25th October 2023

Personality

Personality psychology seeks to define how and why people can behave, think and feel in remarkably consistent ways across time and place, in varied social settings, and even show consistency in the face of enormous pressure to do otherwise.

Although modern Western personality psychology can be said to have taken off in the 1930s, the idea of quantifying people’s intrinsic qualities is a very old one. For example, ancient Greek physicians related bodily humours to personality traits, while ancient Vedic healers used astrological natal charts to map a personality. In Africa, the Bantu word ‘Ubuntu’ expresses ideas about people being known via their relationships with the collective.

There are many different approaches to and theories of personality. However, they have enough commonality to define personality as ‘Those relatively stable and enduring aspects of individuals which distinguish them from other people, making them unique, but which at the same time allow people to be compared to each other.’

Nomothetic and idiographic theories

One way the different theories of personality psychology can be divided is between the concepts of nomothetic personality and idiographic personality. Nomothetic comes from the Greek word nomos, which means law, and ideographic comes from idios, meaning private.

Nomothetic personality theories seek generalisations and universal laws under which all personalities can be categorised and see personality as stable and enduring across different situations and times. Significant figures who looked at personality via a nomothetic approach are psychologists such as Allport, Eysenck and Cattell, who analysed large sets of questionnaire data to develop generalised personality testing measures and theories of personality that allow generalised classifications.

Idiographic personality theories suggest we all have unique psychology, are concerned with looking at a whole person longitudinally and alongside this, believe that personality is not as firmly fixed over a lifetime but can vary considerably depending on the environment. Carl Rogers and his concept of self and Maslow’s writings on personality and motivation are idiographic in their outlook.

Idiographic personality theory can be said to be concerned with what is normative (or unique) for an individual’s behaviour, whilst nomothetic personality theory looks at how a particular individual is similar to or different to others with generalised categories that can be applied to all people to a greater or lesser extent.

Trait and type approaches

The trait theory of personality uses descriptive character traits to delineate the parts of a person’s personality that are stable and consistent over time using self-reporting questionnaires.

Allport, Cattell and Eysenck are the prominent psychologists who developed this approach. First, Allport identified more than 4,000 words in the English language that could be used to describe personality traits. Then, Cattell studied this list and cut it down to 16 traits that he believed were the building blocks of all personality.

Cattell’s 16 personality traits

• Abstractedness – Imaginative versus practical.
• Apprehension – Worried versus confident.
• Dominance – Forceful versus submissive.
• Emotional stability – Calm versus high-strung.
• Liveliness – Spontaneous versus restrained.
• Openness to change – Flexible versus attached to the familiar.
• Perfectionism – Controlled versus undisciplined.
• Privateness – Discreet versus open.
• Reasoning – Abstract versus concrete.
• Rule-consciousness – Conforming versus non-conforming.
• Self-reliance – Self-sufficient versus dependent.
• Sensitivity – Tender-hearted versus tough-minded.
• Social boldness – Uninhibited versus shy.
• Tension – Inpatient versus relaxed.
• Vigilance – Suspicious versus trusting.
• Warmth – Outgoing versus reserved.

Allport said that personality traits could be split into common traits (basic modes of adjustment common to all members of a particular cultural background) or individual traits (unique dispositions and ways of responding to the world based on personal experience). He further split personality traits into cardinal, central, and secondary categories.

Cardinal traits were the central theme of a person’s life – Traits that consume and direct a person as if becoming their life’s mission. Central traits are linked to a person’s general disposition and characteristics when dealing with the world, for example, if a person could be described as fair or brave. Secondary traits were aspects of preference and reactionary feelings, not core to one’s, that might change over time, i.e. political opinions or aesthetic sense.

Hans Eysenck developed a theory of personality that used the terminology of ‘types’ rather than traits. Types differed from traits; he described three dimensions of personality traits that existed along a spectrum. The first dimension was neuroticism vs emotional stability. The second dimension of traits was extraversion vs introversion. The final dimension of traits was psychoticism vs sociability. Everyone could be placed between the opposite descriptive poles, and personality differences depended on the degrees to which each dimension was embodied.

Criticisms of the trait or type theory of personality take issue with the self-reporting tests in the trait approach to personality, given that people often misrepresent themselves to seem more socially acceptable, leading to inaccuracy. In addition, the idea of prescriptive traits and the traits chosen as the most important axis/language used for these defining variables could be said to manifest cultural bias, given that they were developed using data from only white Americans. Another criticism of trait theory and its assessment is the inability of the process to measure subconscious aspects of personality.

Personal construct theory

The personal construct theory (PCT), created by George Kelly, says personality comprises many cognitive or personal constructs. Kelly described people as similar to research scientists who perceive and analyse the world to make personal constructs. These unique constructions are hypotheses utilised to make sense of the external world and make it more predictable.

Kelly described constructs as being made up of two parts that are opposites. The parts are subjective and idiosyncratic to the patient. The second part of the construct is called the contrast. Kelly would prompt a patient to discuss emotional topics and encourage them to identify their mental schemas through this process of opposing parts in a construct.

These cognitive constructs rely heavily on repeated experiences, i.e. they are not fixed and are continually tested by events and will evolve if they do not prove fit for purpose. Kelly described PCT in a way that allowed it to avoid being limited to particular settings or places, meaning it has been a broadly applicable psychological theory in multiple clinical settings.

Psychoanalytic principles of personality

Freud was the father of the psychoanalytic theory of personality. He described the psyche as being tripartite or consisting of three active forces: the id, the ego, and the superego. Freud’s conceptions of personality emphasised the role of subconscious drives and personality developing in psychosexual stages; the oral (0-1.5), the anal (1.5-3), the phallic (3-5), the latent (5-12), and the genital (12+). A healthy personality would pass from one stage to another, whereas psychopathology developed when progression through the psychosexual stages was arrested.

The Id was a primitive unconscious part of the mind containing instincts and drives such as hunger, thirst, aggression, Eros (sexual / life energy), and Thanatos (aggression/death drive), and it acted in accordance with the pleasure principle seeking out sensual satisfaction with no inhibitions. The superego was likewise located in the unconscious mind and operated according to the morality principle and could keep a lid on the Id’s urges with conscientiousness and a wish to be socially acceptable. The ego was part of the mind people identified as themselves and was conscious of; one’s ego was a mediator between conflicts of the subconscious systems of id and superego, using reality and deliberate choice to navigate them. Anna Freud built on her father’s idea of the ego needing defence by specifying defence mechanisms that the ego might use to protect itself from anxiety or danger by listing and describing nine specific defence mechanisms (denial, displacement, intellectualisation, projection, rationalisation, reaction formation, regression, repression, sublimation.) Defence mechanisms are dynamic and not necessarily pathological; however, specific unhealthy defence mechanisms can form the basis for personality disorders and psychopathology.

Carl Jung was a contemporary of Freud who endorsed some of his ideas but differed in many vital ways. Jung split the Freudian notion of the subconscious mind into the personal and collective subconscious and was highly interested in metaphysical and spiritual ideas around telepathy and synchronicity. The collective unconscious was something that all members of a society were subconsciously impacted by and could inherit primal, ancestral reflexes and beliefs that could form the basis of one’s personality. He also spoke about individuation or the expansion of an individual’s conscious awareness by the ego as a critical developmental goal for a healthy personality and that, ultimately, fully developed personalities could integrate the conscious and subconscious parts of their psyche.

Jungian theory on personality spoke of archetypes and emphasised how personality is stable and consistent over time, i.e., it was a nomothetic theory. His personality theory described four cognitive functions and attitudes that people mostly use, and later on, his ideas of these four functions were used to define 16 distinct combinations of these four functions to create personality profiles (The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator). The four basic psychological functions or dimensions that were the focus of Jung’s theory are:

Extraversion vs Introversion.

Sensation vs Intuition.

Thinking vs Feeling.

Judging vs Perceiving.

• Extroversion – An outgoing personality who moves energy to the external world outside of the self.
• Introversion – A quiet personality who moves energy internally, within the self.
• Feeling – Considers others’ feelings and focuses on their values.
• Thinking – Uses logic and analyses a situation, and applies principles.
• Sensation – Focuses on facts and is detail-oriented and practical.
• Intuition – Focuses on possibilities and are big-picture thinkers/creatives.
• Judging – Prefers organisation and structure.
• Perceiving – Prefers flexibility and spontaneity.

Other vital ideas he introduced as part of his personality theory were that there was a ‘persona’ or a ‘mask’ that people use to hide their true selves from the world.

Archetypes were another critical part of Jungian personality theory.; Archetypes can be understood as idealised personality types or societal roles, i.e., the mother archetype would universally be associated with nurture and comfort. They exist as symbols of particular types of people and are passed on via inheritance or the collective consciousness. Specific archetypes Jung described included the father, mother, child, hero, maiden, and trickster.

Another influential psychoanalyst was Erik Erikson. He challenged Freud’s idea of libido or sexuality being a prime influence on the development and replaced psychosexual stages with psychosocial stages of personality development, i.e., he believed relational and environmental factors were crucial for a healthy personality.

Social principles of personality

Psychologists like Rotter and Bandura expounded on social learning theories of personality.

Bandura said that personality is not an enduring thing but changes depending on the situation, i.e., if you change someone’s environment, you change someone’s personality. Bandura believed three things influenced personality: our cognitive predisposition (beliefs and feelings), social environment (peers, media, family) and behaviours. Reciprocal determinism, or the idea that a person’s behaviour influences and is influenced by personal factors and the social environment, is a crucial part of his ideas on personality.

Julian Rotter described conscious motivations for outcomes like praise, love and profit as shaping behaviour. His social learning theory had four main variables shaping personality: behaviour, expectancy, situation, and reinforcement value.

He also spoke about the ‘locus of control’ or the idea that people may feel in control of their outcomes, i.e. receive responses to behaviour due to something internal, such as their desires or may feel that they are controlled by an external locus of control such as something such as luck, weather or other people. He felt that the locus of control (internal or external) was a crucial influence on personality and behaviour.

Skinner also emphasised the importance of environment and repeated experiences in forming what is perceived as personality. He spoke of the main factors in shaping personality being environmental consistency (if the environment is constant, so is our personality) as well as reinforcement via experience (i.e. the more times a behaviour is repeated, it is reinforced and thereby more likely to occur again and therefore becomes part of personality). He believed that personality was a collection of behavioural patterns that had no internal basis in a person’s mind, but instead, these behaviours could be fully explained by external influences.

Cognitive neuroscience principles of personality

Cognitive psychologists such as Mischel also argued that personality is more situation-specific rather than determined by innate internal traits. This approach nullified the importance of inheritance but said environment shaped personality and that people use ‘schema’ or systems of organising information derived from interpretations of experience. Other vital ideas/terminology developed within cognitive psychological approaches to personality are:

• Social perception – How people view themselves and other people and cognitive processes associated with this.
• Attribution theory – What causes are ascribed to the behaviour of others and one’s behaviour.
• Cognitive social learning theory – The idea that behaviour can be learned by observing others and that learning behaviour is made possible by cognitive schemata.
• Imitation – Learning behaviour by observing others.
• Fundamental attribution error – Where too much importance is attached to internal causes of behaviour rather than environmental causes of behaviour.

Schools of psychological thought and theories that value cognitive neuroscience to explain human behaviour look to neuroscience and bodily processes like the neuroendocrine system and genetics to explain behavioural traits. Personality theory, based on cognitive neuroscience, is a relatively new discipline made possible by advances in gene mapping and brain imaging.

Genetic predisposition to certain personality traits has been established via identical twin studies, looking at identical twins separated at birth and trying to establish the heritability of personality traits. For example, a specific gene that has been found to influence personality is the dopamine-4 receptor gene, which is associated with people enjoying novelty.

The Jim twins are also used via cognitive neuroscience theories of personality to establish the genetic causality of personality. Jim Lewis and Jim Springer were identical twins separated at birth based in America. When they met each other for the first time at the age of 39, startling similarities in their life choices and behaviour were noted; they both drove the same type of car, had both been married twice and overall had very similar personality traits despite different parents and environments.

The hypothalamus is the crucial area of the brain regulating neuroendocrine responses to external stimuli that can be said to underlie behavioural patterns, and more follows on this later when we touch on motivation.

Humanistic principles of personality

Psychologists like Abraham Maslow and Carl Rogers developed humanistic approaches to personality. Rogers believed personality was optimally developed through authenticity, unconditional positive regard, and empathy. If an environment provides these, a personality could reach its highest potential for good (self-actualisation). He stated that feelings toward oneself could affect how individuals viewed the world and spoke about the ideal self (whom individuals want to be) and the real self (who individuals actually are.) Consistency between the ideal and real selves would produce a healthy personality.

Maslow’s concept of humanism explained that all individuals have universal needs which must be fulfilled to reach the pinnacle of a healthy personality. If an individual’s needs are not fulfilled, personality growth will not occur, and psychopathology will follow. This idea is expressed within Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, which progresses from physiological needs to emotional needs of safety, love, belonging, and esteem and finally to the hard-to-attain state of self-actualisation, which can be thought of as achieving one’s highest potential.

Assessing personality

Personality assessments can be split into two main types of personality assessment: objective and projective. Projective personality assessments are more individually focused, i.e. personality tests with no fixed outcomes, i.e. the Rorschach inkblot test, can be applied to draw conclusions about personality.

Whereas objective personality assessments use facets of personality determined by psychometrics, i.e. they use self-rating tests of personality traits and clusters of answers to assess the subject’s personality. For example, the big five inventory test is a scale that measures five personality traits.

These personality traits are:

• Extraversion.
• Agreeableness.
• Conscientiousness.
• Neuroticism.
• Openness.

It is a scaled test comprising 44 items on a five-point Likert scale.

The Myers-Briggs type indicator is perhaps the most famous of personality tests focussing on Jungian descriptions of cognitive functions and tested via self-inventory to produce a four-letter acronym corresponding to a particular psychological profile.

The sixteen personality factor questionnaire (16PF) is a test that analyses personal traits based on Cattell’s personality theory.

Kelly’s personal construct theory of personality measures this using a repertory grid constructed by asking patients about people in their lives. First, the patient chooses 5-10 people, called elements, who were used to help the client understand their own constructs. Next, the client has to compare elements and discuss what they had in common and how they differed. Two opposite parts could then be placed in a repertory grid, and a psychologist could facilitate an analysis of the meaning of these parts.

The Q-sort is a way of measuring personality. It takes Q-set data (or many items that define personality characteristics) and sorts it into different categories based on how closely that characteristic describes someone. The Q-sort of an individual then is the scores of all of the characteristics (behaviours, traits, etc.) that can be said to describe that individual. Q-sort testing also uses correlation by comparing an individual’s Q-sort to the Q-sort of a specific set of criteria or to a previous Q-sort for that individual. So, for example, if a psychologist wanted to understand how conscientious a person is, they could compare a Q-sort for the individual and a criteria Q-sort that provides a standard for conscientious character traits.