Edward and more. (opens in PDF format)

Various Perspectives: Eleanor Roosevelt A popular assignment is to have students analyze the life of Eleanor Roosevelt from various perspectives or theories of personality psychology. There are many sites out there with information about Eleanor Roosevelt. In addition to the White House listing (above) she was also listed as Time Magazine’s 100 most important people of the 20th Century. Students can find websites of their own choosing or you may want to send students to the same 2-3 sites so that they are all working with the same information.

Various Perspectives: The Grinch After watching the 25 minute video of the classic Christmas story How the Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Seuss, students analyze the Grinch’s personality and change of heart using theories and terms from personality including Freud, Adler, Horney, Maslow, and Rogers. A great end-of-the-semester review.

Why Was Darth Vader So Evil? Blame His Lack of Parental Care, Say Psychologists Why was Darth Vader such a bad dude? According to a team of psychologists led by Peter Jonason, it’s down to his lack of parental care: the fact he was separated from his mother at age 9, and his father’s absence. The researchers believe such circumstances can catalyse the emergence of the Dark Triad of personality traits: Machiavellianism, Narcissism and Psychopathy. These traits are usually seen as negative, but Jonason and his colleagues believe they may be an adaptive response to tough early circumstances that signal to a child life is bad . From BPS Research Digest , August 5, 2014.

David Prowse as Darth Vader in The Empire Strikes Back. Darth Vader by Source. Licensed under Fair use via Wikipedia

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Case Study on Personality Theory

Personality theory case study:.

Personality theory is one of the approaches towards the understanding of the personality, its traits, behaviour, social features, physiological and psychological peculiarities, etc. A personality is a complex term which describes the person who has achieved the definite level of the psychological maturity, life experience, wisdom, has got her place in the human society, etc. The explanation of the term of personality is quite difficult because of the great number of the approaches towards the problem. There are many personality theories which observe the issue from various points of view: psychology, sociology, political sciences, economics, etc.

There are also various theories which illustrate the approach towards the origin of personality and the influence of the society and genes on the type of the human character and behaviour. For more than four centuries philosophers have been discussing this problem and there are two dominant opinions about it: the personality is formed by the social environment and the personality is formed only due to its genes and the society does not play any role in this process.Nowadays, there is the opinion that the personality is formed under the effect of the both factors.From the point of view of psychology the personality has the certain definite traits and kinds of behaviour, which meet the requirements and norms. From the point of view of economics a personality is the individual who has reached a certain position in the society and earned the social status supported with money.

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From the point of view of physiology personality is the grownup person, as children and teenagers can not be called personalities yet, as their organisms are still developing.A personality theory is a complicated topic which can be researched by the student with the help of the original approach and methods. The issue is quite broad and one can limit the scope of research seriously and dwell on the narrow issue in the boarders of the single case. The case on personality theory should investigate the problem from all sides and explain the theory professionally. The student is supposed to analyze the personality theory from different points of view, focus on the structure, functions, factions, elements, string and weak sides of the theory and provide the direct arguments supporting his opinion.

The cause and effect of the problem on personality theory and its solution are expected to be prepared well for the student’s advantage.The process of case study writing can become easier and more effective with the appropriate assistance of the Internet where one can read a free example case study on personality theory.The student requires additional piece of advice and quality information about the manner and tone of writing. These instructions can be found only with the help of a free sample case study on personality theory prepared online.

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Theories of Personality -Case Study-

Ramsis Hanna 2012 / 5 / 24

According to personality theorists there are various definitions of the word ‘personality’ as each theorist has developed his own “unique and vital theories” which result from their disagreement on the human nature, and because each theorist has his own point of view about personality according to the individual “reference” angle at which he sees the personality. However, Jess Feist and Gregory J. Feist in their book “Theories of Personality” define it as “a pattern of relatively permanent traits and unique characteristics that give both consistency and individuality to a person’s behavior”; (Feist, 2008. p.4). The aim of studying theories of personality is to dive deep in the human self by analyzing its behavior to pinpoint the areas of conflict that causes its abnormalities. Once the reasons for abnormalities are discovered, the therapy for amending the behavior and reforming the personality will be feasible. In our case study number 37 of Myra from “Personality Theories Workbook” by Donna Ashcraft, an account of her behavior, concerning cleaning her house, spending money, setting relationships with others and a hint of her childhood, will be exposed; then trials of exploring the traits and characteristics of her personality type according to the theories of Freud, Jung, Bandura, Horney, and Fromm will be the focus of this paper with a final evidential explanation whether Myra would score high or low on each of McCrae and Costa’s Big Five Dimension. Here is an account of Myra’s behavior and attitude relating to cleaning her house, spending money, developing relationships with friends and neighbors, and the way her parents treated her as a child. 1- Mayra is always diligent in cleaning her house and tidying its yard and garden. She loved very much spring cleaning which is dreaded by almost everyone. She takes pride in the appearance of the house, the yard and the garden. She loves other people’s compliments. She is neat and everything is well arranged in its place and she gets so angry if things are not in their places. Once grass went flying into her garden from a neighbor’s while mowing; and as a result Myra threw a fit and did not talk to the neighbor for two years. The main agenda of the family conference is to discuss ways to help keeping the house clean; telling them how she works hard to keep the house clean while everyone else is almost doing nothing. She frequently portrays herself as a martyr who does so much for others and asks so little for herself, when in reality she usually overseas the cleaning and tells others what to do, and her husband or children help her. Even after her retirement cleaning continues; and she always thinks it is her job to care for the house despite her husband or children’s help. On visiting her grown children, she is dismayed by how messy their homes are, and she begins to clean them. 2- Despite being middle class and really not poor, nor lacking in any of the essentials, the family rarely spends money on anything except the necessities; they rarely go to movies or buy toys for the children. Myra is always concerned about money; so she is keen on saving it by keeping almost everything beyond the usual life span. She uses plastic and sheets to save the furniture and rugs. She washes and reuses aluminum foil. Leftovers are eaten even if they are unappetizing. Once she got agitated when someone borrowed fifty cents for a soda and did not return it. She usually tells stories about relatives who accept invitations at her house but do not return the invitations; thus complaining she is tired of spending money on these occasions without ever getting something in return. Although she is retired and still healthy, she does not participate in any productive activities such as volunteer work, and she prefers to spend all her time and energy working on her house and yard. 3- Myra displays a disturbing pattern of establishing relationships and then ending them by being rude. She has an intense relationship with someone she has just started a friendship with, often having that person over for lavish meals, and then complains about some aspects of that person’s personality. She sometimes criticizes people to their faces, or she just stops calling them. Her complaints are based on the idea of her superiority to them in some way as being cleaner, better, quieter than them. She often complains about how other people do not know how to clean anymore and that her neighbors do not take care of their property as well as she does. When these people no longer want to interact with her, she does not understand why. 4- Myra’s mother always took care of their house and thought that it was the woman’s responsibility to do so; and Myra has learnt how to clean “correctly” from her mother. Both Myra’s parents believed in physical punishment, and Myra and her brother were hit if they did something wrong. Myra was punished if she did not clean something thoroughly enough. Analysis: According to Freud, Myra’s ego which is “the only region of the mind in contact with reality” and it is governed by the “reality principle” has made the decision on cleanness and neatness of her house and yard, besides arranging things in order. And because the ego is partially conscious, partly preconscious and partly unconscious, her ego can make decisions on each of these three levels. Myra exaggerates in cleaning her house, tidying her yard and garden and arranging her things in order as her ego consciously motivates her to choose excessive neatness, tidiness and arrangements because she feels comfortable and proud of her estate and things being like this and people compliment her for this. Meanwhile she may be, on her preconscious level, only dimly aware of her previous experience when her friends or neighbors first praised her for the way she cleans the house, tidies the yard and the garden and arranges her things. Besides, she may be unconsciously motivated to be excessively clean, neat and orderly “due to her childhood experiences of the toilet training” and cleaning the house with her mother so as to avoid pain resulting from her parents punishment and gain pleasure of their love and security, (Feist, 2009. p. 29). Also it has been settled in her superego what she should and should not do because of her experiences with reward and punishment she must have received from her parents during her childhood. Thus she can be dominated by the superego which results in her “guilt-ridden or inferior-feeling person;” (Feist, 2009. p. 30). According to Freud “levels of mental life and provinces of the mind refer to the structure of personality” (Feist, 2009. p. 31); in the sense that people’s actions are motivated to seek pleasures and reduce tension and anxiety that result from basic driving forces (physical or psychical) which are sex of which aim is pleasure and aggression of which aim is to “return the organism to an inorganic state”, (Feist, 2009. p. 33); both of which “originate in the id” (Feist, 2009. p. 31), but are controlled by the ego. Freud’s concept of sexual pleasure involves not only the genitals but also the entire body especially the mouth and anus; (Feist, 2009. p. 32). Sex and aggression are associated with anxiety which is, according to Freud, “a felt, affective, unpleasant state accompanied by a physical sensation that warns the person against impending danger” even though this unpleasantness is not clear; (Feist, 2009. p. 33). While “only the ego can produce or feel anxiety, the id, superego and external world each are involved in one of three kinds of anxiety; neurotic, moral and realistic”; (Feist, 2009. p. 33). Neurotic anxiety, as apprehension about an unknown danger, exists in the ego but originates in the id. Myra must have experienced neurotic anxiety in the presence of her husband “authority” as she previously must have experienced unconscious feelings of destruction against her parents because of fear of punishment, so she exaggerates her cleanings and frequently portrays herself as a martyr who does so much for others and asks so little for herself, when in reality she usually overseas the cleaning and tells others what to do, and her husband or children help her. This same neurotic anxiety makes her aggressive towards her neighbor as once grass went flying into her garden from her neighbor’s while mowing; and as a result Myra threw a fit and did not talk to the neighbor for two years. Myra displays a disturbing pattern of establishing relationships and then ending them by being rude. She sometimes criticizes people to their faces, or she just stops calling them. Moreover, this neurotic anxiety makes her concerned about spending money and she refrain from expending it despite being middle class and really not poor. And as a defense mechanism, Myra has developed an anal fixation which manifests in her obsession with neatness and orderliness. This can be explained as defense mechanisms are “carried to an extreme, they lead to compulsive, repetitive, and neurotic behavior;” (Feist, 2009. p. 34). According to Jung the mind or psyche has two levels; conscious and unconscious. The unconscious is divided into two portions; the personal conscious which “results from individual experience, and the collective unconscious which is the most important portion of the unconscious that stems from the distant past of human existence; so Jung calls it collective unconscious. (Feist, 2009. p. 103). Freud also believes that a portion of our unconscious comes from our earlier ancestors’ experiences which he calls phylogenetic endowment; (Feist, 2009. p. 24). Unlike Freud, Jung believes that collective unconscious refers to humans’ “innate tendency to react in a particular way whenever their experiences stimulate a biological inherited response tendency;” (Feist, 2009. pp 104, 105). This explains why Myra unexpectedly reacts with love and persistence to the house cleanliness, tidiness and orderliness although she had negative or at least neutral feelings toward the job, especially when we know that her mother always took care of their house and thought that it was the woman’s responsibility to do so; and Myra has learnt how to clean “correctly” from her mother who punished her when she (Myra) did not clean something thoroughly enough. Of course, her mother belief of house cleanliness was passed to her from her mother (Myra’s grandmother) and so on through generations until it became a collective unconscious which Jung sees as autonomous forces called archetypes which, when evolved, “can be conceptualized” into persona, shadow, anima, animus, great mother, wise old man, hero, and self ; (Feist, 2009. pp 104, 106). Myra’s persona is shown to the world as a woman, wife and mother responsible for all the housework from A to Z, and she is keen on showing this persona during her family conference to discuss ways to help keeping the house clean; telling her household how she works hard to keep the house clean while everyone else is almost doing nothing. She frequently portrays herself as a martyr who does so much for others and asks so little for herself, when in reality she usually overseas the cleaning and tells others what to do, and her husband or children help her. Thus, according to Jung Myra projects a particular role that society dictates to her; (Feist, 2009. p 107). It seems that Myra has confused her public face with her complete self, thus she remains unconscious of her individuality and cannot attain self-realization and in fact she has lost touch with her inner self and remained dependent on society’s expectations of her, (Feist, 2009. P 107), and could not know why friends, neighbor and relatives no longer keep in touch with her. Thus, Myra has lost balance between what she really is (as friendly and generous as inviting her friends to lavish meals), and her social appearance as caring responsible and economical mother. According to Albert Bandura’s Social Cognitive Theory, the way we react to an expected evenst is usually more powerful than the event itself. The theory takes chance encounters and fortuitous events seriously even though these events do not variably alter one’s life path, (Feist, 2009. P 478), this is due to the outstanding characteristic of human plasticity or flexibility that enables humans to learn a variety of behaviors in various situations through direct experience, yet more importantly through vicarious learning or learning by observing others. Myra’s traditionally feminine cleaning behavior can be explained on the basis of her observing her mother cleaning and perhaps financially managing the house as well as having the same belief that her mother had as housework is the main responsibility of a woman. Myra’s behavior is also reinforced by the compliments she receives from her neighbors and friends who overtly express their admirations of her clean house, tidy yard and beautiful garden. This accords with Bandura’s idea that reinforcement can be vicarious whether it is direct or indirect. According to Bandura’s triadic reciprocal model that includes behavioral, environmental, and personal factors, (Feist, 2009. P 483), Myra has the capacity to regulate her life; and her behavioral cleanliness has turned into a consistent way of evaluating and regulating her social and cultural environment, seeing that her house is cleaner, tidier and more beautiful than any house in the neighborhood or any of her friends or relatives’ houses. However, Myra has stopped at sensory experiences and hence lacked the capacity to anticipate events, create new ideas or use internal standards to evaluate present experiences. This can be shown from the way she deals with her friends as she cannot go on further with her relationships with them; and when these people no longer want to interact with her, she does not understand why. There has been some sort of disturbance in her triadic reciprocal causation model that made her refrain from participating in any productive activities such as volunteer work, and she prefers to spend all her time and energy working on her house and yard. She may lack self-efficacy as a self-reflective mechanism which is confined only in her housework performances. In accordance with Horney’s Psychoanalytic Social Theory, Myra has been influenced by cultural impacts (feminine responsibility for housework) of her society as “the primary bases for both neurotic and normal personality development;” (Feist, 2009. P. 166). Modern culture is based on completion (her exaggeration in cleanliness, tidiness and orderliness compared to others) which triggers off basic hostility (in dealing with her friends and neighbors), which, in return, results in isolation, (her break up with friends and not participating in productive volunteer work), that brings about “intensified needs for affection” (her feeling of doing everything alone without being helped by anyone and illustrating herself as martyr or victim). Childhood at any stage is considered the source of most problems as a result of traumatic events, such as beating, open rejection, neglect or sexual abuse; (Feist, 2009. P. 167). During her childhood Myra was physically punished (hit) by her parents; the thing which generated a feeling of lack of genuine warmth and affection and developed into anxiety and hostility towards others. (Feist, 2009. P. 168). From her behaviors of exaggerated cleanliness, hostility, economization (saving money) and refrain from participating in productive volunteer work, Myra demonstrates some basic neurotic needs: (1) Need to restrict her life within narrow borders: she does not participate in any productive activities such as volunteer work, and she prefers to spend all her time and energy working on her house and yard. (2) Need for security and power: she economizes on everything and does not spend money which represents a source of power to her. (3) Need to exploit others: she breaks up with friends and relatives who do not return her invitations to meals. (4) Need for social recognition or prestige: she tries to be the best at cleaning and orderliness and criticizes others as not equal to her. (5) Need for personal admiration: she likes people admiring her house cleanliness, her yard and garden tidiness and beauty, and her orderliness. (6) Need for perfection and unassailability: she always cleans, tidy and rearrange her house, garden, yard and things so as not to be criticized; on the contrary she always criticizes and blames others. Moreover, Myra manifests two neurotic trends: one of moving against people by rudely criticizing them to their faces and being rudely hostile to them by throwing fits and not talking to them; the other trend is that of moving away from people as she stops calling them and does not participate in productive volunteer work and she prefers to stay and spend her energy on home. Erich Fromm’s theory of Humanistic Psychoanalysis is based on the idea that the freakiness of modern humans lies in their separation from union with nature and also with one another, and in their possession of the power of reasoning, foresight, and imagination; and as a result of self-realization they feel lonely, isolated and homeless; (Feist, 2009. P. 187). Thus, Fromm’s theory of personality concentrates on the “influence of sociobiological factors, history, economics, and class structure;” (Feist, 2009. P. 187). Fromm believes that capitalism has increased leisure time and personal freedom; but it has led to feelings of anxiety, isolation, and powerlessness; (Feist, 2009. P. 188). Fromm believes that besides physiological needs as hunger, sex, and safety, there are existential needs, such as (relatedness, transcendence, rootedness, sense of identity, and frame of orientation), that motivate humans to restore their unity with both nature and species individuals. (Feist, 2009. Pp. 191-195). In case of Myra we know that she has gained a lot of economic freedom with the result that she feels more isolated, insecure, alone and lonelier so she has stuck to her home and saved money and has hardly any friends; the thing that has brought about her basic anxiety; (Feist, 2009. P. 196). Myra has resorted to mechanism of escape to flee from freedom; (Feist, 2009. P. 196). To reduce her basic anxiety she has taken to authoritarianism in its phase of sadism which manifests in letting her household be dependent on her (as she cleans the house for her grown up daughters or sons when visiting them) and in gaining power over them as being weak (as to order each one what they should or should not do), with the tendency of making other (her friends and neighbor) suffer as a result of her overt criticism and rudeness to them. Because of her aloneness, she has resorted to the mechanism of destructiveness as she always seeks to do away with other people whether her friends or her relatives. When her mother taught her to clean the house, Myra has developed conformity with her mother’s belief that cleanliness is the woman’s responsibility and she has been doing it mechanically like a robot without expressing her own opinion, and she has clung to expected standards of cleanliness, arrangement and orderliness; (Feist, 2009. P. 197). Moreover she often appears stiff and automated as she never goes to any refreshment place, or buys any toys for her children. Finally, Myra is a hoarding character, (Feist, 2009. P. 199), as she seeks to save what she has had whether furniture (by covering it with plastic) or the carpets (by covering them with sheets) or money (by saving and not spending it). When Myra’s personality is weighed on the scales of McCrae and Costa’s Big Five dimension she can score low on the first four dimension, but she can score high on the last dimension. On the extraversion dimension she is reserved, loner, passive and unfeeling. On the neuroticism dimension, she is self-satisfied, comfortable, unemotional and hardy. On the openness dimension, she is down-to-earth, uncreative, conventional, prefers routine, uncurious, and conservative. On the agreeableness dimension, she is ruthless, suspicious, stingy, antagonistic, critical, and irritable. Finally, on the conscientiousness dimension, she scores high as she is hardworking, well-organized, persevering. In conclusion, with Myra’s behavioral account concerning her house cleanliness, her relations with people whether relatives, friends or neighbors, her attitude towards spending money, and her childhood background, it has been pointed out that, according to Freud, Myra is a cathartic personality whose superego is in quite control of her ego, with fixation at the anal phase. Jung’s theory has pinpointed Myra as an archetype personality as a great mother; and Bandura’s social cognitive theory has related her to vicarious personality limitedly affected by triadic reciprocal causation model. Horney’s theory has shown that Myra is culturally-influenced as a competent personality. According to Fromm’s theory, Myra, as a resut of her economic freedom, is a more isolated, insecure, alone and lonelier character who has resorted to the mechanism of escape and authoritarianism. Thus, finally, Myra has scored low on McCrae and Costa’s Big Five dimensions.

Want to create or adapt books like this? Learn more about how Pressbooks supports open publishing practices. Descriptive Research and Case Studies Learning objectives. Explain the importance and uses of descriptive research, especially case studies, in studying abnormal behavior Types of Research Methods There are many research methods available to psychologists in their efforts to understand, describe, and explain behavior and the cognitive and biological processes that underlie it. Some methods rely on observational techniques. Other approaches involve interactions between the researcher and the individuals who are being studied—ranging from a series of simple questions; to extensive, in-depth interviews; to well-controlled experiments. The three main categories of psychological research are descriptive, correlational, and experimental research. Research studies that do not test specific relationships between variables are called descriptive, or qualitative, studies . These studies are used to describe general or specific behaviors and attributes that are observed and measured. In the early stages of research, it might be difficult to form a hypothesis, especially when there is not any existing literature in the area. In these situations designing an experiment would be premature, as the question of interest is not yet clearly defined as a hypothesis. Often a researcher will begin with a non-experimental approach, such as a descriptive study, to gather more information about the topic before designing an experiment or correlational study to address a specific hypothesis. Descriptive research is distinct from correlational research , in which psychologists formally test whether a relationship exists between two or more variables. Experimental research goes a step further beyond descriptive and correlational research and randomly assigns people to different conditions, using hypothesis testing to make inferences about how these conditions affect behavior. It aims to determine if one variable directly impacts and causes another. Correlational and experimental research both typically use hypothesis testing, whereas descriptive research does not. Each of these research methods has unique strengths and weaknesses, and each method may only be appropriate for certain types of research questions. For example, studies that rely primarily on observation produce incredible amounts of information, but the ability to apply this information to the larger population is somewhat limited because of small sample sizes. Survey research, on the other hand, allows researchers to easily collect data from relatively large samples. While surveys allow results to be generalized to the larger population more easily, the information that can be collected on any given survey is somewhat limited and subject to problems associated with any type of self-reported data. Some researchers conduct archival research by using existing records. While existing records can be a fairly inexpensive way to collect data that can provide insight into a number of research questions, researchers using this approach have no control on how or what kind of data was collected. Correlational research can find a relationship between two variables, but the only way a researcher can claim that the relationship between the variables is cause and effect is to perform an experiment. In experimental research, which will be discussed later, there is a tremendous amount of control over variables of interest. While performing an experiment is a powerful approach, experiments are often conducted in very artificial settings, which calls into question the validity of experimental findings with regard to how they would apply in real-world settings. In addition, many of the questions that psychologists would like to answer cannot be pursued through experimental research because of ethical concerns. The three main types of descriptive studies are case studies, naturalistic observation, and surveys. Clinical or Case Studies Psychologists can use a detailed description of one person or a small group based on careful observation.  Case studies  are intensive studies of individuals and have commonly been seen as a fruitful way to come up with hypotheses and generate theories. Case studies add descriptive richness. Case studies are also useful for formulating concepts, which are an important aspect of theory construction. Through fine-grained knowledge and description, case studies can fully specify the causal mechanisms in a way that may be harder in a large study. Sigmund Freud   developed  many theories from case studies (Anna O., Little Hans, Wolf Man, Dora, etc.). F or example, he conducted a case study of a man, nicknamed “Rat Man,”  in which he claimed that this patient had been cured by psychoanalysis.  T he nickname derives from the fact that among the patient’s many compulsions, he had an obsession with nightmarish fantasies about rats.  Today, more commonly, case studies reflect an up-close, in-depth, and detailed examination of an individual’s course of treatment. Case studies typically include a complete history of the subject’s background and response to treatment. From the particular client’s experience in therapy, the therapist’s goal is to provide information that may help other therapists who treat similar clients. Case studies are generally a single-case design, but can also be a multiple-case design, where replication instead of sampling is the criterion for inclusion. Like other research methodologies within psychology, the case study must produce valid and reliable results in order to be useful for the development of future research. Distinct advantages and disadvantages are associated with the case study in psychology. A commonly described limit of case studies is that they do not lend themselves to generalizability . The other issue is that the case study is subject to the bias of the researcher in terms of how the case is written, and that cases are chosen because they are consistent with the researcher’s preconceived notions, resulting in biased research. Another common problem in case study research is that of reconciling conflicting interpretations of the same case history. Despite these limitations, there are advantages to using case studies. One major advantage of the case study in psychology is the potential for the development of novel hypotheses of the  cause of abnormal behavior   for later testing. Second, the case study can provide detailed descriptions of specific and rare cases and help us study unusual conditions that occur too infrequently to study with large sample sizes. The major disadvantage is that case studies cannot be used to determine causation, as is the case in experimental research, where the factors or variables hypothesized to play a causal role are manipulated or controlled by the researcher.  Link to Learning: Famous Case Studies Some well-known case studies that related to abnormal psychology include the following: Harlow— Phineas Gage Breuer & Freud (1895)— Anna O. Cleckley’s case studies: on psychopathy ( The Mask of Sanity ) (1941) and multiple personality disorder ( The Three Faces of Eve ) (1957) Freud and  Little Hans Freud and the  Rat Man John Money and the  John/Joan case Genie (feral child) Piaget’s studies Rosenthal’s book on the  murder of Kitty Genovese Washoe (sign language) Patient H.M. Naturalistic Observation If you want to understand how behavior occurs, one of the best ways to gain information is to simply observe the behavior in its natural context. However, people might change their behavior in unexpected ways if they know they are being observed. How do researchers obtain accurate information when people tend to hide their natural behavior? As an example, imagine that your professor asks everyone in your class to raise their hand if they always wash their hands after using the restroom. Chances are that almost everyone in the classroom will raise their hand, but do you think hand washing after every trip to the restroom is really that universal? This is very similar to the phenomenon mentioned earlier in this module: many individuals do not feel comfortable answering a question honestly. But if we are committed to finding out the facts about handwashing, we have other options available to us. Suppose we send a researcher to a school playground to observe how aggressive or socially anxious children interact with peers. Will our observer blend into the playground environment by wearing a white lab coat, sitting with a clipboard, and staring at the swings? We want our researcher to be inconspicuous and unobtrusively positioned—perhaps pretending to be a school monitor while secretly recording the relevant information. This type of observational study is called naturalistic observation : observing behavior in its natural setting. To better understand peer exclusion, Suzanne Fanger collaborated with colleagues at the University of Texas to observe the behavior of preschool children on a playground. How did the observers remain inconspicuous over the duration of the study? They equipped a few of the children with wireless microphones (which the children quickly forgot about) and observed while taking notes from a distance. Also, the children in that particular preschool (a “laboratory preschool”) were accustomed to having observers on the playground (Fanger, Frankel, & Hazen, 2012). It is critical that the observer be as unobtrusive and as inconspicuous as possible: when people know they are being watched, they are less likely to behave naturally. For example, psychologists have spent weeks observing the behavior of homeless people on the streets, in train stations, and bus terminals. They try to ensure that their naturalistic observations are unobtrusive, so as to minimize interference with the behavior they observe. Nevertheless, the presence of the observer may distort the behavior that is observed, and this must be taken into consideration (Figure 1). The greatest benefit of naturalistic observation is the validity, or accuracy, of information collected unobtrusively in a natural setting. Having individuals behave as they normally would in a given situation means that we have a higher degree of ecological validity, or realism, than we might achieve with other research approaches. Therefore, our ability to generalize the findings of the research to real-world situations is enhanced. If done correctly, we need not worry about people modifying their behavior simply because they are being observed. Sometimes, people may assume that reality programs give us a glimpse into authentic human behavior. However, the principle of inconspicuous observation is violated as reality stars are followed by camera crews and are interviewed on camera for personal confessionals. Given that environment, we must doubt how natural and realistic their behaviors are. The major downside of naturalistic observation is that they are often difficult to set up and control. Although something as simple as observation may seem like it would be a part of all research methods, participant observation is a distinct methodology that involves the researcher embedding themselves into a group in order to study its dynamics. For example, Festinger, Riecken, and Shacter (1956) were very interested in the psychology of a particular cult. However, this cult was very secretive and wouldn’t grant interviews to outside members. So, in order to study these people, Festinger and his colleagues pretended to be cult members, allowing them access to the behavior and psychology of the cult. Despite this example, it should be noted that the people being observed in a participant observation study usually know that the researcher is there to study them. [1] Another potential problem in observational research is observer bias . Generally, people who act as observers are closely involved in the research project and may unconsciously skew their observations to fit their research goals or expectations. To protect against this type of bias, researchers should have clear criteria established for the types of behaviors recorded and how those behaviors should be classified. In addition, researchers often compare observations of the same event by multiple observers, in order to test inter-rater reliability : a measure of reliability that assesses the consistency of observations by different observers. Often, psychologists develop surveys as a means of gathering data. Surveys are lists of questions to be answered by research participants, and can be delivered as paper-and-pencil questionnaires, administered electronically, or conducted verbally (Figure 3). Generally, the survey itself can be completed in a short time, and the ease of administering a survey makes it easy to collect data from a large number of people. Surveys allow researchers to gather data from larger samples than may be afforded by other research methods . A sample is a subset of individuals selected from a population , which is the overall group of individuals that the researchers are interested in. Researchers study the sample and seek to generalize their findings to the population. There is both strength and weakness in surveys when compared to case studies. By using surveys, we can collect information from a larger sample of people. A larger sample is better able to reflect the actual diversity of the population, thus allowing better generalizability. Therefore, if our sample is sufficiently large and diverse, we can assume that the data we collect from the survey can be generalized to the larger population with more certainty than the information collected through a case study. However, given the greater number of people involved, we are not able to collect the same depth of information on each person that would be collected in a case study. Another potential weakness of surveys is something we touched on earlier in this module: people do not always give accurate responses. They may lie, misremember, or answer questions in a way that they think makes them look good. For example, people may report drinking less alcohol than is actually the case. Any number of research questions can be answered through the use of surveys. One real-world example is the research conducted by Jenkins, Ruppel, Kizer, Yehl, and Griffin (2012) about the backlash against the U.S. Arab-American community following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Jenkins and colleagues wanted to determine to what extent these negative attitudes toward Arab-Americans still existed nearly a decade after the attacks occurred. In one study, 140 research participants filled out a survey with 10 questions, including questions asking directly about the participant’s overt prejudicial attitudes toward people of various ethnicities. The survey also asked indirect questions about how likely the participant would be to interact with a person of a given ethnicity in a variety of settings (such as, “How likely do you think it is that you would introduce yourself to a person of Arab-American descent?”). The results of the research suggested that participants were unwilling to report prejudicial attitudes toward any ethnic group. However, there were significant differences between their pattern of responses to questions about social interaction with Arab-Americans compared to other ethnic groups: they indicated less willingness for social interaction with Arab-Americans compared to the other ethnic groups. This suggested that the participants harbored subtle forms of prejudice against Arab-Americans, despite their assertions that this was not the case (Jenkins et al., 2012). Think it Over Research has shown that parental depressive symptoms are linked to a number of negative child outcomes. A classmate of yours is interested in  the associations between parental depressive symptoms and actual child behaviors in everyday life [2] because this associations remains largely unknown. After reading this section, what do you think is the best way to better understand such associations? Which method might result in the most valid data? clinical or case study:  observational research study focusing on one or a few people correlational research:  tests whether a relationship exists between two or more variables descriptive research:  research studies that do not test specific relationships between variables; they are used to describe general or specific behaviors and attributes that are observed and measured experimental research:  tests a hypothesis to determine cause-and-effect relationships generalizability:  inferring that the results for a sample apply to the larger population inter-rater reliability:  measure of agreement among observers on how they record and classify a particular event naturalistic observation:  observation of behavior in its natural setting observer bias:  when observations may be skewed to align with observer expectations population:  overall group of individuals that the researchers are interested in sample:  subset of individuals selected from the larger population survey:  list of questions to be answered by research participants—given as paper-and-pencil questionnaires, administered electronically, or conducted verbally—allowing researchers to collect data from a large number of people CC Licensed Content, Shared Previously Descriptive Research and Case Studies . Authored by : Sonja Ann Miller for Lumen Learning.  Provided by : Lumen Learning.  License :  CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike Approaches to Research.  Authored by : OpenStax College.  Located at :  http://cnx.org/contents/[email protected]:iMyFZJzg@5/Approaches-to-Research .  License :  CC BY: Attribution .  License Terms : Download for free at http://cnx.org/contents/[email protected] Descriptive Research.  Provided by : Boundless.  Located at :  https://www.boundless.com/psychology/textbooks/boundless-psychology-textbook/researching-psychology-2/types-of-research-studies-27/descriptive-research-124-12659/ .  License :  CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike Case Study.  Provided by : Wikipedia.  Located at :  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Case_study .  License :  CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike Rat man.  Provided by : Wikipedia.  Located at :  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rat_Man#Legacy .  License :  CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike Case study in psychology.  Provided by : Wikipedia.  Located at :  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Case_study_in_psychology .  License :  CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike Research Designs.  Authored by : Christie Napa Scollon.  Provided by : Singapore Management University.  Located at :  https://nobaproject.com/modules/research-designs#reference-6 .  Project : The Noba Project.  License :  CC BY-NC-SA: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike Single subject design.  Provided by : Wikipedia.  Located at :  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single-subject_design .  License :  CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike Single subject research.  Provided by : Wikipedia.  Located at :  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single-subject_research#A-B-A-B .  License :  Public Domain: No Known Copyright Pills.  Authored by : qimono.  Provided by : Pixabay.  Located at :  https://pixabay.com/illustrations/pill-capsule-medicine-medical-1884775/ .  License :  CC0: No Rights Reserved ABAB Design.  Authored by : Doc. Yu.  Provided by : Wikimedia.  Located at :  https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:A-B-A-B_Design.png .  License :  CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike Scollon, C. N. (2020). Research designs. In R. Biswas-Diener & E. Diener (Eds), Noba textbook series: Psychology. Champaign, IL: DEF publishers. Retrieved from http://noba.to/acxb2thy ↵ Slatcher, R. B., & Trentacosta, C. J. (2011). A naturalistic observation study of the links between parental depressive symptoms and preschoolers' behaviors in everyday life. Journal of family psychology : JFP : journal of the Division of Family Psychology of the American Psychological Association (Division 43), 25(3), 444–448. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0023728 ↵ Descriptive Research and Case Studies Copyright © by Meredith Palm is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted. 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Interpret Your Dreams How to Read Body Language How to Beat Stress and Succeed in Exams Psychology Topics Learn psychology. Access 2,200+ insightful pages of psychology explanations & theories Insights into the way we think and behave Body Language & Dream Interpretation guides Self hypnosis MP3 downloads and more Behavioral Approach Eye Reading Stress Test Cognitive Approach Fight-or-Flight Response Neuroticism Test © 2024 Psychologist World. Home About Contact Us Terms of Use Privacy & Cookies Hypnosis Scripts Sign Up Waiting for answer This question has not been answered yet. You can hire a professional tutor to get the answer. Assessment Description Read the “Case Study Analysis” document and select one of the six case studies. Select one of the following theories that you feel best applies to treating the client in the cas Assessment Description Read the “Case Study Analysis” document and select one of the six case studies. Select one of the following theories that you feel best applies to treating the client in the case study: Cognitive behavioral Rational emotive behavior therapy Reality therapy Write a 1,000-1,500-word analysis of the case study using the theory you chose. Include the following in your analysis. What will be the goals of counseling and what intervention strategies are used to accomplish those goals? Describe the process of treatment using this theory. This should include a description of the length of treatment, the role of the counselor, and the experience of the client as they work from beginning to termination of therapy. How does this theory address the social and cultural needs of the client? (Cite specific research findings) Describe the role of choice and decision making within the theory you chose regarding the efficacy of treatment. How can a counselor assist their client in using these concepts more effectively? How can a counselor implement cognitive processes in counseling without undue risk to the client or the counseling relationship? Include at least six scholarly references beyond the textbook in your analysis. Each response to the assignment prompts should be addressed under a separate heading in your paper. Refer to "Headings" Class Resource for help in formatting the headings. Prepare this assignment according to the guidelines found in the APA Style Guide, located in the Student Success Center. This assignment uses a rubric. Please review the rubric prior to beginning the assignment to become familiar with the expectations for successful completion. You are required to submit this assignment to LopesWrite. A link to the LopesWrite technical support articles is located in Class Resources if you need assistance.  This assignment is informed by the following CACREP Standard:  2.F.5.a. Theories and models of counseling. 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Hosted by Michael Barbaro Featuring Jonathan Swan Produced by Carlos Prieto Stella Tan Mooj Zadie and Michael Simon Johnson Edited by Devon Taylor Original music by Rowan Niemisto and Marion Lozano Engineered by Alyssa Moxley and Chris Wood Listen and follow ‘The Daily’ Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music | YouTube | iHeartRadio In their first and possibly only presidential debate, Vice President Kamala Harris dominated and enraged former President Donald J. Trump. Jonathan Swan, who covers politics and the Trump campaign for The Times, explains how a night that could have been about Ms. Harris’s record instead became about Mr. Trump’s temperament. On today’s episode Jonathan Swan , a political correspondent for The New York Times. Background reading Read The Times’s live coverage of the debate as it happened . Who won? Here’s a sampling of the reaction . And here’s a fact-check on Mr. Trump and Ms. Harris . There are a lot of ways to listen to The Daily. Here’s how. 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More about Jonathan Swan Advertisement 422 VIDEO EP-5: George Kelley and Corollaries- Personal Construct Theory Theories of personality Review of Kernberg's main ideas regarding Personality Organization, Personality Disorders Personality theories and their proponents Every Personality Theory Explained in 11 Minutes Theories of Personality COMMENTS Theories of Personality: These Are the 6 Main Frameworks Personality theories are the result of hypotheses, experiments, case studies, and clinical research led by scientists in the psychology and human behavior field. CASE Study 2-3 THEORIES OF PERSONALITY. Case Study #1- Mellisa and Ryan. ... In the case study, it was mentioned that Melissa felt that she was the only one making the relationship with Ryan work. Both Melissa and Ryan had experienced a neglected style of life, according to Adler's Individual Psychology. It was mentioned that Ryan was raised by a single mother. 5 Important Personality Theories Personality theories seek to explain how personality develops and influences behavior. Learn about theories of personality in psychology and what they mean. ... Case studies rely heavily on the interpretations of the observer, while self-report methods depend on the memory of the individual of interest. Because of this, these methods tend to be ... The method of case study and personality theories The now legendary personality theorists who lived in the early and mid-20th century used a procedure called case study. It is a technique based on much more than just observation of development. The researcher tries to get a complete picture of the individual by combining interviews, observations, formal tests and any other accessible ... Theory and Application in Personality Science: The Case of Social It does so primarily by focusing on social-cognitive theories of personality structure and functioning. These include the foundational theories of Bandura and Mischel and the subsequent KAPA model of Cervone. ... (2022). Clinical application of social cognitive theory: A novel personality assessment procedure and a case study of personality ... PSY321 Course Text: Theories of Personality Chapter 1: Introduction to Personality. Part 2: Methods of Studying Personality. In all types of research, we need to consider two closely related concepts: hypothesis vs. theory. A hypothesis can loosely be defined as an educated guess about some relationship or circumstance that we have observed, and the purpose of the hypothesis is to ... Personality Theories and Models: An Overview Personality traits have been a central part of the study of personality for 70 years or more, from early studies by personologists to more recent studies by Cattell and Eysenck, and their associates. Psychology 310 About this Assignment. This assignment will result in a culmination of all that you have learned throughout the duration of this course. You will be asked to make several decisions based on what ... PDF Personality: Definitions, Approaches and Theories of personality psychology in its present form, then the key term—personality—is discussed. The next section contains a synopsis of the main approaches to the study of personality, including psychoanalytic, learning and humanistic perspectives. The objective of the second part is to present the main theoretical directions in person- The 4 Major Personality Perspectives and Theories The study of personality is one of the significant topics of interest in psychology. Numerous personality theories exist, and most major ones fall into one of four major perspectives. Each of these perspectives on personality attempts to describe different patterns in personality, including how these patterns form and how people differ on an ... Theories of Personality Sigmund Freud, the father of psychoanalysis, described personality, in part, as comprising three components: the instinct-driven "id," the morality-bound "super-ego," and the relatively ... Theory and Application in Personality Science: The Case of Social The study of personality coherence can be grounded in an analysis of personality architecture, that is, the overall structure and dynamics of intra-individual personality systems. Case Studies This study is based on a case applying Erikson's theories from M.B. Bowers. (1974). Retreat from sanity: The structure of emerging psychosis. Baltimore: Penguin. Identity Crisis: Nancy Doug Davis, Haverford College, shares these notes from his Foundations of Personality class. This study is based on a case applying Erikson's theories from M ... Case Study on Personality Theory Personality Theory Case Study: Personality theory is one of the approaches towards the understanding of the personality, its traits, behaviour, social features, physiological and psychological peculiarities, etc. A personality is a complex term which describes the person who has achieved the definite level of the psychological maturity, life experience, wisdom, has got her place in the human ... Personalities Theory, Case Study Example Spirit is defined as a form of 'energy' in phase six of Jung's theories. Six entertains the role of the 'ego' in spiritualism and the personality theory. The ego is very capable of reconstructing a person's dynamics. In phase six it is at this point that the introverted or intuitive path is really begun to be understood. Case-Solutions-for-Personality-Theories-Workbook-6th-Edition-by Explain the motivation. Behavior is internally motivated according to Freud. It is due to the libido being cathected to the mouth in case. There is also the possibility that thanatos is influencing unhealthy habits. 3. Find an example of a Freudian defense mechanism that Hank uses in this description. Ramsis Hanna The aim of studying theories of personality is to dive deep in the human self by analyzing its behavior to pinpoint the areas of conflict that causes its abnormalities. Once the reasons for abnormalities are discovered, the therapy for amending the behavior and reforming the personality will be feasible. In our case study number 37 of Myra from ... PSY305 PSY305 - Theories of Personality - Free download as Word Doc (.doc / .docx), PDF File (.pdf), Text File (.txt) or read online for free. This document provides a case study of Thomas and analyzes his personality using personality theories. It describes Thomas's personality traits using the five factor model. Thomas scores high in openness, conscientiousness, and neuroticism. Descriptive Research and Case Studies Clinical or Case Studies. Psychologists can use a detailed description of one person or a small group based on careful observation. Case studies are intensive studies of individuals and have commonly been seen as a fruitful way to come up with hypotheses and generate theories. Case studies add descriptive richness. Understanding Theories Of Personality Thomas's case study is a typical example of how a child's upbringing shapes their adulthood life. Various personality theories and approaches explain the scenario Thomas is in. Despite being a successful lawyer, he is not living a happy life, has not married, does not show interest in marrying, and is not happy. Case Studies of Sigmund Freud Little Hans. Perhaps the best known case study published by Freud was of Little Hans. Little Hans was the son of a friend and follower of Freud, music critic Max Graf. Graf's son, Herbert, witnessed a tragic accident in which a horse carrying a heavily loaded cart collapsed in the street. Five year old Little Hans developed a fear of horses ... CASE Study THEORIES OF PERSONALITY. Case Study #1- Lyla. Lyla is always diligent in cleaning her house and tidying its yard and garden. She loved very much spring cleaning which is dreaded by almost everyone. She takes pride in the appearance of the house, the yard and the garden. She loves other people's compliments. Case Study of Personality Theory Application Download. Case Study of Personality Theory Application. According to the text, personality is defined as a distinctive relatively stable pattern of behavior, thoughts, motive, and emotions that characterize an individual. (Nevid, et al. 2006) In the case study of Helen, an understanding of her personality would be instrumental in treating her ... Read the "Case Study Analysis" document and select one of the six case Write a 1,000-1,500-word analysis of the case study using the theory you chose. Include the following in your analysis. ... Antisocial personality disorder is often associated with an individual failing conform to social norms, being impulsive, and deceitful. Taking what you know about anti-social personality disorder disc The First Post-Affirmative Action Class Enters College The Supreme Court's decision to ban affirmative action last summer was expected to drastically change the demographics of college campuses around the country. Harris Baits Trump: Inside Their Fiery Debate In their first and possibly only presidential debate, Vice President Kamala Harris dominated and enraged former President Donald J. Trump. Jonathan Swan, who covers politics and the Trump campaign ... essay homework paper phd project resume review speech study