PS101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 16: Theophrastus, Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory, Defence Mechanisms
Document Summary
Introvert/extrovert: throughout time people have been intuitively aware of individual differences. Historically knowledge of individual differences: theophrastus wrote about different characters to try to describe individual differences. Distinctive and relatively enduring ways of thinking, feeling, and acting that characterize a person"s response to situations: comes from word persona- actors mask. Structured set of standardized questions: note other behaviours - appearance, speech patterns, etc. Drawbacks: characteristics of interviewer can affect answers, dependence on co-operation, honesty of interviewee. Behavioural assessment: need explicit coding system, aim is not solely to "describe" behaviour. Personality assessment use standard questions and agreed upon scoring key objective measures: personality scales, advantage, disadvantage, personality scales items, trait theories collect large amount of data validity of answers (truthfully answered?) Validity scales based on theoretical conception of trait concern - have to identify what are the underlying traits that describe people.
