9.1 Personality

Personality is defined as a person’s style of dealing with the world and particularly with other people.

Assess the personality test

• reliability (low variance): if you test the same person over time, you should get the same result
• validity (low bias): how well it measures what it’s supposed to measure?

One classic personality test over time is the Rorschach Inkblot: what do people see from the inkblot?

• Most psychologists believe it has no validity at all

A better way to test personality

• Gordon Allport took 18,000 traits from a dictionary that he viewed as bearing on personality.
• Similar trains: friendly, sociable, welcoming, warm-hearted
• Psychologist try to zoom it down to big 5 (OCEAN)
  • Stable over many years (more after 30)
  • Agreement across multiple observers
  • Predicts real world activities